Balboa Park began more than 100 years ago with architect Bertram Goodhue’s vision of a dream city of gorgeous Spanish Colonial buildings and lush gardens, where visitors would stroll along open promenades and under shady arcades. After the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, he imagined, most buildings including his own would be razed and “San Diego would enter upon the heritage that is rightfully hers.
The announcement produced all sorts of reactions, from enthusiastic support to heated opposition and somewhere in between. Foster’s buildings range from radical to subtler, but the electricity is palpable. It must be said that passionate debate is a good thing and often leads to better buildings. A Foster + Partners artist’s rendering of One Beverly, a planned $2 billion residential and hotel complex on Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards in Beverly Hills.
In northern Spain, Foster has designed an extension described as a “floating pavilion” for the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, with a swooping rooftop structure including galleries and viewing platforms — an idea that may reappear at SDMA.Meanwhile, stand back from the museum, at the edge of the circular Plaza de Panama, and take in a visual spectacle quite different from the stark white modern buildings originally proposed by Irving Gill.
The only remnant of Balboa Park’s reconstructed Science and Education building is this archway on the collonade near the San Diego Museum of Art’s west wing. Foster’s addition is “desperately” needed, according to Velásquez. Since her arrival in 2010, after heading museums in Mexico City, the SDMA collection has expanded by more than 5,000 pieces, while attendance has increased fivefold.The announcement of Foster’s hiring has already received wide coverage rarely accorded to San Diego architecture.
“Hiring Foster + Partners is terrific for this project,” said architect Kevin deFreitas, president of the San Diego chapter of the American Institute of Architects, in a statement on behalf of AIA that did not mention the existing Mosher building.DeFrietas’s peers in San Diego historical preservation take issue with that view.
Nonetheless, both preservation group leaders said they look forward to working with the architects towards a suitable design. Velásquez promises an engaging design process that will welcome input from design experts as well as the general public.
Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)
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