After sunset I photographed two landmark buildings in San Diego that are illuminated with colorful lights this holiday season!
Until this Friday, December 18, the County Administration Building is lit blue and white to celebrate Hanukkah.
The County Administration Building in San Diego lit blue and white during Hanukkah.
And as usual in Bankers Hill, the Manchester Financial Centre building, long-time home of Mister A’s, is lit red and green and strung with many colors to celebrate Christmas!
The colorfully lit Manchester Financial Centre building in Bankers Hill with Christmas trees at each corner!
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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!
This evening I arrived at the Embarcadero around sunset. I intended to photograph the County Administration Building, which is illuminated at night this week with blue and white to celebrate Hanukkah.
But as the sun set, I had to turn my camera to the west to capture more beautiful photos over San Diego Bay!
Sun setting over Point Loma, beyond the Grape Street pier.A sailboat passes behind one of the docked Hornblower ships.San Salvador and Californian a few minutes after the sun vanishes behind Point Loma.HMS Surprise darkens while sunset colors linger.Lights are strung high above on Star of India.
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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!
Malcolm Leland was an influential modernist sculptor and architectural designer whose work can be seen in important structures around Southern California. He lived in San Diego for much of his life, and the city is home to several fine examples of his work.
I became aware of Malcoln Leland recently while watching a very informative San Diego Museum of Art video here. When I visited the artist’s website, I soon realized I’ve seen many examples of his work during my walks around the city!
In the past few weeks I’ve revisited places where his often iconic mid-century modern designs can be found. In many instances his elegant designs were used to create stylish decorative elements. Most of his work is in pre-cast aluminum and concrete. I took photographs in Balboa Park, Fashion Valley, and San Diego’s downtown Civic Center, which I’ll now share!
First up are his organically intertwining aluminum gates, and his gracefully shaped concrete columns and the archlike fascia above them at the San Diego Museum of Art’s outdoor May S. Marcy Sculpture Garden and Court…
Next, check out his beautifully ornate fascia along the rooftop of the Elmer C. Otto Center at the San Diego Zoo…
Next are his façades on several sides of the JC Penney building in the Fashion Valley shopping mall. They were made using panels molded out of copper sheets.
Originally water tricked down the sculptural panels, which were meant to oxidize and turn turquoise. But maintenance problems shut the unique fountains, and the panels were painted over. You can still see a little bit of copper orange in my photos…
Next is Malcoln Leland’s “Bow Wave” bronze sculpture fountain, in downtown’s Civic Center Plaza near the Community Concourse building.
In my photos the water feature is off. When on, the sculpture appears to be a ship’s bow moving forward through a spray of water. Leland’s once controversial sculpture is now much loved, and is listed in the Smithsonian’s inventory of art.
The previous photo was taken from the Civic Center’s multi-level Evan V. Jones Parkade parking garage, which features more instances of Malcolm Leland’s work.
Decorative panels around the perimeter of the parking garage and forming arches inside the garage were designed by Leland and made from pre-cast concrete.
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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!
If you’ve recently driven up Interstate 5 through University City, you’ve probably observed great progress has been made building the Mid-Coast Trolley extension.
Curving beside the freeway, crossing over it twice, in many places raised up high in the air, this new trolley line will connect Old Town with UC San Diego, the Westfield UTC mall, and a number of stations along the way. This northward trolley expansion is scheduled to open next year!
Most of the structures appear to be in place. I’ve noticed work crews are now stringing up electrical overhead lines. (An overhead wire is also called a catenary. This unusual word is an important clue that will help you solve the mysterious Alvarado trolley station riddle, which you can read here!)
This morning, at the end of a long walk through a quiet University City, I crossed over I-5 at Medical Center Drive and snapped photos of the Mid-Coast Trolley construction in both directions–south and north. My walk concluded at the Gilman Transit Center, a couple blocks farther west.
Looking south from the bridge you can see how the new trolley line curves past the VA Medical Center Hospital, where there will be a station. Another station beyond that, high above the freeway, will be located at Nobel Drive.
