Wow! I just finished a leisurely walk through Little Italy’s great 2013 Festa event, and by far the most amazing part of it was the chalk art competition! I learned that Italian chalk art is called Gesso Italiano. There were 62 colorful entries, taking up three full city blocks! I got so many great photos I’m going to break it all into several blog posts. Here comes the first batch!
All the artwork was fantastic!
It was fascinating to watch the many artists at work. I wish I had such talent!
Lots of people converged on San Diego’s unique Italian Festival!
Recreating a masterpiece with chalk.
I love this cool pic. One of the amazing chalk creations depicted another act of creation: that of God! The Sistine Chapel’s ceiling seemed to be transported to the asphalt street. Bystanders were invited to lie down and become part of Michelangelo’s divine masterpiece!
Horton Plaza is a feast for the eyes everywhere you turn.
Horton Plaza, located in downtown San Diego, is a fun and interesting place for shoppers to visit. The unique mall’s crazy, whimsical design makes an interesting contrast to the restored old buildings in the adjacent Gaslamp Quarter. Many bright colors and types of architecture have been cleverly integrated into a visual feast. Horton Plaza was designed so that people intentionally get a bit lost, to provide a feeling of adventure and the unexpected.
Here are some random pics for you to enjoy…
Elegant Jessop’s clock in the midst of colorful whimsy.Many bridges and walkways connect different areas.Looking north along several shopping mall levels.Looks like someone yarn bombed this stair railing.Downtown buildings can be seen projecting into the sky.Cool places to eat overlook the layered central area.Just another place to explore on an upper level.Lots of great vistas near Horton Plaza’s food court.A small decorative touch adds fun flavor to the scene.Many arches that shoppers can pass over or through.Go up or down in unexpected places.Banner welcomes San Diego visitors in many languages.Just walking along and enjoying the many sights.
Chess and checkers games can include a small workout!
Here are three fun photos! I stood for a moment on an upper level at Horton Plaza, watching two guys play a game with giant chess pieces.
San Diego’s downtown Horton Plaza shopping mall is more than just typical retail stores and a food court. It’s a wonderland of colorful, whimsical, unexpected architecture, with cool discoveries around almost every corner, including this shady nook where you’ll find giant-sized chessboards and checker boards.
The Horton Plaza shopping mall contains fun surprises around almost every corner.People enjoy a leisurely game of chess with gigantic chessboard and pieces at Horton Plaza.
Here are a couple more photos I took during another visit…
Horton Plaza visitor watches two people playing chess on an ordinary-size chessboard.People congregate in a Horton Plaza nook where giant chess pieces beckon.
This red trolley belongs to the blue line. Makes sense, right? It’s waiting for passengers at the America Plaza station, across the street from the Santa Fe Depot. The blue line stretches from downtown San Diego all the way down to the Mexican border.
In this photo you can see both domes of the historic train station.
Old black-and-white photos of the Santa Fe Depot pretty much show nothing around it. It just sits there in the middle of nowhere, seemingly. Today the city rises and surges all about it, and it can almost seem lost among the many bright tall buildings.
San Diego Trolley pulls into Santa Fe Depot from the south.
The Santa Fe Depot is downtown San Diego’s train station. Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, the Coaster, and the San Diego Trolley’s orange and green lines all stop at the historic building.
The Santa Fe Depot, built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, was opened in 1915 to serve thousands of visitors to Balboa Park’s Panama-California Exposition.
This photo shows one of the Santa Fe Depot’s two colorful domes and some palm trees against a backdrop of high-rise condos. The architects a hundred years ago probably didn’t imagine that glassy skyscrapers would tower nearby!
Birds fly over one of the distinctive tiled domes.Looking up through palm trees toward one dome.
Here are some more photos taken at a later time. Black material now covers up part of the two domes. I learned that the terracotta columns are cracking.
The east side of the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego.Buildings rise behind the domes of the Santa Fe Depot.The two domes of San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot.Amtrak train parked by historic Santa Fe Depot.
A whole variety of street performers, entertainers, psychics and artists can be found along the path that separates Seaport Village from Embarcadero Marina Park North. It’s a lively scene, especially during the summer. I snapped a great photo of a portrait artist sketching the faces of a couple who were seated together. Some of the artists seem more skilled than others; some paint, some draw, some do cartoons and caricatures.
