Demolition of Askew Building
Originally published January 21, 2011 at 5:44 p.m., updated January 25, 2011 at 2:57 p.m.
/ San Diego County Department of General Services
A 25-foot-wide water feature extending a total of about 600 feet would be included in the conversion of the parking lots to parkland at the County Administration Center Pacific Highway , Harbor Drive and Ash and Grape streets.
The land next to the County Administration Building
UPDATE: The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved demolition of the Askew Building
It's taken 103 years, but the long-held idea of a waterfront park is about to get rolling this week with action expected by the Board of Supervisors.
The board is scheduled to vote:
· $2.6 million to demolish the 1958 J. W. Askew Building on the north side of the County Administration Center
· $1.2 million to complete the design for a 12-acre park that will replace the building and extend to the north and south parking lots of what many believe is the most beautiful public building in the county.
If all goes according to plan, the park will be completed by the end of 2013 and include a string of outdoor landscapes, a 600-foot long fountain you'll be able to dip your toes into and new spaces for weddings, picnics, sports and gazing at San Diego's storied waterfront.
"This is going to change the perception of the waterfront and reinforce the beauty that we have in San Diego and what ought to be done all along the waterfront," said Supervisor and former architect Ron Roberts, who has been championing the idea ever since he took office in 1995.
The idea goes back long before that.
In 1908, East Coast landscape architect John Nolen delivered a comprehensive plan for the city that included an esplanade, complete with casino and gardens, and connected to Balboa Park
"San Diego
But the esplanade and paseo never came to pass. The only remnant is the County Administration Center Pacific Highway and Harbor Drive. It was a WPA project funded with federal stimulus funds during the Depression and completed in 1938. It originally housed both city and county offices. President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally dedicated the building.
"The original plans for the civic center showed waterfront parks there and we found all sorts of reasons over the years why we couldn't get it done," said Mike Stepner, former city architect and now a professor of the NewSchool of Architecture and Design.
After voters repeatedly turned down a post-World War II revision called Cedar Street Mall, the county erected an office building for the health department in 1958 -- now called the J.B. Askew Building C Street . The county expanded at its operations center in Kearny Mesa.
Starting in the 1970s then-Supervisor (now radio talk-show host) Roger Hedgecock began decades of debate over developing the county parking lots with hotels, offices and other improvements. Competitions were held and slick designs and scale models were presented.
But through booms and recessions, nothing ever came of these efforts and Roberts convinced his colleagues in 1997 to turn to beautifying rather than building on the 11 acres flanking the county building.
"I think you're going to have a grand space for not only important civic celebrations but for important individual events," Roberts said.
Stepner said a park rather than developments on valuable waterfront property actually may prove a better investment for taxpayers.
"Look at examples like Millennium Park (in Chicago)," Stepner said. "The land around that open space becomes much more valuable that if it's a parking lot or if it's development facing other development. It not only adds something for the community, which is critical, but I think it will catalyze development on those blocks around the county building that have been slated for redevelopment."
The park, expected to cost about $38 million and financed with downtown redevelopment funds, will include several landscaped spaces, called "rooms," that will feature various examples of local vegetation and public art, yet to be chosen, donated or funded. A name has not been chosen but Roberts said the county is open to a major donor to make a gift and attach his or name to the new space.
The park's highlight surely will be two water features on the west side of the park, extending a total of about 600 feet. Visitors visitors will be free to dip their toes in the 2-3-inch-deep, 25-foot-wide pool and run through 14-foot-high bursts of mist or relax in the sun. Recycled water from the county's air-conditioning system would feed the fountain.
"It'll be the downtown beach," said April Heinze, director of the county's General Services Department.
She said if the supervisors approve, demolition of the Askew Building
Roberts said the county once toyed with the idea of inviting a movie company to use the demolition as part of a disaster film.
"Maybe they could simulate a cruise ship coming under attack and out of control, coming over the highway and under the building," he said.
The offer's still out there he said.
Meanwhile, the project architect, Hargreaves Associates, will fine-tune the design drawings.
Then the supervisors will take a look at the plans and, if they agree, approve bonds to provide funds for construction, said Don Steuer, county chief financial officer.
The bonds would be repaid from downtown property taxes through a tax-sharing agreement between the county and the Centre City Development Corp., which oversees downtown redevelopment. Steuer said the annual cost will be roughly $4 million.
An earlier plan involved redevelopment dollars from Grantville was scrapped in the wake of a lawsuit.
Heinze said the landscaping will use low-water-using plants and a new irrigation system will be installed to handle the turf area, which is being retained and slightly enlarged to handle large civic events.
The project also includes a 288-space underground parking garage for the public. A followup plan would add a nearby offsite garage for county employees but the funding has yet to be arranged.
During construction, employees will park elsewhere and board shuttles to and from work, Heinze said.
The county park is part of the bigger North Embarcadero Visionary Plan approved for the entire western waterfront in 1998 and is the first piece that is moving forward.
Meanwhile, the San Diego Unified Port District has approved a $28 million first phase in its portion of the plan -- landscaping and widening of the esplanade between B Street and Navy piers and improvements along western Broadway.
A two-acre park, similar to the county's, also is in the works at the edge of Lane Field at Broadway and Harbor Drive as part of a hotel development.
However, those plans are subject to California Coastal Commission review, and a commission staff member said an appeal is expected by the Feb. 1 deadline.
If the commission accepts the appeal, it could be months before the port's first phase of improvements can move forward.
Roger Showley Union Tribune
