{"id":244077,"date":"2010-12-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/orchids-and-onions-sprout-in-uptown\/"},"modified":"2010-12-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-28T08:00:00","slug":"orchids-and-onions-sprout-in-uptown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/orchids-and-onions-sprout-in-uptown\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchids and Onions sprout in Uptown"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n
\"Orchids<\/a>
Shepard Fairy painted his "Obey, Consume, Repeat" mural this past July on the sidewall of Urban Outfitters at 3964 Fifth Ave. in Hillcrest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

By\u00a0Elena Buckley\u00a0| SDUN Reporter
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

San Diego\u2019s 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\u2019s\u00a0architectural ebbs and flows with its Orchids & Onions awards.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The nominations are provided exclusively by the public and then announced on the Orchids & Onions\u00a0website at orchidsandonions.org by the jury. After the jury accepts entries, they can then be freely\u00a0voted 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.<\/p>\n

People\u2019s Choice Orchid: The Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each year a jury comprised of industry professionals chooses almost all the Orchid winners, though the People\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

This seven-and-a-half acre exhibit is five times larger than the old enclosure and allows room for more elephants,
\nas well as 38 other species.\u00a0Ken 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s educational initiatives \u201cso that the guests could experience the care that the elephants were given in a very public way.\u201d The previous elephant exhibit did not allow visitors such insider viewing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know of any other exhibits that create such a close relationship between the guests, the elephants and the keepers,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very rewarding process for everyone\u2014most importantly,
\nthe elephants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historic Preservation Orchid: The Marston House<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s architectural work.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt represents a transition between the more ornamented houses of the 1900s to the Arts and Crafts style,\u201d said SOHO\u2019s executive director, Bruce Coons.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really San Diego\u2019s front porch,\u201d Coons said. \u201cMany 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public Art Orchid: Viva la Revoluci\u00f3n: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the category of public art, \u201cViva la Revoluci\u00f3n: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape,\u201d received\u00a0an orchid. The exhibit, currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), was curated by Pedro Alonzo and MCASD associate curator Luc\u00eda Sanrom\u00e1n. It incorporates the work of 20 artists from 10 different\u00a0countries 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 \u201curban issue,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cHope\u201d poster, said in an interview on KPBS\u2019s \u201cThese Days\u201d that his work isn\u2019t necessarily about \u201cspecific issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it is just about encouraging people to question everything they encounter,\u201d Fairey said of his \u201cObey, Consume, Repeat\u201d mural, which he said represents the inability of Americans to avoid consumerism.<\/p>\n

Being able to experience art in \u201cbuilt San Diego\u201d was the most unique aspect of this Orchid winner,\u00a0Schaffer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are layers of positive things that came out of that exhibit,\u201d she said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onion: Putrid Preservation<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0renovated, its replacement left much to be desired. A blurb on the Orchids & Onions website explains that the building\u2019s resultant \u201cindustrial landscaping, faux-aged \u2018brick\u2019 … and tacky water features\u201d makes it look like \u201ca cross between a bad \u201980s suburban house and a cheap strip mall upgrade, making it \u201ca truly missed opportunity for the betterment of Old Town.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Elena Buckley\u00a0| SDUN Reporter San Diego\u2019s 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\u2019s\u00a0architectural ebbs and flows with its Orchids & Onions awards. This year, 13 Orchids and six Onions were dispersed […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Orchids and Onions sprout in Uptown","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}