Tag: unusual

Very unusual outdoor art in San Ysidro!

Take a look at this interesting outdoor art installation in San Ysidro! It’s part of an exhibition titled MIRAGE: el orden de los factores y los riesgos de la ilusión.

The unusual tower-like structure stands in an open space next to San Ysidro’s Cultural Corridor, a short walk behind The Front Arte y Cultura community cultural center. It’s the same space where San Ysidro celebrates Día de los Muertos every year.

The Mexican born visual artist behind the exhibition is Marcos Ramírez Erre. The rest of his MIRAGE can be viewed inside The Front, which happened to be closed when I walked by last weekend.

What do the different levels of this peculiar “tower” represent? (I wouldn’t mind lounging near the top under those shades!)

As the web page describing the installation explains: the art explores the geopolitical and symbolic landscape of the Mexico-U.S. border, characterized by architectural, masculine, industrial, monumental, and anti-monumental elements.

It seems to me the open structure, with its ladders, huge cylinders and different platforms, would be a fine stage for an outdoor theatrical performance!

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A new hotel, and zoo animals in the basement!

The Granger Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter is undergoing a very big change. The historic downtown office building, erected in 1904, is being converted into an elegant hotel.

Those who walk past the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue can view the construction now in progress. Surprising graphics along the sidewalk advertising the soon-to-open Granger Hotel really catch one’s attention, however. Why are there old-fashioned images of a monkey, tiger and giraffe?

Because the basement of the Granger Building once held zoo animals!

Before I get to the unusual explanation, you might wonder: why is it called the Granger Building?

This web page explains how Ralph Granger made his initial fortune from the Last Chance Silver Mine in Colorado. When he came to San Diego in 1891, he settled in National City, where, in a addition to a mansion, he built the architecturally important Granger Music Hall. (Those who drive down Interstate 805 can easily see the notable but dilapidated building. I once blogged about the Granger Music Hall here.)

Granger would then hire renowned architect William Quayle to design an office building in downtown San Diego: the Granger Building. The Romanesque style structure, built for $125,000, was steel framed and constructed of pressed bricks. It is five stories high and features embossed metal ceilings, gas lights and a manually operated elevator. The first floor would be home to the Merchant’s National Bank, with the son of President U.S. Grant the initial Director. In 1924, the bank became the Bank of Italy, the forerunner of the Bank of America.

But what about those zoo animals in the building’s basement?

Well, Dr. Harry Wegeforth was a physician who happened to have his practice in the Granger Building. He was also founder of the Zoological Society of San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. You might recall how he was inspired to start the zoo when he passed animals that had been displayed during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park and heard a lion roar.

In the early days of the expanding San Diego Zoo, as Dr. Harry Wegeforth acquired new animals, he kept some of them in the basement of the Granger Building!

Guests of the new Granger Hotel will be staying in a property that is full of surprising history. Past tenants of the old office building have also included C. Arnholt Smith, owner of the Pacific Coast minor league Padres, and Joseph Jessop, our city’s most famous jeweler.

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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.

Art created from destructive Cedar Fire.

Some unusual art was recently moved onto the second floor of San Diego’s Central Library. Cedar Fire was created by local artist Timothy Murdoch in 2019.

The work is composed of collected burnt wood and house paint. Many communities throughout San Diego were affected by the historic, incredibly destructive Cedar Fire in 2003. The fire destroyed 2,820 buildings including 2,232 homes.

I still remember how all of San Diego County was disrupted as people coped with the fast moving, Santa Ana wind driven fire. I had to drive up Interstate 15 under a dark orange sky during the fire, and it seemed I was the only one on the freeway. It’s hard for me to believe that was over twenty years ago. Seems like yesterday.

Does this sculpture look familiar? Cedar Fire, part of the City of San Diego Art Collection, was previously displayed in the lobby of San Diego’s City Administration Building.

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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!

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Two unusual rooms in a San Diego hotel!

A luxurious hotel in downtown San Diego contains two huge rooms that are quite unusual. One used to be a basketball court, and another was an indoor swimming pool!

The Guild Hotel occupies the historic 1924 building that was originally home of the Army-Navy YMCA. For decades, tens of thousands of sailors and military men would head to this location on Broadway, not far from the waterfront, to recreate. They’d play basketball, run around an elevated indoor track, and swim in a basement pool.

The Guild Hotel, when it moved into the iconic building, creatively repurposed two large indoor spaces. The huge basketball court was converted into the grand Grace Ballroom! The swimming pool was turned into the Society Ballroom!

I was shown these spaces several weeks ago during the San Diego Architectural Foundation Open House event.

Just inside the front entrance of the luxurious The Guild Hotel in downtown San Diego.

The Guild Bar in the hotel lobby.

To the left of the bar, a door opens to the unusual Grace Ballroom.

The Grace Ballroom at The Guild Hotel was originally an indoor basketball court. Military men shot hoops here for decades when the building was an Armed Services YMCA.

An elevated platform intended for jogging or running continues to surround the hotel ballroom!

Beautiful tiles along a stairway that descends from The Guild Hotel lobby to a lower level.

