The USS Midway Museum held the first of three town hall sessions on Nov. 29 at the Port of San Diego to vet public opinions about a vision to convert the Navy Pier into a dual-level facility with a parking lot on the lower level and five-acre Veterans Park on the upper level. The $68 million project, as currently proposed, would include demolishing the existing four-story Navy building on Harbor Drive to create an enhanced view corridor of the bay, transforming the Navy Pier into a gently sloping park with a 500-car parking lot beneath, and putting aside 1 percent of the total construction cost for local artists to provide art for the park. The park\u2019s slope would gradually rise from the Embarcadero to a 20-foot viewing point, then slope gently back down to 14 feet at the end of the pier in order to accommodate trucks, buses and other large vehicles in the parking structure beneath. Although the entire project was to be discussed at the meeting, the conversation typically returned to one component of the proposal \u2014 a dramatic architectural element dubbed the “Wings of Freedom” that would be located at the head of the pier. As currently conceptualized, the defining structure would consist of a pair of steel and titanium sails \u2014 one 400 feet in height, the other 500 feet \u2014 that would tower above the bay at the end of the proposed Veterans Park. Beneath the structure would be a 4,000- to 5,000-seat amphitheater for concerts and special events. Mac McLaughlin, USS?Midway Museum president and CEO, said the board embraced the idea to “build an iconic symbol that comes to represent San Diego for future generations,” as proposed by real estate developer Malin Burnham, architect Hal Sadler and philanthropist Denny Sanford \u2014 the latter of whom has agreed to fund the structure, estimated at $35 million. Greg Mueller, CEO of Tucker Sadler Architects, said the firm came up with the idea for the structure after studying iconic elements in other cities, including the Sydney Opera House, Seattle\u2019s Space Needle and the St. Louis arch. “We started looking at architectural structures that people easily recognize across the world,” he said. “We took some of those elements \u2014 looking at the heights, what the structure and makeup is, what the materials are \u2014 and we started using them as ideas for how to create something iconic to San Diego. Not to try to represent those things out there, but do something different.” He emphasized the importance of the Navy Pier\u2019s location as central to San Diego. “Whatever we do on there, it\u2019s going to be seen. It\u2019s going to be seen by those who come in and take off by airport. It\u2019ll be seen by those who live in Point Loma, Coronado, downtown and those who come to the bay,” he said. “It\u2019s centered in a spot that really has an opportunity to capture the heart of San Diego.” He said the structure is a loose interpretation of sails to symbolize San Diego as a home for sailing, but that the structure could be interpreted in many ways. “The idea is coming up with something that could be expressed as a sail but doesn\u2019t just represent sailing. It could be aviation. Aviation is also something that San Diego is known for,” he said. “It can be something that is interpreted in a different way by whoever is looking at it.” The individual interpretation of the structure was precisely the source of mixed reviews that incited debate at the November meeting. One woman at the meeting interpreted the structure as “Playboy bunny ears” and said the structure would be the laughing-stock of the city. Another said the structure is a “monstrosity” that belongs in a science fiction movie. Others were more receptive, calling the structure “fantastic,” a potential moneymaker for the city and a structure that may not be appreciated now, but will be long into the future. Another concern brought up at the meeting was that the structure would block the view of the bay and dwarf the already iconic Midway Museum and perhaps even San Diego itself. Mueller said the sails would be separated so as not to impede the view, but said he would consider a suggestion to change material to a reflective glass that is transparent on one side. “They are parallel with the ship, so you can look between them,” he said. “You can see the bay at an elevated level that is not currently available to anyone.” One resident at the meeting said the structure wouldn\u2019t block the view. It would be the view \u2014 the focal point of the city that people will be proud of in years to come. McLaughlin said he and the board at the USS Midway Museum are taking all of the public\u2019s concerns and suggestions seriously. “We have a responsibility to do something that San Diego is proud of. I\u2019m taking all of this in personally, and I know the architectural partners are,” he said. “This is a grand plan, and this is a great rollout to begin the conversation with. I want to hear more. This is not Tucker Sadler\u2019s plan and this is not the San Diego Symphony\u2019s plan. This has got to be San Diego\u2019s plan, and not everybody\u2019s going to agree with it, but we\u2019re taking this input very seriously.” Two more public meetings will take place before the Midway board presents its plan to the San Diego Unified Port District on Jan. 10. The next meetings will take place at the Port of San Diego, located at 3165 Pacific Highway, on Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. and Dec. 10 at 9 a.m.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The USS Midway Museum held the first of three town hall sessions on Nov. 29 at the Port of San Diego to vet public opinions about a vision to convert the Navy Pier into a dual-level facility with a parking lot on the lower level and five-acre Veterans Park on the upper level. The $68 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":282382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11556","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Wings of Freedom\u2019: San Diego\u2019s new icon or a blight on the bay?","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11556,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-downtown-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282381","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=282381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}