The following pic is from another sunny summer day…
Street artist by Seaport Village paints kids sitting on wall near the bay.
This photo shows sailboats on San Diego Bay passing the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel, those two tall, sandy tan buildings.
Tour guides and pedicab drivers often joke that the downtown skyline resembles a set of tools. The Hyatt buildings resemble straight-edge screwdrivers; America Plaza, which you can see, resembles a phillips screwdriver; and another skyscraper, Emerald Plaza (not visible in this pic) resembles a set of socket wrenches!
Here’s a pic of a non-sailboat taken on a later occasion…
Lord Hornblower passes Hyatt hotel buildings on San Diego Bay.
These private yachts are docked directly behind the San Diego Convention Center. Some can be really huge. Most are gorgeous. Over the years, I’ve seen a few that have helicopters or small airplanes!
I took the above photo while riding the ferry to Coronado island. The building jutting up in the background is the Omni Hotel, which stands in the Gaslamp adjacent to Petco Park.
The following pics were taken at various different times:
Large yachts docked behind convention center.Luxury yachts with Coronado Bay Bridge in background.Crew member polishes Vibrant Curiosity.Rear of huge multi-level superyacht Majestic docked by convention center.Oberon, a fast yacht support vessel, docked behind the San Diego Convention Center.A row of private yachts docked in downtown San Diego.Looking south toward Hilton hotel behind San Diego Convention Center.Two super yachts with small aircraft seen in April 2015. On the left, the enormous single-masted yacht M5 boasts a seaplane, while the Pacific carries a helicopter.In October 2017 I saw Vava II, a 97-meter superyacht docked behind the San Diego Convention Center!The Vava II, built by billionaire Swiss pharmaceutical tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, is equipped with its own helicopter.The brand new, blue-hulled luxury superyacht Chirundos among other impressive ships docked in San Diego in late 2017.Beautiful yachts in a row behind the San Diego Convention Center.The sleek Attessa, with helicopter, docked in San Diego in early January, 2018.People walk and jog along the south Embarcadero.
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Here are some photographs of the historic Keating Building, which over a century ago was the most prominent high-rise building in downtown San Diego!
The five-story Romanesque Revival style office building, located in the Gaslamp, was built in 1890. Back in those days, its wire cage elevator and steam heating were amazing new modern conveniences. The elevator was the very first in San Diego, and remains the longest running elevator downtown!
This visually pleasing landmark was designed by the Reid Brothers, the architects responsible for the incredible Hotel Del Coronado.
For several decades the Keating Building has been home to Croce’s Restaurant and Jazz Bar, established by singer Jim Croce’s surviving wife, Ingrid. At year’s end, Croce’s will be moving to a new, more intimate location on Banker’s Hill.
Keating Building seen from across Fifth Avenue, after Croce’s moved to a new location.
A plaque on the historic building provides a little more description…
This office building in the 1890’s contained the San Diego Savings Bank, the Public Library and the Humane Society!Keating Building is an important landmark in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
UPDATE!
I revisited the Keating Building during the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s OPEN HOUSE 2017. Here are some photos I took just outside and inside the building’s front entrance.
432 F Street is the address of the Gaslamp Quarter’s beautiful Keating Building, today the location of a 35-room luxury hotel.Elevator in the small lobby to what is now a boutique hotel.The original wooden banister leads up from the entrance of the Keating Building.Historical photos on wall beside the lobby’s stairs.A segment of a timeline that shows San Diego history around the time of the Keating Building’s construction.Entrance to The Keating hotel, seen from F Street.
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This photo was taken from Navy Pier just south of the Broadway Pier. It shows a cluster of Hornblower and Flagship harbor excursion boats, plus the big Celebrity Solstice cruise ship at the San Diego cruise ship terminal. If you were to turn to the right, you’d see the historic Santa Fe train depot and shining downtown skyline closeby.
The red, white and blue Patriot speed boat is a new addition to the growing fleet of tour and charter boats seen daily on our beautiful Big Bay!
The following pics were taken on another day:
Harbor tour ships and a Water Taxi next to Broadway Pier.Harbor tour photographer gets photographed!People linger on dock near water taxis.Harbor cruise ships with Navy Broadway Complex in the background.A view of downtown and harbor cruise ships from approaching ferry.The Lord Hornblower approaches as people disembark from Coronado ferry.Patriot speed boat leaves dock, passing USS Midway.
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