By Elena Buckley | SDUN Reporter
San Diego’s urban landscapes combined with its stunning, and sometimes not-so-stunning, architecture help make this city a living, breathing work of art. Each year the San Diego Architectural Foundation (SDAF) honors the city’s architectural ebbs and flows with its Orchids & Onions awards.
This year, 13 Orchids and six Onions were dispersed at the Nov. 4 ceremony at the Culy Warehouse in downtown San Diego. The awards were designed to applaud projects of merit with Orchids and pan those that disappoint with Onions. Of the 19 winners and losers this year, two of the Orchids and one Onion hailed from the Uptown District.
The Orchids & Onions began in the 1970s under the auspices of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and was later bought in 2004 by the SDAF, who tweaked and re-launched the awards in 2006.
The nominations are provided exclusively by the public and then announced on the Orchids & Onions website at orchidsandonions.org by the jury. After the jury accepts entries, they can then be freely voted and commented on by the public. Nominations for next year are currently being accepted. The SDAF encourages those interested to continue to participate in the process year-round.
People’s Choice Orchid: The Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey
Each year a jury comprised of industry professionals chooses almost all the Orchid winners, though the People’s Choice Orchid is voted upon purely by the public. The winner this year was the Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo.
This seven-and-a-half acre exhibit is five times larger than the old enclosure and allows room for more elephants,
as well as 38 other species. Ken Baldwin of Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects Inc. was the principal-in-charge of the Elephant Odyssey project, working closely with keepers and curators to design and create the new enclosure.
Baldwin said that the primary objective of the project was to ensure that the animals had the best care and facilities possible while furthering the zoo’s educational initiatives “so that the guests could experience the care that the elephants were given in a very public way.” The previous elephant exhibit did not allow visitors such insider viewing.
“I really don’t know of any other exhibits that create such a close relationship between the guests, the elephants and the keepers,” Baldwin said. “It’s a very rewarding process for everyone—most importantly,
the elephants.”
Historic Preservation Orchid: The Marston House
This year, the Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) refurbished the historic Marston House, taking over its upkeep from the San Diego Historical Society (SDHS). SOHO received an orchid for its efforts to maintain this master example of Irving Gill’s architectural work.
The Marston House has stood on the edge of Balboa Park at 3525 Seventh Ave. since when it was constructed for SDHS founder George W. Marston and his wife, Anna Gunn Marston.
“It represents a transition between the more ornamented houses of the 1900s to the Arts and Crafts style,” said SOHO’s executive director, Bruce Coons.
The house is also home to lush gardens designed and installed in 1927 as a 50th wedding anniversary gift to the Marstons and also includes an impressive collection of furniture and art. When Marston resided there, important dignitaries such as Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington were entertained regularly.
“It was really San Diego’s front porch,” Coons said. “Many of the very important events were planned in the house [such as] the Panama Expo in 1915. They say almost every Sunday night somebody important was there talking about something good for San Diego.”
Public Art Orchid: Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape
In the category of public art, “Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape,” received an orchid. The exhibit, currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), was curated by Pedro Alonzo and MCASD associate curator Lucía Sanromán. It incorporates the work of 20 artists from 10 different countries that can be seen both in the museum and on streets and buildings around the country. The works featured in the exhibit each address a current “urban issue,” while embracing street art as a valuable art form, making it truly Orchid worthy, said Leslee Schaffer, executive director of the San Diego Architectural Foundation.
The exhibition includes the large mural painted by Shepard Fairey on the sidewall of Urban Outfitters at 3946 Fifth Ave. in Hillcrest. The mural was commissioned by the MCASD. Fairey received an additional honorable mention from the jury for his mural. Fairey, who is best known for his Obama “Hope” poster, said in an interview on KPBS’s “These Days” that his work isn’t necessarily about “specific issues.”
“Some of it is just about encouraging people to question everything they encounter,” Fairey said of his “Obey, Consume, Repeat” mural, which he said represents the inability of Americans to avoid consumerism.
Being able to experience art in “built San Diego” was the most unique aspect of this Orchid winner, Schaffer said.
“There are layers of positive things that came out of that exhibit,” she said. “The jury found … it brought the work out into the streets and allowed the public to engage in and appreciate the work without having to go into the walls of the museum. It was a revolutionary exhibit.”
Onion: Putrid Preservation
In Old Town, the Mormon Battalion Historical Site at the entrance to Heritage Park received a Historic Preservation Onion for its disappointing outcome. Though the public was excited to see the nondescript, windowless memorial renovated, its replacement left much to be desired. A blurb on the Orchids & Onions website explains that the building’s resultant “industrial landscaping, faux-aged ‘brick’ … and tacky water features” makes it look like “a cross between a bad ’80s suburban house and a cheap strip mall upgrade, making it “a truly missed opportunity for the betterment of Old Town.”
