Lately, if you’ve walked along San Diego’s Embarcadero past the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum, you’ve probably noticed heavy machinery and a pile of rubble near Navy Pier!
The old Naval Supply Depot headhouse is being torn down, to make way for the future Freedom Park!
I took these photographs on Sunday after jumping off the Coronado ferry. Having walked past the old headhouse hundreds of times over many, many years, seeing its destruction in progress is a trifle jarring.
Early this summer I shared photos when the demolition had barely begun. If you want to see those previous photos and find more information about the landmark Freedom Park project, click here!
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This morning, during a downtown San Diego walk, I spotted two huge new murals! They’re on the north side of the 800 Broadway high-rise, which has been under construction for some time. The tall building, when completed, will offer apartments with great city views.
People strolling down the sidewalk will have great views, too–of these big, super colorful murals!
I presently know nothing about the artwork. Should I find out more, I’ll provide an update. If you know something, feel free to leave a comment below!
On the Eighth Avenue side:
And on the Ninth Avenue side:
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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.
Balboa Park in San Diego is full of surprising history.
Perhaps you’ve seen this plaque. It can be found in a modest brick plaza at the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages, beneath a rusty, flagless flagpole, a few steps from the entrance to the United Nations Building and Gift Shop.
The plaque proudly states:
DEDICATED TO THE CRAFTSMEN OF AMERICA BY THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON APPRENTICESHIP — AUGUST, 1953 — BUILT BY APPRENTICES OF SAN DIEGO SPONSORED BY JOINT APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEE ON MASONRY
Internet searches provide very little about this history. Perhaps a knowledgeable reader out there can contribute a comment. The brick wall and circular patio must have been built by local masonry apprentices.
I did find an interesting old article in the August 26, 1953 edition of CONVAIRIETY, a newspaper for employees of the Convair Division of General Dynamics. It begins by explaining how Two Convair San Diego men who formerly were apprentices at SD were singled out for honors during the first North American Conference on Apprenticeship held in San Diego Aug. 2-9.
You can see the full CONVARIETY article by clicking here, or read the text more easily by clicking here and scrolling down.
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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.
A large steel structure is now being erected near the center of San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park! It’s the Exchange Pavilion, another initiative of World Design Capital 2024!
San Diego/Tijuana won the coveted title of World Design Capital for 2024. There have been many activities and activations related to this international honor, and the Exchange Pavilion is the newest of these.
The lightweight skeletal structure evident in my photographs is being built in the Plaza de Panama, in front of the San Diego Museum of Art. The pavilion is designed to bring people together, along with their diverse ideas and experiences. Interconnectedness and collaboration are appropriate themes for the first ever binational World Design Capital designation.
The Exchange Pavilion, when completed, will feature interactive digital displays, special lighting, and a space for lectures, performances, workshops and more. It was designed by HELEO in collaboration with Tijuana, Mexico based visual artist Daniel Ruanova.
This very unique installation will remain in Balboa Park all summer long. It will then be relocated to Tijuana in the fall. I was told it will be completed and will open this Saturday, August 10!
I suppose I’ll have to swing by this weekend to check it out!
UPDATE!
I walked through the Plaza de Panama on Friday afternoon and saw that construction of the pavilion is still underway. The narrow digital displays appear to be functioning.
I was told by someone at the site that the Exchange Pavilion will now open on Wednesday!
ANOTHER UPDATE!
I walked by again on Sunday. I learned the pavilion will now open next Saturday 17, 2024.
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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.
Look at these photographs that were taken last week!
I was heading through Balboa Park to the Comic-Con Museum (for my Comic-Con coverage) when I noticed that the restoration of the Botanical Building appears to be near completion. Look how amazingly beautiful it’s going to be!
Workers were busy painting the non-lath lower part of the immense structure. The area in front of the Botanical Building behind the construction fence, where grassy lawns and a small section of the lily pond have existed, was still mostly bare dirt.
If you’d like to see photos showing different stages of the Botanical Building’s deconstruction and restoration, and read more info concerning it (going back over two years), you can click here and here and here and here and here!
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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.
Preparations are well underway for all the activities outside the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con 2024!
I walked through San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, along MLK Promenade and around the convention center a couple times today, curious to see what all is going on. I took a bunch of photos! (You might notice I haven’t sharpened or edited them.)
First, The Penguin banners were going up along the trolley tracks across from the convention center…
There’s going to be an Unknown Comics Pop-Up Store in the Gaslamp.
Workers were getting The Lodge ready for Paramount+.
Batman: Caped Crusader posters pasted to a downtown San Diego wall.
The two Star Trek/Dr. Who offsite locations now have outside graphics.
Workers were adding superhero graphics to the Marvel Contest of Champions Ferris wheel.
The Marriott Marquis now has Dragon Ball graphics above the front entrance.
Workers were preparing the Dragon Ball offsite on the Marriott Marquis Marina Terrace.
Here I’m walking down the bayside boardwalk toward the Hilton.
Abbott Elementary’s A.V.A. FEST has added their big slide. Happy people will plunge into a ball pit.
Work is finally underway at Adult Swim’s offsite: the Pirate Parrrty!
Workers are putting up the big FX wrap on the Hilton promoting What We Do in the Shadows.
Peeking into the FX offsite. Looks like a topiary garden.
More photos of the FX activation at Comic-Con.
Peacock’s offsite in Gaslamp Square, recreating the ancient Roman stadium Circus Maximus, now has a handsome exterior.
Baja Rick’s at Gaslamp Square now has graphics promoting the Olympic Games on NBC.
IGN is getting their balcony at the Hard Rock Hotel ready. Watch for celebrities here!
Workers are finishing up the AMC building wraps on the Hilton Gaslamp.
Getting the Peanuts offsite ready on Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade.
