San Diego Architectural Foundation

The San Diego Architectural Foundation was founded in 1980, the result of a gift from Ed & Barbara Malone. They gifted a residential lot in La Jolla, California, with the condition that a foundation be formed for the advancement of architecture in San Diego. Since then, the SDAF has realized the following accomplishments:

• In 1990, the SDAF underwrote the San Diego Museum of Art's exhibition "In the Realm of Ideas." Dedicated to the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, this exhibit featured the full-scale reconstruction of a Wright "Usonian" house in Balboa Park.
   
• In 2003, the Architectural Foundation was the springboard for the formulation of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA). A unique collaboration with the Salk Institute and other research organizations, the Academy is dedicated to investigating the relationship between brain functions and how we experience the built environment.
   
• The SDAF published its first book in 2003, the award-winning San Diego Architecture. A 350 page, full color, 700 building guide to the architecture of the San Diego region, San Diego Architecture is now in its second printing, and a downtown edition was also published.

• The annual presentation of the Steven C. Ladislaus Memorial Scholarship has awarded scholarships to twenty-four recipients from nine different schools of architecture since its 1985 inception.
   
• The SDAF is partner and fiscal agent to the Lumberman’s Competition, a design competition offering students the opportunity to design a project using wood products as the main building material.
   
• Working in elementary and middle school classrooms, SDAF volunteers in the Built Environment Education Program (BEEP) have introduced hundreds of kids to basic concepts of land planning, urban design and architecture, laying the groundwork for a better-informed and more aware future generation. BEEP is currently in the process of a rejuvination. For more information or to participate, click here.
   
• In 2004, the SDAF purchased the controversial program, Orchids & Onions (O&O) from the American Institute of Architects San Diego Chapter. A special ad-hoc committee examined and issued new guidelines for the program, and in 2006 a reinvented O&O was introduced with great success. Since then, the launch of a dedicated O&O website has enabled thousands of San Diegans to nominate, comment and vote upon the best and the 'could use improvement' in San Diego's designed and built environment.
   
• As part of a County effort to promote the implementation of Smart Growth, collaborative, sustainable and green building practices in revitalizing urban areas of San Diego County, the SDAF was selected to administer the Community Vision Award. The intent of the program is to encourage the construction of projects that will serve as examples for future urbanization throughout the region. The SDAF is honored to take part in this grant program, which provides a minimum $25,000 beautification grant to the community in which the recognized project is located.
   
• In 2009, the SDAF was selected as San Diego's official chapter of Pecha Kucha Night. Pecha Kucha Night was designed as a forum for designers to meet, network and show their work in public, and follows a unique, '20 x 20' concept.