FSDA’s 2024-2025 Lecture Series

The Friends of San Diego Architecture presents inspiring lectures on architecture, design, and the built environment by speakers who stimulate thoughtful, community-centered discussions. After more than 40 years, the conversations continue.

January 18, 2025

Reconnecting Balboa Park

The presentation will go over some of the history of Balboa Park prior to the construction of the I-5 and SR-163 highways, and what might be done to reconnect the “crown jewel of the City” with its various vibrant urban neighborhoods. The program concentrates on why this needs to be done and where those links may best be placed. Precedent images of gateway bridges that are both iconic and contextually relevant will be shown as well.

San Diego Commons was formed in 2019 to look at reconnecting the various communities in San Diego that were disrupted by I-5, SR-163, and SR-94. The vision originally included the creation of new parklands and the reconnection of bike and pedestrian links from urban areas into parks. The original concept of a freeway lid that could create a large amount of new public space has been re-calibrated to consider the use of two bridges: one connecting Cortez Hill, East Village, and Downtown with Balboa Park across I-5, with a second bridge connecting the south end of West Mesa with the Palisades area. A third bridge has been proposed to connect Golden Hills with Inspiration Point and various other trail and bridge upgrades are proposed for improving design aesthetics.

9:30 a.m.
NewSchool of Architecture & Design
1249 F St. (Enter on Park Blvd.)

Friends of San Diego Architecture Image Library of the Month

Southwestern USA

Enjoy our collection of historic architecture, maps, and more in this featured Southwestern USA gallery.

FSDA News of Interest

Missed a lecture? Check out our videos: Since September 2017, FSDA has been videotaping our lectures. They have been a work in progress. If you missed one of our lectures, you now have a chance to view them here. Architect Manuel Oncina talks about Libraries: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow; Architect Hal Sadler and Modernist Keith York have a dialogue about Evolving Styles: From the Sixties; Architects Ken Baldwin and Andy Darragh discuss From Labs to Libraries; Landscape Architect Vicki Estrada revisits San Diego Design Decisions, and, Architects Kathleen McCormick and Ted Smith present An Alternative Practice. We have now added our September and October lecture videos. We would love to have your comments.

November 2019: Diane Kane – Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Irving Gill: Modern Architecture Emerges

February 2020: Glen Schmidt – Mission Valley: An Open Space Renaissance

January 2022: Panel of Speakers – San Diego-Tijuana: World Design Capital 2024

The latest video now available and one you won’t want to miss!

UC San Diego: Billions in Development

FSDA Image Library: Our image library continues to grow with new images added often, so you might want to bookmark this link. We started with the Ned Paynter Collection and have now added the Diane Kane Collection, Competitions, Exhibits, and FSDA Events. This image is from the Southern California Gallery in the Diane Kane Collection.