What is the smallest operating railroad car you’ve ever seen? Have you ever seen a moving train so small that bits of dust on the track can stop it?
Incredibly diminutive trains are coming to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park! Each car is about two inches long–the size of your finger!
A new Z scale permanent exhibit is being built in the museum and should be completed later his year. As a sign in the museum explains, this cool project is being supported by a grant from The Norris Foundation.
Z scale model trains are so tiny a complete oval layout can fit inside a briefcase. They have a scale ratio of 1:220. They’re even smaller than the N scale trains one can see in the museum’s incredible Pacific Desert Lines layout, which is operated by the San Diego Society of N Scale.
A sample Z scale layout is already on display (above photo). Plans for the not-yet-built layout can also be viewed…
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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 live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Why are there 12 hexagonal planters containing citrus trees in front of the La Jolla Historical Society‘s Wisteria Cottage? That’s what I wondered when I paid a visit to the society’s museum yesterday, to view their new exhibition about the history of surfing in La Jolla. (I’ll be blogging about that shortly.)
It turns out the dozen redwood planters with citrus trees is a 2024 project titled Exterior Orchard, A Conversation with Survival Piece V. The uniquely designed orchard examines the necessity of ecologically focused and sustainable food systems in a future where farming practices may become obsolete.
The installation was inspired by the La Jolla Historical Society’s recent exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work. The Harrisons, founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, were visionary thinkers and designers who developed fascinating Ecological Art. They created plans for a Portable Orchard such as this in 1972.
The hexagonal redwood planters were built by students from High Tech High Mesa. The trees and planters, I was told, can be adopted. Funds raised will help support the La Jolla Historical Society’s work.
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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.
The Otay Mesa-Nestor Library currently has a great exhibit in their community room. Informative displays concern the work of renowned San Diego artist, architectural designer and sculptor James Hubbell in Mexico.
The exhibition, Architecture of Jubilation: Lado a Lado, was supposed to conclude in 2024, but has been extended. A librarian told me they’re hanging onto the exhibit as long as they can!
This afternoon I visited the library and gazed at photographs and descriptions of Hubbell’s amazing, organic architectural work in Mexico, including the elementary school Colegio La Esperanza in Tijuana, which he and thousands of community volunteers built.
Another display concerns his Kuchumaa Passage art park, which honors our region’s native Kumeyaay people. Hubbell, with artist Milenko Matanovic, assisted by more volunteers, created beauty on the grounds of Rancho La Puerta fitness spa and resort in Tecate, Mexico. The community-built art park would lead to the creation of Hubbell’s later Pacific Rim Park projects. (The one on Shelter Island–Pearl of the Pacific–can be seen here.)
Other Hubbell projects covered by the Architecture of Jubilation: Lado a Lado exhibit include the Museo Kumiai in Tecate, and Jardín de los Niños in Tijuana.
As one poster explains: Tijuana and San Diego are important cities that exist side by side, along a border that both divides and connects. James Hubbell honors this contradiction by using his art to bridge the border and build a tapestry of community. Thread by thread, Hubbell invites everyday people from Baja California and San Diego to join him in creating spaces of beauty and importance…
James Hubbell passed away last year, but his work will inspire many people and brighten our world far into the future.
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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.
The school’s once drab appearance as seen from Park Boulevard is being radically altered. As you can see from these photographs taken today, a very cool new entrance is being built. San Diego’s oldest high school is being modernized!
The San Diego High School Administration & Classroom Building (Building 100) was an addition completed in 1976, and had all the stark aesthetics of many buildings designed in that era. The building serves as entrance to the campus.
Take a look at what’s coming!
You can see how the new glassy entrance with its cantilevered, sleekly projecting roof will make San Diego High School a new downtown landmark at the south end of Balboa Park! (Yes, the school is actually located inside Balboa Park.)
To learn about all the changes that are being made, and to view a flyover video of the project, check out the design team’s website 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.
The exhibition is described as a retrospective about the work of husband-and-wife team of Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, who were among the earliest and most notable ecological artists. Founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, Helen and Newton were local San Diego artists for nearly four decades, where they developed their pioneering concepts of Ecological Art.
Would I see paintings? What exactly was this ecological art?
What I discovered was unexpected and thoroughly thought-provoking!
The walls of the La Jolla Historical Society’s museum–the Wisteria Cottage–were covered primarily with technical drawings, maps and designs that conveyed innovative environmental ideas the couple developed over many years of working together.
