Coastal landmark or pie in the sky?
A proposed high-rise San Diego tower may be too tall an order to win state approval.
SAN DIEGO — In some circles there is a sense that San Diego is missing an internationally recognizable calling card, as in a postcard-worthy — or in today’s vernacular, Instagrammable — destination that shouts, “Visit me.”
A cylindrical tower with a cinched waist that is being touted as the high-flying replacement to a flat-by-comparison Seaport Village could change that.
That is, if California allows it.
A jaw-dropping symbol of change for the bayfront area that makes up downtown San Diego’s Central Embarcadero, the 500-foot tower is being heralded by developer 1HWY1 as the architectural focal point of its massive $2.4-billion Seaport San Diego project. Its location, where the bay ends and Pacific Highway begins, makes it geographically significant as well.
The full redevelopment effort encompasses 70 acres of land and water along Harbor Drive and is in the initial planning stages. The program envisions a total of 2,050 hotel rooms spread across different properties, including 385 rooms in the base of the tower. Also proposed is an aquarium, event center, retail space, and office space reserved for ocean research-related enterprises.
In June, 1HWY1 submitted a project proposal to the Port of San Diego, which has permitting power over the tidelands. Staff at the agency is vetting the plan, which has evolved since the developer’s first successful bid to redevelop the site. Staff expects to present Seaport San Diego to port commissioners for preliminary approval in August or September.
The tower is, by design, a spectacle — San Diego’s version of the Space Needle.
“Nothing like this has been done on the water in California,” said Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen, who runs 1HWY1.
There is a reason for that. Most coastal zones in the state are subject to a 30-foot height restriction thanks to the 1976 Coastal Act adopted by the California Legislature.
The legislation also made permanent the California Coastal Commission, first established in 1972, as a quasijudicial agency with oversight over water-adjacent development and a mission to protect public resources. Downtown San Diego is exempt from the coastal height restriction, however, leaving the port in charge of height limits for properties west of Pacific Highway and south of Harbor Drive.
That does not mean the Seaport San Diego project can be masterminded, let alone built, in a bubble. The Coastal Commission will have the final say. Any coastal permits issued by the port for the project can be rejected by the higher-ranking agency if they aren’t consistent with state law, which is open to interpretation.
Though it will be some time before the Coastal Commission formally weighs in, the staff already is raising strong reservations.
“We have concerns about the bulk and scale of the project in general,” said San Diego coastal planner Melody Lasiter.
San Diego’s indoor-outdoor culture, as well as the city’s waterfront topography, played muse for the feel of the tower, said Daniel Sundlin, who is a partner at the acclaimed international architectural firm known as BIG, which is involved in the Seaport project.
The hourglass-shaped building is thick at the base, slim in the middle and wide again at the top. Its roundness is meant to reflect the circulation and flow of people in and around the structure. And its design, which centers on a stack of spinning discs, should evoke different images at varying elevations and vantage points, Sundlin said.
The project includes a vertical aquarium that would span the entire length of the tower and emulate the varying depths of the ocean.
“It’s kind of weird,” San Diego Tourism Authority Chief Executive Joe Terzi said of the overall tower design. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. It’s very unique.”
Gaffen’s tower is a powerful visual. But for some coastal purists, the emotional reactions are probably not the ones intended by the developer.
A 500-foot tower, in this particular location, is a striking affront to coastal norms, said Sara Wan, a former coastal commissioner and an expert on coastal regulations.
“If you start allowing high-rise development along the coast, you destroy the ability of the public, in general, to see the coast,” she said. “When you do something like [the tower], you set a precedent that can have other consequences.”