Not sure what this will be for.
The entrance is being created for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, just beyond Peanuts.
San Diego is nearly ready for Comic-Con in 2024! Preview Night is in two days!
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
The ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium Circus Maximus is presently being built in San Diego! Workers are putting the structure together in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Square!
Admittedly, this Circus Maximus might be more of a minimus, seeing how it’s vastly smaller than the Roman ruin. It’s going to be a super cool offsite during Comic-Con 2024!
Comic-Con fans who enter the stadium (which I previously and mistakenly assumed was the Colosseum) will get to actually ride simulated chariots! While hundreds of tiny Romans cheer!
The whole experience promotes Peacock’s new series Those About to Die. As you can see in the next photo, the new Gaslamp Square video screen operated by MTS is showing an advertisement for the Roman gladiator show.
Circus might also describe activities outside Comic-Con once the international pop culture convention begins. Massive crowds and loads of craziness! The good kind!
UPDATE!
Whoa! Check it out! Later on I saw this…
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Comic-Con is back in full force! After a few difficult years, due to COVID and a writers strike, it seems that in 2024 the epic international pop culture convention is going to be bigger and more exciting than ever! And outside the San Diego Convention Center there will be many fun offsites for the public to enjoy!
Many of those offsite activations are now under construction with less than a week to go until Comic-Con begins.
I walked around downtown San Diego, the Gaslamp and the convention center this morning and found all sorts of exciting activity. Check out these photos…
First up, The Lodge is under construction at the Happy Does Bar on Fifth Avenue. The Lodge is an activation that will showcase Paramount+ shows…
Next, at Gaslamp Square, Peacock’s unique Those About to Die Chariot Racing offsite is under construction. I was told visitors can actually ride around the tiny colosseum that is being built!
When I walked over the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge, I noticed a lot of canopies are being prepared outside the San Diego Convention Center! It’s summer, the lines and crowds will be big, and shade will be welcome!
Between the convention center and the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, FX is setting up on the grass in their usual spot. I suspect that big building wrap on the Hilton will promote What We Do in the Shadows…
Not much is ready with Adult Swim’s offsite, yet. Looks like their usual setup…
I believe that next behind the convention center is the Hulu offsite. I’ll have to wait and see. I read the Abbott Elementary A.V.A. Fest offsite will be somewhere back here, too…
The Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina’s Terrace is where Dragon Ball will have their always super cool offsite. Workers were cleaning to get ready this morning…
A Shaun of the Dead offsite will be at 520 Fifth Avenue during Comic-Con 2024. I spotted a Winchester Tavern sign on the sidewalk outside!
What are these mysterious props coming down the street in a truck? Time will tell!
UPDATE!
The following morning I walked around to see what progress had been made…
First, I found where the Abbott Elementary offsite will be–at the end of the superyacht landing. They were getting ready to erect the A.V.A. FEST’s big swing ride!
Then I walked past Hulu’s huge site, which they continue to work on…
I passed the Adult Swim offsite by, where not much had happened yet, and then checked out FX’s progress, including their big wrap on the Hilton…
I crossed over to the Gaslamp where I checked out Peacock’s Those About to Die chariot racing offsite. My next blog post will show what I saw here this Sunday morning in more detail.
On the grass to one side of the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp some workers had begun conferring. I didn’t speak to them, but I’m assuming the Marvel Champions Ferris wheel will be here.
Some more construction going on at The Lodge…
And the Shaun of the Dead offsite up Fifth Avenue is making progress..
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
I was walking past One America Plaza in downtown San Diego this morning when I had to stop in my tracks and do a double take. Staring out a window at 1001 Kettner Boulevard was a U.S. Navy SEAL!
The surprising window graphic draws attention to the fact that this building is the future home of Navy SEAL Museum San Diego. You might recall how years ago this space, across from Santa Fe Depot, was used as a gallery by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. (MCASD has since moved everything from their downtown San Diego location to La Jolla.)
As you can see from my photo, construction of the new Navy SEAL museum is now underway. According to their website, Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is scheduled to open in 2025.
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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.
Near the center of the hangar deck of the USS Midway Museum, there’s a scale model of Freedom Park at Navy Pier. When completed, this large, new public park will occupy the historic pier that the USS Midway aircraft carrier has called home now for 20 years.
One can walk around the model and visualize in three dimensions how Freedom Park will appear when it has its Grand Opening, which is scheduled for Spring 2028. The park will include a formal parade ground, plenty of grass for recreation, gardens, benches, play structures, trees and winding walkways, and a monumental flag at the pier’s end which will be visible from downtown and across San Diego Bay.
This informative presentation provides an excellent overview of the plans for Freedom Park, including a detailed map and timeline for completion.
The parade ground will feature a central statue of John William Finn, San Diego area resident and last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the attack on Pearl Harbor. The park will also feature a Family and Sacrifice Monument, honoring the sacrifices thousands of military families have made, telling their stories. Navy Pier was once where many families waved goodbye to departing sailors.
A Footsteps of Freedom interpretive path will follow the length of Navy Pier and circle around the USS Midway, connecting with the present-day Greatest Generation Walk, where many military monuments exist today. (Including this Navy plaque, whose exact origin was a mystery, until some of this blog’s readers provided amazing information!)
Other features will enhance the new Freedom Park, such as a Digital Journey that people can follow with their smartphones.
Today, after viewing the model and taking a few photos, I asked a docent at the Midway Museum: where will visitors park their cars? (Most of the parking lot now atop the pier will be vanishing.) He informed me there is underground parking at the new RaDD complex across Harbor Drive. A small parking lot will remain near the entrance of the museum.
Of course, a project of this magnitude requires a lot of funding. There’s more money to be raised. If you’d like to buy a Freedom Park Legacy Brick and help with this effort, click here.
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 