Tag: doors

READ, WRITE, THINK and DREAM at UC San Diego!

Why does a person enter a library? To read, write, think and dream.

That’s certainly what students do after walking through the doors of the Geisel Library at UC San Diego in La Jolla!

Indeed, the front entrance of the Geisel Library celebrates human thought and creativity with its four word proclamation: READ WRITE THINK DREAM.

I was surprised to learn that these words, together with the colorful glass doors and images of students at the library’s entrance, were the creation of an internationally important artist: John Baldessari!

Born locally in National City, John Baldessari would go on to become one of the world’s most recognized conceptual artists. His work would be featured in over 200 solo shows and 1,000 group shows in his six-decade career. His awards and the museums that have collected his pieces are numerous.

READ/WRITE/THINK/DREAM debuted in 2001 and is included in UCSD’s Stuart Collection of public art. Visit the webpage that provides a detailed description by clicking here.

Baldessari liked to provoke thought with his art. His works are described as open-ended puzzles.

With outside sunlight shining through, the primary colors of the transparent doors create new colors when they slide open and overlap. Combining basic elements into something that is different and new–that’s the essence of dreaming, creativity and discovery–isn’t it?

Perhaps you’ve seen another work of John Baldessari in La Jolla. I photographed his Brain/Cloud outdoor mural a few years ago and posted the images here!

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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.

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Art inside the Ocean Beach Arcade building.

Do you love art?

Should you ever walk down Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, keep a sharp lookout for the Ocean Beach Arcade. It’s the brick building you see in the next photograph. Inside you’ll discover a number of small businesses, including a coffee shop, vintage store and art supply store. And you’ll find yourself surrounded by all sorts of fun artwork!

The mural of a boy peering into a window with his dog immediately brought out my camera. As I looked around, I snapped more photos!

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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 Twitter!

A big sandcastle, new mural, and angelic doors!

I’ve recently updated three old blog posts with new photographs!

Today I headed back down to Imperial Beach. I had to check out the gigantic sandcastle that was completed by the pier for the 2021 Sun and Sea Festival. See lots of incredible new photos in an update here!

I also swung by City Heights, to check out the long, amazing mural that’s slowly coming to life in Teralta Park. Click here to see those new photos!

Finally, a few weeks ago I took a walk through Sherman Heights, and directed my feet toward Our Lady of Angels. I wanted better, closer photographs of the church’s fantastic doors. See those here!

I’ve got many more colorful blog posts coming in the near future!

Stay tuned for tons of art in Escondido, interesting activity in Old Town, and more cool sights in North Park, Chula Vista, City Heights and downtown! Not to mention potential surprises!

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More fascinating doors around San Diego!

Here’s another batch of fascinating door photographs!

I have a little extra time indoors this wintry morning, so I’m going through some old photos in my computer. These images were collected in the past month or so during walks all around San Diego.

You might notice many of the ornate wooden doors are in a Mexican style that is popular in Southern California.

The unmistakable front doors of the iconic California Building in Balboa Park, home of the Museum of Us.
Huge door to the downtown power substation that was designed by famed architect Richard Requa.

If you want to learn more about the above building, which sort of resembles a castle, click here.

Strange service door on curved side of the Portside Pier restaurants on the Embarcadero.
Unique door to El Chingon in the Gaslamp Quarter.
Unusual door I spotted during a walk somewhere.

The next four doors were all observed on Congress Street in Old Town. I really like these…

Finally, the last two doors can be found among the International Cottages in Balboa Park…

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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 Twitter!

Photos of YWCA building in downtown San Diego.

From a few blocks away, the old YWCA building in downtown San Diego appears unremarkable. But approach the corner of Tenth Avenue and C Street and you see why the 1926 YWCA Administrative Building, designed by architects Frank Stevenson and C.E. Decker, is one of our city’s more fascinating sights.

Sculpted stucco and beautiful metalwork decorate the building’s grand front entrance and many windows. The elaborate ornamentation was inspired by the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture that became popular in San Diego and Southern California after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, held in nearby Balboa Park.

I took photographs of this unique old building during a recent walk.

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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 Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

A look at Our Lady of Angels in Sherman Heights.

Whenever I drive along California State Route 94, just east of downtown San Diego, I can’t help noticing a yellow church with a tall, old-fashioned steeple rising south of the highway. So I finally decided to take a walk through Sherman Heights to have a better look.

According to this, the Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church originated in 1905. A plaque by the front entrance reads: Church of Our Lady of Angels 1906. I suppose that’s the year of the building’s dedication. I tried to do a little online research, but I can’t find much about the building’s history.

As you can see, the church has a quaint but very distinctive appearance. It is said to be one of San Diego’s best examples of Gothic Revival architecture. (To me, seen from its front, the church appears like an angular yellow rocket!)

Our Lady of Angels stands in the historic old neighborhood of Sherman Heights, which today is filled with numerous picturesque Victorian houses, many of which exist in a state of semi-decay. Our Lady of Angels was San Diego’s second Catholic parish.

I didn’t venture beyond the angelic front doors of the church. The colorful building appeared to be closed the day I walked around it.

Enjoy some photos!

UPDATE!

Here are two better photos of the beautiful doors taken during a later walk…

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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 Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Another colorful walk down Tenth Avenue.

One morning last week, I went on a walk through San Diego’s East Village. I headed south along Tenth Avenue from A Street to Petco Park.

I simply took photos of anything that delighted my eye. I believe all these sights are new to my blog, with the exception of the one above. I remember taking pictures of that fantastic tile mosaic years ago, but not up close.

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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 Twitter!

Every day in San Diego is a new adventure.

When I walk around San Diego, I find interesting sights no matter where I turn. Every day is a new adventure.

A lot like life!

After work today I wandered around downtown and did my best to capture a few good photographs.

Some of these photos are a little mysterious.

But what is an adventure without mystery?

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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 Twitter!

The doors, gates and windows of Old Town.

This afternoon I walked through Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, wondering if I might find any Fourth of July decorations. There were only a few. All of the museums and perhaps half of the shops are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But I did find lots of picturesque doors, gates and windows! Which gave me a unique photographic opportunity. On a typical weekend afternoon, some of these colorful wooden doors and rustic gates would be wide open, and taking such photographs would be impossible.

But not today!

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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 Twitter!

More fun photos of unique city doors!

Every once in a blue moon I post photos of unique doors that I come across during my city walks. Some of these doors can be really unusual. You can check out two of my past door collections here and here.

Well, here’s another fun batch!

All of these photographs were taken around downtown San Diego–East Village, the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy–in the past few days.

If you’re familiar with the city, you might recognize a few of these doors!

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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 Twitter!