San Diego Architectural Foundation

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Our Greater San Diego Vision is an innovative way to immediately contribute to changing our region for the better. Fortunately, San Diegans enjoy a desirable quality of life and share a passion and pride for this beautiful region we call home. To keep it that way, we need your voice to help us create a vision for the 1.3 million additional residents expected in the next 40 years.

Today, you have the opportunity to decide. Clicking the image above will take you to "www.OurGreaterSanDiegoVision.org/SDAF” where you may take a survey that will support future generations enjoying what we all love today.

Share your voice in 2012 to help shape the region for 2052. 

To learn more about Our Greater San Diego Vision, visit www.ourgreatersandiegovision.org and join the conversation with your fellow San Diegans on Facebook or Twitter.

As we usher in a New Year, we wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU, San Diego! We have had a remarkable year, and your support is what made it all possible.

As we have a look back at 2011, we recognize that it was a remarkable year of growth and success, and there is much to be proud of - and much to do in 2012! We urge you to join SDAF,  renew your membership, or make a donation now. Your renewed support will allow us to continue with the great strides we have made.

Some 2011 SDAF Milestones and Achievements:

• SDAF-hosted PechaKucha Nights featured in San Diego Reader cover story (January)
• Completed a strategic planning process resulting in a 5-year plan for the organization. (March – May)
• Launched new and exclusive interview event,  “A Very Special Evening (w/Boone Hellmann)" (June)
• Hosted special, sold-out screening of the documentary film “Urbanized,” and conversation with Director Gary Hustwit, SD Planning Commission Chair Eric Naslund, and former City Architect Michael Stepner (September)
• Collaborated with APA’s San Diego Chapter on sold-outscreening of “Pruitt-Igoe Myth.” (October)
• 2011 Orchids & Onions Awards Ceremony & Silent Auction marked the culmination of another widely acclaimed year of community engagement, conversation about our built environs, and public support and participation in this year-round program. (October) Click here for photos of the event!
• Supporting sponsor of the ModernSanDiego.com film screening of “Charles & Ray Eames; the Architect and thePainter.” (December)
• Published 4 full-color, quarterly editions of the SDAF newsletter, “By Design.”
• Hosted 4 regular PechaKucha Nights (one emceed by visiting PechaKucha Founder Mark Dytham), and 2 special PKN events, including a benefit for Japan, and collaboration with San Diego Museum of Art as part oftheir Summer Salon Series, “What Does A City Need?” Click here to see photos of 2011's PechaKucha Nights.

As we look ahead to 2012, we are eager to continue the advancement of the SDAF mission to educate and promote outstanding architecture, planning and urban design throughout the San Diego region.  In addition to the continuation of the programs noted above, the following is planned for the New Year:

• Orchids, Onions & Opportunities: An Exhibit:  A follow up to the Orchids & Onions award program,”Orchids, Onions & Opportunities” is comprised of an exhibit, various panel discussions, and interactive exercises focused on the (Onion-specific) trends of the past 6 years of SDAF’s Orchids & Onions program, and looking ahead to the changes and decisions that may influence the best designed and built San Diego possible.
• Urban Orchid Tour: In conjunction with the exhibit, SDAF will launch a series of Orchid Tours, this first one featuring Urban Orchids, with various architects and /or owners guiding tours of their projects.
• SDAF Film Series: Varying only slightly from our original Film Series launched in 2008, this unique cinema showcase will include documentaries, dramas, and others that depict the many different ways film and architecture have reflected each other. First screening of 2012 will take place at the Pearl Hotel in February.

Our continued efforts to serve and educate our community and inspire excellence in San Diego’s built environment are possible only through your tax -deductible membership contributions and sponsorship support.

To become a member of SDAF, click here.
To make a end-of-year, tax-deductible contribution, click here.

Thank you again for making 2011 such an inspirational success. We are keenly aware of, and deeply appreciative for, the growth that your participation has afforded the SDAF. On behalf of the Board of Directors, volunteers and staff, we wish you an abundantly warm, wonderful, prosperous and healthy holiday season and New Year!

SDAF is pleased to support ModernSanDiego.com in the the local debut of new film Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter, prior to its national broadcast debut on PBS later in the month. Presented by Modern San Diego with the Museum of Photographic Arts and Mingei International Museum, the event celebrating modern design will begin at Mingei with a reception and exclusive viewing of San Diego's Craft Revolution: From Post-war Modern to California Design, followed by the film screening at MOPA at 7:15 pm.

Click here for more info, and to RSVP (required).

The 2011 Orchids & Onions Awards Ceremony & Silent Auction is on October 27, and tickets are available now! The jury will have completed their deliberations, the People (that's you) will have voted, and the only thing left is the culmination of the nomination, commenting and voting process:

THE PARTY, AUCTION and AWARDS CEREMONY!!