An old photograph of the large swimming pool that once occupied the Army-Navy YMCA’s basement.

The swimming pool is gone, replaced by the Society Ballroom! The historic space was set up as a meeting room when I toured the hotel.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

San Diego Stadium lights become art at Snapdragon!

Some very unusual art is installed in a concourse at Snapdragon Stadium. An array of 24 stadium lights has been mounted to one wall. Color changes at the center of each individual silvery floodlight. Over all are the words: San Diego.

When I attended a recent event at Snapdragon, I asked a knowledgeable employee who was working nearby about this art. I learned the old floodlights are from the demolished San Diego Stadium (aka Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium, SDCCU Stadium), which stood on this same property in Mission Valley from 1967 to 2021.

Cool idea!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Petrichor rises in downtown Children’s Park!

Cool public art rises in downtown San Diego’s newly reopened Children’s Park. I walked through the park today and took photographs of this fascinating sculpture, which is titled Petrichor.

Last year, while the reimagined, redesigned Children’s Park was still closed to the public behind a construction fence, I had called this mysterious white structure a “tower of fun” in my ignorance. I thought it might be part of the nearby playground. I’ve since learned the steel and cement sculpture was created by San Diego artist Miki Iwasaki. (You might recall a different sculpture she created for Liberty Station in Point Loma.)

The odd lattice-like geometric shape of Petrichor in the sky makes an interesting contrast against nearby trees and more distant downtown high-rises!

Petrichor was added to the City of San Diego Civic Art Collection in 2023.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Booklike floral mural painted at new RaDD.

Does anybody out there know anything about this new mural? It has been painted on one of the Research and Development District (RaDD) buildings now under construction on San Diego’s Embarcadero.

I noticed the unique mural today during my morning walk near Broadway and Harbor Drive. I took zoom photographs from a distance.

The floral artwork appears to open out of the glassy building like a book or document with many pages. The effect is very cool!

I’m not sure whether it’s finished yet.

If you know more about this mural, please leave a comment!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

World’s first 3D-printed car in San Diego!

The world’s first ever 3D-printed car is now on display in San Diego. Check it out!

I saw this surprising product of 3D-printing technology when I visited the newly opened POPnology exhibition at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park.

This fully electric car, called the Strati, has a body printed from carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. According to a nearby sign, it took 44 hours to print the 212 layers, and two days to assemble.

From a distance the Strati’s appearance is pretty cool; up close, it can be rather strange. (The layers produce a surface of odd ridges–I was reminded of a topographical map!)

You can read about Local Motors, the apparently defunct company that produced Strati, by clicking here. You’ll find a video of a short ride in the car.

Popular Mechanics published a detailed article about the Strati here!

Head over to the Comic-Con Museum to experience POPnology. You’ll see this car and find all sorts of technological innovations foretold or inspired by futuristic concepts in pop culture! I’ll be blogging about the incredible exhibition shortly!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Fantastic 3D art inside San Ysidro Library!

Are those holograms? No! The archway just inside the San Ysidro Library’s front door features a cool 3D effect produced by its two lenticular print columns.

This amazing public art, titled Pasaje, debuted in 2019 when the new branch library opened. The artists are brothers Jamex de la Torre and Einar de la Torre.

The San Diego Civic Art Collection website explains: The interior artwork, Pasaje, consists of an archway which serves as both a literal and symbolic entrance to the library. The columns of the archway are wrapped with colorful, illuminated lenticular prints drawing on themes related to San Ysidro, architecture, and the library as a source of knowledge. These densely layered and highly dynamic lenticular images produce the illusion of depth and change when viewed from different angles. Sitting atop the columns is a cantera stone lintel inspired by both Spanish colonial and Mesoamerican architectural motifs.

The San Ysidro Library website further explains: The arch columns feature back-lit lenticular transparencies that exhibit two images in flip format, one showing historical pictures of San Ysidro and the other showing a plethora of images that symbolize curious illustrations in the exploration of books.

Your own eyes have to experience this fantastic optical art!

I found it hard to take good, focused photographs, because the seemingly layered images fade in and out with every slight movement the camera makes. (If you’ve ridden the main elevator at the San Diego Central Library, you’ve probably marveled at similar lenticular artwork by the same artists!)

Hopefully these photos entice you to visit the library in person!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Nautical rope, sea bags, and a sailor’s life.

For much of the 20th century, Naval Training Center San Diego was the place where Navy recruits learned what their new life at sea would be like.

Today, NTC Liberty Station occupies those old Navy buildings and barracks. The popular San Diego destination contains museums, artist studios, shops, offices, restaurants . . . and thought-provoking installations of public art.

A Dime to Call Home is sculptural art that I photographed during my last visit. The unusual art, made of cement, soft clothing and nautical rope, is located near some archways along Liberty Station’s North Promenade. It was created by artist Michele Montjoy of Oceanside, California, and installed in 2019.

A nearby sign explains:

Using sculptural forms reminiscent of sea bags and nautical rope, A Dime to Call Home is a conversation about the shifts of identity, location and routine that recruits encounter when they enter the military, as well as the connection they have to their family, home and previous life.

I took several photographs.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!