Tag: buildings

Cool rooftop eatery overlooks Petco Park!

There’s a cool eatery that overlooks Gallagher Square at Petco Park. It’s called Fairweather Rooftop Bar and Grill. Check out their website.

Friendly bartender Chris saw me taking photos of construction at Gallagher Square and invited me up to their rooftop patio for a much better look. How could I say no!

What a fantastic view!

I enjoyed a long talk and was shown a little of the historic Simon Levi Company building, where Fairweather is located. I also spied some beautiful artwork by the outdoor bar.

It might be a bit difficult to find the rooftop bar and grill, so follow the signs. As you can see from my first photograph, this would be an ideal place to watch a future Gallagher Square concert or hang out during a Padres game!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Pepper Canyon West buildings rise at UCSD!

UC San Diego, growing by leaps and bounds, has a surprising number of construction projects now underway. People traveling near the campus this past year have probably seen multiple cranes rising into the sky.

One of UCSD’s big projects is called the Pepper Canyon West Living and Learning Neighborhood. When finished in Fall 2024, it will provide housing for 1,300 students. Accommodating a large number of students requires some large buildings!

It’s astonishing to me how quickly the buildings have risen!

I took these photos recently, while walking through a beautiful university that I attended long, long ago. In the 1980’s UCSD was considerably smaller!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Chula Vista resort and convention center rises!

The massive Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center now under construction in Chula Vista is looking very impressive. I walked past the project site last December and saw nothing but mounds of dirt and several large cranes. Look at how the main hotel building has risen since then!

When completed, the hotel will have 1,600 guest rooms and suites, as well as more than 477,000 square feet of function and convention space. Upper floors of the hotel will offer views of the Pacific Ocean across San Diego Bay and the Silver Strand.

I took these photos on a sunny South Bay morning, just before my visit to the Boston Tea Party anniversary event near the Chula Vista Marina. My first (and most picturesque) photograph is from the Bayside Park fishing pier.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Christmas tree lights through downtown windows.

The Westgate Hotel

Have you recently walked through downtown San Diego after dark? Brightly lit Christmas trees are now shining through windows!

Most of the large office buildings have put up a Christmas tree in their lobby for the holiday season.

I took a few photographs this morning before sunrise, while it was still good and dark outside. My short walk provides just a sample of what curious eyes might see…

Symphony Towers

1200 Third Avenue

501 West Broadway

America Plaza

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Booklike floral mural painted at new RaDD.

Does anybody out there know anything about this new mural? It has been painted on one of the Research and Development District (RaDD) buildings now under construction on San Diego’s Embarcadero.

I noticed the unique mural today during my morning walk near Broadway and Harbor Drive. I took zoom photographs from a distance.

The floral artwork appears to open out of the glassy building like a book or document with many pages. The effect is very cool!

I’m not sure whether it’s finished yet.

If you know more about this mural, please leave a comment!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Rising sun and fog on Broadway Pier.

These three photographs were taken early this morning.

I walked very slowly along downtown’s Broadway Pier as the sun rose–and as a bank of fog rolled in from San Diego Bay.

The sun, clearing the horizon somewhere behind downtown’s high buildings, magically turned the fog orange. Then the gray creeping fog made those buildings vanish.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Calaveras painted for Kalaveras in Chula Vista!

Day of the Dead begins today, the 1st of November. This is the perfect time to share these photographs!

A new restaurant named Kalaveras is coming to 340 Third Avenue in Chula Vista. The building it will occupy has been painted with super colorful skulls, or calaveras!

I happened to notice this bold new artwork while walking to the community Day of the Dead event in Chula Vista last weekend.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

The Oxford and history at Hotel del Coronado.

Those who approach the Hotel del Coronado from the south will see a handsome yellow building that stands beside Orange Avenue. The old building is called The Oxford, and it was built in 1887 near the ferry landing on the other side of Coronado!

The Oxford was Coronado’s first hotel. In 1911 the building was relocated a couple blocks east of the Hotel del Coronado, where the post office is today. It was used to provide housing for the hotel’s female employees.

In 1983 the building was saved from demolition and in 1986 it was moved again to this spot on the hotel property. In 2021 it was carefully restored. The Oxford today is home to the Hotel del Coronado administrative offices.

An old photo on display in the hotel’s Ice House Museum shows the building being moved in 1986. The large structure was temporarily divided into two halves, and obstructions had to be removed from the streets during its move!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

The risen RaDD seen from San Diego Bay.

For well over a year, the Research and Development District (RaDD) has been rising on downtown San Diego’s waterfront. I’ve been watching the ongoing construction of this project and have posted photographs from time to time. In June I posted these.

I rode the Coronado ferry last weekend and got a good look at how San Diego’s skyline has been altered by RaDD, as seen from across the bay. (The above photo shows the long Tuna Harbor pier in the foreground.)

RaDD is a project of IQHQ. It’s described as a life science district–five new buildings occupying six city blocks–the largest urban commercial waterfront site on the West Coast. It appears to be nearing completion.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

A cracker factory, bakery, and den of immorality!

This old two-story brick building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter has a fascinating history.

The property has been home to a factory that made crackers for ships, several other bakeries including the Royal Pie Bakery, and in the early 20th century, an upstairs hotel that was described as a den of rampant immorality!

Standing at 554 Fourth Avenue, the building was most recently home to Dublin Square Irish Pub.

The property’s history is so complex and interesting that one should read this detailed article by the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation.

An aging plaque on front of the building reads:

Royal Pie Bakery 1884

Originally known as the San Diego Steam Cracker Factory, this brick structure has remained a bakery since its construction in 1884. During the first part of the 20th century, when the Gaslamp was deteriorating into a red-light district, the upper floor housed the notorious Empire Hotel, and later the Anchor Hotel. In 1920, Alois Kuhnel and F. A. Smith purchased the bakery. They were partners until 1939. The building was sold to Alois Kuhnel in 1950.

The Royal Pie Bakery finally closed in 1998.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!