Historic pergola returning to Balboa Park!

San Diego is going to be made even more beautiful!

A shady pergola that once stood near Balboa Park’s Botanical Building during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition is to be rebuilt!

The construction of the pergola is part of a larger Botanical Building and Gardens revitalization project. The Botanical Building’s amazing restoration has been completed, so it’s on to Phase 2, which includes bringing back into existence this historic pergola.

I noticed a sign on a patch of grass during my most recent visit to Balboa Park. It indicates the future site of the Botanical Building Historical Pergola.

You can learn more about the project by visiting Forever Balboa Park’s website here.

The pergola site is beside the west fountain in the front of the Botanical Building. The next photo provides an idea. (Behind it you can see the San Diego Museum of Art.)

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Mural in San Diego Waterfront Park stairwell.

On the south side of San Diego’s popular Waterfront Park, a stairwell descends to an underground parking lot. This colorful mural greets people as they begin to descend the stairs.

The public art, dated 2014, is a photo reproduction on aluminum of San Diego-based contemporary artist Allison Renshaw‘s original painting Last Call, which is on display inside the nearby County Administration Building.

As the artist’s website explains: Allison’s work offers multiple perspectives, discordant vocabularies, and malleable boundaries. Her art is informed by particles of our urban and natural landscape along with culture found in the everyday…

I can’t believe it took me 11 years to finally share a good photograph of this eye-catching art. Back in 2014, I posted a blog documenting opening day at Waterfront Park, and you can get a glimpse of the mural in one of those photographs!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Photos of San Diego Symphony’s Picnic at the Park!

Thousands of music lovers enjoyed food, fun and a free concert today at the San Diego Symphony’s Picnic at the Park!

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park was jammed with families as you can see from the following photographs. The community event was an early March preview of the 2025 Conrad Prebys 5th Anniversary Summer Season at this most amazing San Diego bayfront venue. If you’ve never had a chance to attend a concert at the Rady Shell, you are truly missing out.

When I came by, San Diego band Cassie B was up on the stage covering favorite songs from different decades and singing original compositions, too. I heard the music of Queen, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift… Many in the audience were dancing, swaying, singing along!

During the big event other performers would include San Diego Symphony musicians and local band The Farmers. It was the perfect afternoon for an outdoor picnic!

Anyway, I was totally impressed by another San Diego Symphony production, as I always am. I couldn’t believe the massive crowd!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Four historic 1915 murals in Balboa Park.

Renowned artist Carlos Vierra painted six murals of Mayan cities for the 1915 Panama–California Exposition in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Today, inside Balboa Park’s Museum of Us (formerly called the Museum of Man), visitors can view reproductions of four murals.

The Museum of Us is housed in the historic California Building. In 1915 the building was home to the San Diego Museum. “The Story of Man Through the Ages” was the San Diego Museum’s exhibit during the Panama-California Exposition, and featured the six original Vierra murals.

Should you step into the Museum of Us, you can find two of the reproduced murals on the ground floor, in the large central atrium, hung on the wall on either side of the main entrance. Two additional murals can be viewed in a gallery on the second floor directly above.

The two ground floor murals depict the ruins of prehistoric Chichén Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico.

My first pair of photographs (above) show one mural on the ground floor. As a sign explains: Central to this painting is the round building, known as the Caracol, which functioned as an observatory. Behind it lies the ballcourt, the largest such ritual playing field in Mesoamerica. To the right is the sacred cenote, the well of sacrifice.

The second pair of photographs (below) show the mural to the right of it. These murals depict the Maya architectural style known as Puuc, that prevailed from about 600 AD to 900 AD.

Decorating a gallery wall on the second floor, the two additional Vierra murals illustrate the ancient cities of Palenque and Tikal…

UPDATE!

I’ve since learned two more Vierra murals can be viewed in the museum. I’ll go in search of them next time I visit the Museum of Us, and post those photos in an update!

ANOTHER UPDATE!

Here they are…

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Fine sculptures at the Valencia Park Library.

Seven very fine sculptures, each belonging to the San Diego Civic Art Collection, are located inside the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library. I discovered them last weekend when I visited the library to experience a Black History Month event.

The bronze sculptures, most of them gilded and painted, were all created by Ed Dwight, an artist who resides in Denver, Colorado. The largest work, depicting Malcolm X, stands near the center of the library.

The other half dozen sculptures honor legendary American jazz musicians. They are displayed in cases inside the library’s community room. Their titles are: Eubie’s Boogie, Jazz Guitar, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, and Miles Davis.

