San Diego, California
The scope for this two acre triangular site, located at San Ysidro Blvd. and Beyer Blvd., chiefly focuses on identifying its maximum-optimum program capacity. The project is within walking distance to the USA-Mexico international border, and in close proximity to the San Diego Trolley station.
Programmatically, five scenarios were evaluated based on a market study which identified potential uses, program areas (SF), and development phasing. Briefly, this included multi-family housing, commercial, retail, and public (civic) buildings. As such, the housing variety from 40 units to 100 units; retail programs from 20,000 SF to 70,000 SF; commercial office up to 20,000 SF; parking from 300 spaces to 600 spaces; and, public entities, including post office, community service center and the like.
The urban design strategy takes its clues from Latin American villages where buildings shape the public spaces (plazas, courtyards, paseos, etc.) while multi-articulated facades celebrate the use and/or ownership of its occupant. Accordingly, the intersection has been programmed for an outdoor plaza with a anchor restaurant, while an interior paseo leads pedestrians to retail shop at ground level and residential units above. Along San Ysidro Blvd. the street-wall is defined by ground floor retail, wide sidewalks with a colonnade of trees, planar and recess openings with balconies, articulated parapets and colorful facades.
