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San Diego Stadium
As the City of San Diego negotiates the complex sale of a huge swath of Mission Valley to San Diego State University, the deal must include saving and reusing San Diego Stadium (its original name). The award-winning structure with a design that was nationally ahead of its time is a viable and far cheaper option for fulfilling the university's need for another stadium—and an enormously catastrophic candidate for our overflowing landfills. When it opened in 1967, its innovative features included pre-cast concrete walls, pre-wired light towers, and spiral concrete pedestrian ramps. In 1969, it earned an American Institute of Architects Honor Award for outstanding design—the first such national award for a San Diego building and for a U.S. sports stadium. Now, this multi-ton, concrete sports magnet is one of the last remaining mid-century designed, multi-purpose stadiums in the United States. Designed by Frank L. Hope Associates, a leading San Diego firm for decades, the stadium opened in 1967, originally as home to the San Diego Chargers, San Diego Padres, and yes, the San Diego State Aztecs football team. The stadium's novel form (eight concentric circles) provides excellent sight lines, a key requirement for ticket sales and design success then and now. City officials must insist in its sales agreement that the university find a way to reuse this celebrated, iconic, and adaptable Modernist Era monument. De-listing a significant, adaptable City-owned historical resource and dumping untold tons of concrete into our landfills are both unacceptable. Preserving and sensitively adapting the stadium to meet the future needs of San Diego would be a win-win-win for environmental sustainability, for optimizing centrally located land for the highest and best public good, and for preserving a living symbol of San Diego's national sports history. (Scroll to view all)  Vintage image, c. 1969. Courtesy Coons collection        Current photos by Sandé Lollis |
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Mailing - PO Box 80788 · San Diego CA 92138 | Offices - 3525 Seventh Avenue · San Diego CA 92103
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