The artist has a remarkable and rather unexpected background! As search results from the San Diego Civic Art website explain:

Dwight was the first African American to be trained as an astronaut. Dwight began his career as an artist after many years working in various fields including the military, engineering, and real estate. His first important commission was a sculpture of Colorado’s first black Lieutenant Governor, George Brown, in 1974. Since then, he has been prolific in creating homages to the most significant contributions of black culture to American history. His work has focused on the history of jazz and its significant figures, as well as civil rights activists and African American pioneers…

It was difficult taking good photographs with reflections on the glass cases creating interference. I encourage everyone to check out the above link and see good images of all seven sculptures, or, better yet, head over to the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library and begin your own exploration!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Fantastic creation appears in San Diego artist’s window!

What is it?

A weird glowing jellyfish–perhaps giving birth? A wildly creative lamp? Some alien creature from the planet Pandora? A dream-thing resplendent with arcane symbols?

As I walked in darkness this morning through downtown San Diego, a very strange, seemingly living thing caught my eye. It was shining in the studio window of artist James Watts!

How would you describe it?

Check out James Watts’ Instagram page here!

PLAY IT AND LEAVE IT

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Rhythms of Madagascar coming to San Diego!

Have you ever listened to music from Madagascar? I can’t say that I have.

A live performance by BeMaeva, an independent band rooted in the soul-stirring rhythms of Madagascar, is coming to San Diego on March 14th, 2025. This sounds like a great event at a very cool venue that is located a little east of downtown: The Soap Factory!

(I once visited the Soap Factory during an architectural open house event. See that blog post here.)

You can get tickets for BeMaeva LIVE in San Diego and learn more about the concert at this webpage.

The description includes: Led by the dynamic duo of Dina Maeva, a powerhouse Baltimore-born vocalist with Malagasy heritage now based in San Diego, and Rade Bema, a multi-instrumental maestro from New York, BeMaeva brings an unforgettable fusion of world music, storytelling, and cultural celebration.

More than a concert—this is a cultural journey you don’t want to miss!

Awesome!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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World-record speed Turbinator in San Diego!

The absolutely fantastic 2001 Team Vesco “Turbinator” is now on display at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park!

This amazing 30-foot-long streamliner set the wheel-driven land speed record of 458.440 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats on October 18, 2001.

Anyone interested in cars, racing, engineering or technology would love to look at this one-of-a-kind speedster. It has a unique four-wheel drive system powered by a 3,750 horsepower engine from a helicopter! Can you imagine sitting in this slender vehicle flying in a blur across the salt flats? It seems a driver would need nerves of steel!

Check out the exhibit at the San Diego Automotive Museum and you can also see owner/driver Don Vesco’s NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award (presented in 2002) and a great video showing his incredible Turbinator in action!

Visit the Team Vesco Racing website by clicking here!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Exhibit explores La Jolla surf culture, art and history.

A super cool exhibition recently opened in the La Jolla Historical Society‘s free Wisteria Cottage museum. The exhibition is titled La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft. As the name suggests, surf culture is explored in La Jolla and nearby communities, from the earliest days right up to the present.

There are all sorts of different surfboards on display. Each is cleverly designed and artistically unique. Local designers, shapers and surfers used these boards to conquer the world-famous surf found off La Jolla and other nearby Southern California beaches.

Subjects explored include the iconic Windansea Shack, which dates back to 1947 and has been featured in dozens of movies. Legendary surfboard makers and surfers, like Bob Simmons, are also celebrated. One of the notable board shapers honored is Rusty Preisendorfer, who, at the age of 16, began a factory in a garage a short distance from La Jolla Shores.

I was surprised to learn pop art icon Andy Warhol filmed the movie ‘San Diego Surf’ in 1968 in La Jolla.

As you might expect, the exhibit includes dozens of excellent surfing photographs, and examples of cool artwork, too.

I really enjoyed viewing a short film. It featured a variety of important personalities. Their words about surfing were often poetic or philosophical.

One interviewee called surfing spiritual. Another called it a beautiful dance. Another explained that surfing brings you to close to yourself. It’s peaceful and calming, said another. The experience is deep and powerful, another voice affirmed. Skip Frye, world-famous surfer, surfboard designer, shaper and environmental advocate, likened surfing to being in close touch with God’s creation.

La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft will be open to the public through May 25, 2025. Learn more about it here!

A small taste of this awesome exhibit…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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San Diego’s favorite player greets motorists!

San Diego’s all-time favorite player, Padres baseball legend Tony Gwynn, greets motorists driving into downtown from State Route 94!

This amazing mural of Tony Gwynn was painted last year in East Village, at F Street and 16th Avenue, by Ground Floor Murals. A Jamul Casino billboard next to it proclaims: Here’s to SD’s favorite player.

Signe Ditona and Paul Jimenez of Ground Floor Murals have painted many amazing Padres player murals all around San Diego. In the past I’ve documented two more of their Tony Gwynn murals. See those photos here and here!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share this!