Ted Smith, Architect

 Ted Smith first spoke to Friends of San Diego Architecture in September 1987 with a talk entitled The Go Home Suburban Warehouse: living in a Corporate Town. With these “go homes”, Ted created a special niche for himself that has encouraged a few other maverick San Diego architects to follow suit and add builder/developer expertise. The Carlsbad Condos (Go Homes) were of loft design built in Del Mar–affordable housing with community kitchens and easily divided spaces. Curator Andrew Sturm of the PARC Foundation said, “Ted believes this value (culturally and socially significant) is passed on to the end user and the passerby, because thoughtfully considered places lead to great neighborhoods which lead to better cities.”

As a recognized and talented architect, Smith could have accepted clients, but he preferred doing his own thing—and it works for him.

In September 2000 Ted spoke to Friends of San Diego Architecture about Urban Development: Small Lot Housing. By this time Smith had gravitated to urban areas such as Little Italy and Downtown San Diego, buying lots suitable for high density living and creating spaces for multiple unrelated single persons. He and Kathy McCormick built Go Homes on Ninth Ave. and Beech St. in Cortez Hill. He then built the Essex, a 49 unit row development, named and designed like the WWII aircraft carrier, complete with a raised outdoor parking deck and tall stacks protruding from the roof.

In the spring of 2003 Smith once again came back to FSDA to present Alternative Housing. He continues to build and develop housing that is attractive and affordable (in this economic climate, they may actually be more affordable than they were a year ago). In an interview Ted sums up his philosophy by saying, “Our attitude is, you need a less better house than your parents. You need to be downtown, you need to get out of your car, you need to have a little unit, you need not to be upset that your kitchen is not a giant kitchen with 3000 miles of counter space.”

This month Ted Smith will speak to Friends of San Diego Architecture for the fourth time. Will he have something to say about the past 25 years in San Diego—the architecture, the growth, the changes in urban San Diego?