If you love invention and human creativity, you’ll want to view this exhibition. You’ll see how human genius can create previously unthought-of technology that can benefit both people and the planet. You’ll observe how our understanding of nature and the ecosystems we all live in might conceivably be improved.
There were dozens of surprising ideas. I saw a proposal to create flood-reducing canals around downtown San Diego, practical Survival Pieces intended to create self-sustaining ecosystems (including a portable fish farm), and even a huge, Earth-orbiting sky mirror!
The Harrisons’ work is so expansive and full of variety that it’s hard to describe it all. So you’d better check it out yourself!
Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work is actually a multi-museum exhibition in San Diego County. The La Jolla Historical Society’s part of this exhibition is sub-titled Urban Ecologies, and traces the Harrisons’ collaborative practice during the late 1960s-1990s.
Additional parts of this exhibition can be viewed at the California Center for the Arts Escondido, and at the San Diego Public Library Gallery. Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work continues at all three locations through January 19, 2025.
If that’s not enough, this exhibition is part of a much larger Southern California event now underway: the Getty’s 70+ institution PST: Art and Science Collide!
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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.
The installation of San Diego’s newest neighborhood gateway sign was completed today. It welcomes visitors to Old Town San Diego!
Both sides of this new gateway arch (which straddles San Diego Avenue at Twiggs Street) contain the words: The Birthplace of California – Historic Old Town San Diego. The arch stands at the edge of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and in front of the historic Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.
Images incorporated in this new landmark arch, as I understand it, represent three different stages of San Diego history. Hawks represent the Native American Kumeyaay and the wild, unspoiled land they inhabited. Mission bells represent the Spanish and Mexican, or Californio, period. Wagon wheels represent the early American period.
Several days ago I noted how the two columns that support the sign had been erected. That blog post can be found here. Yes, the beautiful sign itself was installed quickly!
I’ve learned the arching gateway sign was designed by Robert Barros who works with the Old Town San Diego Chamber of Commerce. He is publisher of Old Town San Diego Guide and owner of Visual Media Group.
Check it out! A little more history has been made!
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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.
Renowned artist and illustrator Rafael Lopez painted this very colorful mural in Escondido during the summer. You might recognize his abstract style. The inspirational mural greets students arriving at the Palomar College Escondido Education Center.
(I took a long walk through Escondido early this morning . . . then Oceanside around noontime! I discovered all sorts of great street art and public art during my adventures. Stay tuned!)
The story behind this beautiful Rafael Lopez mural can be found in this article. I didn’t know the school has a comet as its mascot!
I like how images of life, growth and reaching skyward are important elements of the design.
If you love this artwork, you might want to check out other Rafael Lopez murals around San Diego. You can find many of them documented in past blog posts 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.
An important presentation was made this evening in San Diego’s Balboa Park. A thoughtful audience, assembled inside the World Design Capital’s Exchange Pavilion, learned how the organization Tijuana Access is working to make Tijuana and Mexico more accessible for the disabled.
Eduardo Lopez Ruiz explained how Tijuana Access is raising awareness and lobbying for greater accessibility south of the border. He explained that our neighbors to the south are a bit behind the United States when it comes to making buildings, streets and city facilities more friendly for those who have difficulty functioning in a world full of potential obstacles.
Working to make our world more accessible, Eduardo affirmed, is a matter of compassion. Not only are a significant number of people born with or develop a disability, but most of us become elderly–right?
There are all sorts of ways to make a city more accessible. Automatic doors, ramps, lifts, slip resistant materials and tactile paving can be adapted to enhance mobility. Handrails, rest furniture, properly placed buttons and switches, Braille printing and other changes can make life much easier and safer for many.
The presentation was mostly in Spanish with an interpreter helping us English speakers. I asked how I could link to Tijuana Access with my blog, because readers might like to help in some way. The Tijuana Access Instagram page is here. Their Facebook page is here.
To my readers in Mexico, perhaps this is a cause you’d like to support. Or simply spread the word to help to raise awareness!
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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.
Irving Gill was an American architect who did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture.
When I visited Oceanside a little over a month ago, I photographed Irving Gill’s final project: the 1936 Blade Tribune building. Let me share those photos now!
If you’d like to read a great article concerning the history of the now defunct Oceanside Blade-Tribune newspaper, click here.
The 1936 Irving Gill building you see in these photos, at 401 Seagaze Drive, was built to accommodate a newly created Oceanside Daily Blade Tribune and News. The unique building with an Art Deco façade was restored in 2019 and today is home to the Blade 1936 Italian restaurant!
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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! 