The Santa Fe Depot is downtown San Diego’s train station. Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, the Coaster, and the San Diego Trolley’s orange and green lines all stop at the historic building.
The Santa Fe Depot, built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, was opened in 1915 to serve thousands of visitors to Balboa Park’s Panama-California Exposition.
This photo shows one of the Santa Fe Depot’s two colorful domes and some palm trees against a backdrop of high-rise condos. The architects a hundred years ago probably didn’t imagine that glassy skyscrapers would tower nearby!
Birds fly over one of the distinctive tiled domes.Looking up through palm trees toward one dome.
Here are some more photos taken at a later time. Black material now covers up part of the two domes. I learned that the terracotta columns are cracking.
The east side of the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego.Buildings rise behind the domes of the Santa Fe Depot.The two domes of San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot.Amtrak train parked by historic Santa Fe Depot.
This photo shows sailboats on San Diego Bay passing the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel, those two tall, sandy tan buildings.
Tour guides and pedicab drivers often joke that the downtown skyline resembles a set of tools. The Hyatt buildings resemble straight-edge screwdrivers; America Plaza, which you can see, resembles a phillips screwdriver; and another skyscraper, Emerald Plaza (not visible in this pic) resembles a set of socket wrenches!
Here’s a pic of a non-sailboat taken on a later occasion…
Lord Hornblower passes Hyatt hotel buildings on San Diego Bay.
Here are some photographs of the historic Keating Building, which over a century ago was the most prominent high-rise building in downtown San Diego!
The five-story Romanesque Revival style office building, located in the Gaslamp, was built in 1890. Back in those days, its wire cage elevator and steam heating were amazing new modern conveniences. The elevator was the very first in San Diego, and remains the longest running elevator downtown!
This visually pleasing landmark was designed by the Reid Brothers, the architects responsible for the incredible Hotel Del Coronado.
For several decades the Keating Building has been home to Croce’s Restaurant and Jazz Bar, established by singer Jim Croce’s surviving wife, Ingrid. At year’s end, Croce’s will be moving to a new, more intimate location on Banker’s Hill.
Keating Building seen from across Fifth Avenue, after Croce’s moved to a new location.
A plaque on the historic building provides a little more description…
This office building in the 1890’s contained the San Diego Savings Bank, the Public Library and the Humane Society!Keating Building is an important landmark in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
UPDATE!
I revisited the Keating Building during the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s OPEN HOUSE 2017. Here are some photos I took just outside and inside the building’s front entrance.
432 F Street is the address of the Gaslamp Quarter’s beautiful Keating Building, today the location of a 35-room luxury hotel.Elevator in the small lobby to what is now a boutique hotel.The original wooden banister leads up from the entrance of the Keating Building.Historical photos on wall beside the lobby’s stairs.A segment of a timeline that shows San Diego history around the time of the Keating Building’s construction.Entrance to The Keating hotel, seen from F Street.
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The new Central Library has become a dazzling landmark in San Diego’s East Village.
Here are a few more cool pics of San Diego’s brand new Central Library! I took these photographs today after the ceremony celebrating the grand opening. Check out the modern, inventive architecture of this truly eye-popping downtown landmark! The amazing design is by San Diego architect Rob Wellington Quigley.
The first photo is from 11th Avenue and K Street, in the heart of East Village, facing roughly northeast. This is the way you’d likely go if walking from Petco Park. What you see is just a fraction of the cool sight to come…
Here’s a photograph from almost due south. Wow! Beautiful landscaping and palm trees complement the distinctive building, which features a metal lattice dome and a gigantic, airy reading room. Other features include an auditorium, community meeting rooms, a sculpture garden . . . even a downtown high school occupying two floors!
Now we’re looking toward the northwest. Here comes a red San Diego trolley! Views from the trolley are very cool. You can peer up and into the lower windows of the new library. During the past couple months, riding the trolley, I watched as shelves of books slowly appeared as if by magic throughout the spacious building. Our old downtown library was less than half the size, ugly, and lacked many amenities.
From the trolley and nearby sidewalk you can also see a handful of wise quotes engraved in the library’s concrete exterior. Here’s a pic of the following inscription: WE WILL BE KNOWN FOREVER BY THE TRACKS WE LEAVE.
