I spent 24 hours in San Diego over Cinco de Mayo weekend, which is the unofficial holiday of the city, much like Halloween is for San Francisco. At this time of year, San Diego life just explodes. If you think spring is when life renews in nature, summer is the calling of the beach town. I’ve been to San Diego a number of times over the years and I always really enjoy it but this time, I looked at it with a slightly different eye.
Hyatt Regency La Jolla - I stayed at the Hyatt in La Jolla. This could be one of the largest hotel complexes I’ve ever stayed and I’ve spent a good amount of time in Texas, which can’t even compete. The hotel itself is around 20 stories but any hotel where I have problems figuring out how to get “into the parking lot is usually a bit too large for me. To get from the underground parking lot to my room, I took three elevators. Three! I’m not a fan of business hotels in large parks like this, but the room was actually much nicer than I was expecting and the bed was Hyatt deluxe. And being so close to La Jolla and the University of California, San Diego campus was good for exploring the upscale neighborhood and the architecture splendor of the Salk Institute.
Tower 23 - Now this hotel is much more my style and it will cost you as well. Named after the lifeguard station on the beach, Tower23’s architecture and sleek design makes the hotel a nice end to a walk on the bike path, past the surfers at Pacific Beach and the afternoon beach crowd. The bar is open with just a glass barrier between the patrons and the view of the San Diego ocean. But a walk through the lobby of the hotel and into the bar and restaurant shows off what I like to call “inside-outside” architecture - where there is no hard boundary between the interior and exterior space. Brunch on a the weekend was packed with beautiful people and, granted it was Cinco De Mayo, but I have a feeling that isn’t the only reason why the bar was so filled at 2pm on a Saturday either.
Salk Institute - The Salk Institute was established in the 1960s by Jonas Salk, M.D., the developer of the polio vaccine. Salk selected the world-renowned architect Louis I. Kahn as the person who could design the facility that he envisioned.
“Kahn’s creation consists of two mirror-image structures that flank a grand courtyard. Each building is six stories tall. Three floors contain laboratories and the three levels above the laboratory floors provide access to utilities. Protruding into the courtyard are separate towers that provide space for individual professorial studies. The towers at the east end of the buildings contain heating, ventilating, and other support systems. At the west end are six floors of offices overlooking the ocean. Together, there are 29 separate structures joined together to form the Institute.
You can see the impact of Kahn’s architecture in the courtyard. Important to note are Kahn’s imaginative use of space and his high regard for natural light. In response to Salk’s request that the Institute provide a welcoming and inspiring environment for scientific research, Kahn flooded the laboratories with daylight. He built all four outer walls of the laboratory levels out of large, double-strength glass panes, producing an open, airy work environment. Local zoning codes restricted the height of the buildings so that the first two stories had to be underground. This did not, however, prevent the architect from bringing in daylight: he designed a series of light wells 40 feet long and 25 feet wide on both sides of each building to bring daylight into the lowest level.”
The Keating - Located in the historic Gaslamp Quarter, the brand new Keating Hotel is bringing a little bit of Italy to California. If you like red and modern and Italian (no, not talking about Ferraris). From their web site:
“The Keating is a statement of our time, combining the highest level of expressive Italian Design with sophisticated and personalized service. In the Pininfarina tradition, the environment is characterized by pure, clean, ergonomic design, where breathtaking form meets function in every possible detail. What remains is the essential, but not the minimal. The use of materials, colors and lighting combine to give a warm welcoming atmosphere to all of our guests. Modern Italian Design is punctuated by the use of historical details. The Keating hotel project was designed by Pininfarina Extra, a division of the Pininfarina Group, and is their first foray into the world of hotel design.”
Tags: Luxury, San Francisco
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