Early Bird tickets are available now, and we have another spectacular event in the works, including inspired set design by Bells & Whistles, fabulous furniture from HoldIt Contemporary Home, beer by Stone Brewing Co. and wine from Leonesse Winery, mind-blowing Auction items (including a 26-person luxury suite at Petco Park for a 2012 Padre game, amazing art, restaurant, spa and hotel gift certificates and much, much more!), and about 450 awesome attendees to mingle with. Early Bird ticket rates apply until October 1. If you are a member of SDAF, you should have received your ticket discount code. If you did not, please send a note to info@orchidsandonions.org and we will send one to you asap. Purchase tickets now.

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Click on flyer to go to the Orchids & Onions website.
No nomination? Leave a comment (or some). We want to hear from you!

For a printable flyer, please see the .pdf link below.

O&O Nomination flyer

“The good building is not one that hurts the landscape but is one that makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before that building was built.”       -- Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957

If someone wanted to build a prominent new city in the middle of Yosemite Valley, how many people would be in favor of it? Not many. The idea that our built environment can enhance a pure natural environment is a tough sell. Yet when you see Machu Picchu in Peru with your own eyes, you begin to believe in this idea.The Inca civilization built a prominent city in the middle of a beautiful natural landscape and it worked. The site survived almost 400 years beneath the forest’s canopy and, today, it reveals to us the many connections possible between natural and man-made environments. What can we, as stewards of the built environment, learn from the people that built this incredible site?

The question is not whether we can build another Machu Picchu. Increases in knowledge and technology certainly provide more options for construction than were possible 500 years ago. Yet the trend towards more sustainable design practices today is something that was both a necessity and integral to their culture at Machu Picchu.  What we do share in common with the Incas is the power to make decisions about our own built environment.

Begun in 1450, Machu Picchu is thought to have been a spiritual retreat for the Inca emperor Pachacutec and a limited number of Inca elite. The “Inti” or sun was their god and they aligned much of their architecture to its movements, just as other earth-based spiritual cultures had done. When the Spanish Conquistadors decimated the Inca Empire beginning in 1532, Machu Picchu’s relative secrecy led to its abandonment and perhaps was key to its survival. Had the Spanish found Machu Picchu, or had others occupied it for the next 400 years, much of the site likely would have been destroyed. Instead, the explorer Hiram Bingham found it on July 24, 1911 and two years later National Geographic introduced the site to the world through the pages of its magazine.

Machu Picchu expands our ideas about the good built environment. While Ansel Adams elevated nature and wilderness in his compelling black and white photographs, Frank Lloyd Wright took his ability to create amazing architecture and more fully express the site on which it was built. As we celebrate the centennial of Machu Picchu’s discovery, we see possibilities for the natural and man-made environments to intersect and are inspired by the dreams of its builders.

Mike Torrey is an architectural photographer and author of the award winning book “Stone Offerings, Machu Picchu’s Terraces of Enlightenment”. He will be presenting a slide program entitled “Machu Picchu – A Centennial Celebration” at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park on Wednesday, August 17th at 7:00 p.m. Tickets available at MoPA.org.

In our goal of promoting the value of architecture and design, how do we know whether we've made any real progress? One visible measure of impact is how much our local, and our country's leaders support quality design. In the article "In Design We Trust" Cathy Lang Ho argues that the US should articulate a position on the value of design, and catch up to various European governments that already overtly support architecture through government agencies, national policies, federally-funded initiatives, and investment and oversight of public buildings. Mark Robbins is working on a joint NEA / GSA initiative with the goal of proving "how the strength of design disciplines can work towards making all the other parts of our culture better, more efficient, and more successful."

Image Credit: Kelli Anderson
Post: Association of Architecture Organizations

The latest issue of "By Design" has arrived! Click above to view, and find our feature article by SDAF member, author and radio host Dirk Sutro, new books and Architectural App reviews, PechaKucha recaps, an O&O update, Norwegian Stavkirks in our new feature, The World of Architecture and more!

We also want to extend a big thanks to those SDAF members who supported our recent Strategic Planning process by participating in the member survey. Your input proved invaluable, and the information gleaned from it has been incorporated into our vision for the future, which we will be sharing more of in the coming weeks and months.

Part of that vision is providing benefits to our members that better express our appreciation for your support. We are incorporating many new and creative ideas into this goal, and are really having some fun with it. For starters, we are extending an invitation to our members to attend our exclusive interview with UCSD Campus Architect Boone Hellmann for free!

"A Very Special Evening with Boone Hellmann" will be held at the Neurosciences Institute, part of the Performing Arts at the Neurosciences Institute program on Wednesday, June 15th. The interview, open to the public, and free to SDAF members, will begin at 7:30. It will be conducted by Keith York (ModernSanDiego.com), and feature some very special guests. A cocktail reception prior to the interview ($25 for members) will begin at 5:30 in the courtyard of the Neurosciences. You must RSVP to this event to ensure seating! Click here for more info and to RSVP. We hope to see you there!