UPDATE!
I walked around the now “relatively new” library in early November 2014 and took more pics…
Looking up into the very large library from the southwest corner.Reflection in west side windows shows colorful building across the street.Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat walks along a north window.Angled glass windows along passage on Park Boulevard side of complex building.Closer exterior look at intricate dome around library’s huge reading room.The distinctive San Diego Central Library in East Village shines in the sunlight.
Visible in this photo, taken from the walking path at the south end of the Marriott Marina, are two prominent hotels on San Diego’s picturesque waterfront. To the left is the elegant Manchester Grand Hyatt, and in the center are the two curved, shining, sail-like buildings of the Marriott Marquis. On the far right you can see the north end of the long San Diego Convention Center.
After gazing awhile at the hundreds of sailboats and small yachts docked in the marina, you might head a short distance west to enjoy views of the grassy Embarcadero Marina Park South and its fishing pier on San Diego Bay.
Two San Diego bayfront hotels seen through trees.View of Hilton San Diego Bayfront behind tall masts and trees.
You’ll find the Hilton on the other side of the San Diego Convention Center.
Hilton hotel seen beyond San Diego Harbor Excursion ticket booth.Marriott Hotel as seen from the bayside walkway.Looking north from the silvery Marriott toward the sandy Hyatt.One more look at the two Manchester Grand Hyatt towers.
Stairs head up into Horton Plaza. Lyceum entrance is below.
Just a few quick pics. In the above one you can get a glimpse of the underground entrance to the Lyceum Theater, home of the San Diego Repertory Theatre. In the photograph’s center are the main stairs that sweep upward into the Horton Plaza shopping center. The red building to the left has walkways on each level that provide fantastic views of the mall’s colorful, surprising interior.
During my walks I’ve taken many pics inside Horton Plaza. I’ll blog about that one day!
Near the colorful main entrance of Horton Plaza.Broad stairs ascend into San Diego’s unique Horton Plaza shopping mall.Gazing down into the unique underground entrance of the Lyceum Theater.
Here’s a bonus pic I happened to take many months later…
Here’s a much better look at the obelisk in question. (See my last blog post.) It thrusts out of the ground right in front of Horton Plaza, marking the underground entrance to the Lyceum Theater. Animals of the water, land and air, fashioned out of colorful tiles, frolic together in a mosaic beneath a smiling crescent moon!
This playful work of art and the beautiful architecture of the building behind it is just a small hint of the fun that awaits visitors inside the Horton Plaza shopping mall!
Looking down at the obelisk and underground entrance to Lyceum Theater.A closer view of artistic fish on the Horton Plaza obelisk.
The historic El Cortez Hotel, now converted into condominiums, has been an iconic landmark in San Diego since 1926. Decades before gleaming skyscrapers rose to shape our modern skyline, the El Cortez dominated Cortez Hill and was the city’s tallest building.
The large sign on top, illuminated at night, brightly flashes the sequenced letters of “El Cortez” like a beacon out of the past. The El Cortez years ago had the world’s very first outside glass elevator. Known as the Starlight Express, the elevator brought visitors to the hotel’s penthouse restaurant, which featured amazing views of the growing city and the bay below. The hotel also had the world’s first motorized moving sidewalk!
I live several blocks from this wonderful building and love to gaze at it whenever I walk or drive past!
Here’s the famous El Cortez sign.The elegant front entrance of the El Cortez.Looking up at the stately old building.
In downtown San Diego, on Kettner and A Street not far from Little Italy and the Santa Fe Depot, you might spot this old advertisement painted on a building wall. It promotes Dr. Pepper and Hires Root Beer. According to some googling I’ve done, the colorful artwork was revealed when an adjacent building was demolished. Looks to me like this building was a soda bottling plant years ago.
View of faded Hires Root Beer ad from across street.
This is a glimpse of the huge rainbow over San Diego created this morning by a golden sunrise and some light scattered showers. Check out my previous post for another pic. This photo was also taken on Sixth Avenue, but near Laurel Street, just west of Balboa Park.
The reflections in the windows, the amazing color and interesting composition all come together to make a magical image!
Cool San Diego Sights! 