Okay, drifting away from Leucadia today towards downtown Encinitas.
I swear I am the kiss of death around here. NCT link
If I love a certain open space someone will build a hotel on it. If I love a certain building it will get torn down.
The old newspaper building on the coast highway in the heart of downtown is far and away my favorite building in this town (well, I love the little metal building on E St. that was the Redsand clothing store and coffee shop just as much).
Maybe I just have an affection for cool industrial metal buildings, they are so rare in this land of stucco and red Spanish tile.
So I am dismayed to learn that the building will be torn down.
I do support mixed use, I like the idea of a grocery store in downtown Encinitas. That has been a major void in that area for the last few years.
Underground parking is a good idea, I assume it will be a pay lot though.
I am really against any corporate chains going into downtown Encinitas. I know Crate & Barrel seems fairly harmless but they could just kill the other little boutiques in the area. The city needs to talk with these other small business owners before going forward on that.
But man, I am really nervous about the new building. Mixed use sounds groovy but the great fear is getting a horrific mixed use building like the one that just went in on the coast highway in north Carlsbad. All bling bling and no substance.
I would love to see the building built in the spirit on the existing one but I believe that the city forbids any new metal buildings.
Why? Because we are a yuppie suckhole, that's why.
Volleyball dude Steve Timmons is current co-owner of the building. Remember when he wanted to fight Mike Tyson?
The lack of a grocery store is just fine. It takes 5 whole minutes to get to any of the ones up off of poinsettia or over the hill in the strip mall hell called El Camino Real.
ReplyDeleteWhat up JP! Your blog rules!
ReplyDeleteTo me that building is really just a tin box. There isn't much architecturally stimulating about it at all. Do you really think it's worth hanging onto a crappy piece of architecture just because it is different than the surrounding crappy Archetype? If it had some character or some sort of significance I could see keeping it but it's really only a warehouse that was prob. never intended to be much more than a short term solution. Like you, I have an affinity for industrial, functional design, however we must remember that some corrugated metal siding amidst a sea of stucco/mission tile does not automatically make something architecturally relevant.
What does your "award winning architect wife" (LOL - :) ) think about it?
although I have to say Id rather have that corrugated metal warehouse over some cookie cutter mixed use Crate and Barrel building anyday (that one you mention in C-bad is horrendus). Unless of course they let us design it!!
ReplyDeleteAloha
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteYeah, but that building has heavy potential. Plus, I've been inside and it's pretty neat. The original plans to open up the sidewalk side would have cool.I guess my point is I would like to see something creative done with the existing building instead having it just get wiped off the map.
aloha,
Jp
When I say grocery store I don't a fricken' Vons or Albertsons. I mean a small cool market with fresh vegetables and wine and cheese and bagguettes.
ReplyDeleteYes, and they should have kept the buildings on the golf course metal, too. In fact, I believe they got our golf course thru the Coastal Commission so fast (according to whining Pattinson) because the structures were built as "temporary."
ReplyDeleteSometimes metal does rule.
Truth is, turning everything into a formulaic Spanish stucco will actually kill what makes a community eclectic. As long as the property is clean and well kept a metal building would look cool either way. And really its not how the building looks but how it serves the community also.
ReplyDelete