After I crossed the bridge, I turned my camera north to photograph the new Pepper Canyon at UCSD West trolley station. From there the line curves eastward, crosses the freeway at Voigt Drive, and will serve passengers boarding and disembarking at UCSD East near Scripps Memorial Hospital.
I’m looking forward to riding the Mid-Coast Trolley when it’s completed. Looks a little like a twisty amusement park ride. I bet the views will be great!
The following photos are looking south toward the Veterans Hospital…
The next three photos are looking northwest, into a small corner of UC San Diego…
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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!
Can you see it in the above photograph? There seems to be a rainbow painting the clouds around the sun!
This and the following photos were taken a couple mornings ago in Mission Valley perhaps an hour after sunrise. I was going through the images just now, wondering if I should use them, when I noticed the rainbow colors!
What’s odd is the sun was in front of me, not behind. Perhaps this mysterious “rainbow” was caused by an interesting combination of refraction and reflection within the layered clouds. Or was this ring of color merely produced by my camera’s lens? That’s probably the explanation. That seems to be the case in the second photo.
These clouds might also be tinted by the last remnants of smoke from a recent wildfire in Mexico, south of Tecate.
I’ve added a little contrast and sharpened most of these photos so you can see more fantastic cloud detail.
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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!
Take a look at one of the most unique, fun and inspired pieces of public artwork in San Diego!
You can find it at Barrio Logan Fire Station #7 facing Cesar E. Chavez Parkway.
Students attending nearby Perkins Elementary School created this awesome tile mosaic artwork. A sculptural fire hose decorated with firefighting imagery spurts water on burning flames!
This was a project of Rebuilding Together San Diego back in 2005. See their website here.
The organization’s mission is: “Bringing our volunteers and the community together to improve the homes and lives of low-income homeowners who are in need, and help revitalize neighborhoods throughout San Diego.”
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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!
An entire month full of fun events could be enjoyed in San Diego five years ago. (No COVID-19 pandemic back then to put a damper on the holiday season.)
It’s time to travel back in time and revisit some past blog posts from December 2015!
Cool San Diego Sights paid a visit to December Nights in Balboa Park, met Santa Claus and learned about the history of Christmas in San Diego, enjoyed a special tour at the San Diego Museum of Art, watched tiny sailboats on the model boat pond in Mission Bay, sang Christmas carols in Old Town and at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, discovered a cool mural in North Park, boarded a famous tall ship, walked through the Egyptian Quarter of Hillcrest, and watched preparations for the Holiday Bowl Parade!
Let’s live those experiences once again!
To go back five years and see lots of fun photos, click the following links:
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The Fall Brewing Company seems to attract a rather interesting crowd!
I took these photographs a little over a month ago during a walk up 30th Street in North Park. A mural teeming with punk rockers adds character to a wall by the brewery’s front patio!
I didn’t realize punk rockers like chugging craft beer!
You live and you learn.
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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!
Tomorrow another “stay at home” order goes into effect in Southern California. It’s late 2020, the year of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Today many people were enjoying Balboa Park one last time before the lockdown. As I walked through the park this afternoon, I saw a few holiday decorations, but nothing like you’d see during an ordinary year.
A few visitors were dressed for the occasion–I even saw Santa Grinch skating about in the Plaza de Panama! I also saw good old Santa wearing a face mask driving his sleigh between the plaza and Organ Pavilion; a big Santa Bear at the Japanese Friendship Garden; and lights, Christmas trees and ornaments in the Spanish Village Art Center.
I also walked past the Taste of December Nights event in the large Inspiration Point parking lots. All I saw were lines of cars pulled up to a couple dozen food trucks.
Speaking of trucks, see those two photos of a red vehicle parked in front of the San Diego Automotive Museum? That very cool old 1922 Mack Water Truck has returned to its old spot after a long restoration. I wrote a little about this antique water truck on my now dormant blog Beautiful Balboa Park. Read more about it here!
Even though everyone in San Diego is encouraged to exercise outdoors, now that we’re entering a stay-at-home period, my walking adventures might become less frequent for the time being. Fortunately, I have lots of interesting photos still in my computer, so stay tuned for many more surprising blog posts!
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 