This Giant Concrete Arrow Pointed the Way for Pilots Delivering Mail By Air Between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City

I was in Southern Nevada for Thanksgiving to visit dear friends—practically family. So I wanted to spend plenty of time with them, but I also wanted to carve out an opportunity to go on a couple little adventures. 

That sent me in search of one of the many gigantic, concrete arrows that dot the desert in the Battle Born state—well, actually two of them. I had to abort the mission in search of the first one, the one in Mesquite, since I was coming back from The Donkey Museum a little too late to have enough sunlight to navigate the rough dirt road to get to it. 

So, two days later, I made a second try—this time to get to a second arrow, this one in the Moapa Valley community of Logandale, not far off the 15 Freeway. 

 

Photo Essay: The Mid-Century Science Lab Where Modern Oceanography Was Born

I've been attending San Diego Architectural Foundation's Open House San Diego for the last few years—even squeezing in a visit a little over a week before everything shut down in 2020. 

But this year was different—not because of the pandemic, but because my car has been sitting in the shop (essentially undrivable) since January 17. 

I've been getting around on foot and via public transportation (like a good former New Yorker). But that was going to put a cramp in my style somewhat for Open House San Diego. 

I knew I could take the Amtrak down to Santa Fe Depot no problem—and that the trolley could get me around to lots of places. But I wouldn't be able to cram very much into one day. 

So, I agonized over having to limit myself to just one general area—and having to choose among the dozens of sites (when normally I can cram at least four or five into a day). 

Instead of going for quantity, I went for exclusivity—and chose to keep my reservation to the sold-out tour of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) Munk Lab at the UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, co-hosted by AIA San Diego. (Fortunately, I could get pretty close to it by taking the new Blue Line trolley extension to UCSD.)

The Radiance of Judson Studios' Art Glass Lights Up Forest Lawn Museum

The coffee table book Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass was published on March 17, 2020—less than a week after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. 

Its release was supposed to coincide with "Judson Studios: Stained Glass from Gothic to Street Style," an exhibit at Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, California that was scheduled to open on April 23, 2020. 

Photo Essay: A Slice of Colonial Spain In the Ever-Modernizing Downtown of San Diego

When the Balboa Theatre replaced the Gould Hotel at 4th and E in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, it was the Southern California city's first big downtown movie theatre.

And when the city government condemned it, evicted its current operator, and then purchased it in 1986, it became San Diego's longest-running empty stage at the time—closed for business for over 20 years.

That was four years before the nearby California Theatre shuttered in 1990. Now, that stage has been empty for 30 years—and all signs point to it never reopening again.

Fortunately, the Balboa found a way somehow to reopen on January 19, 2008, after a 3.5-year, $26.5-million renovation.

Under the hood, restoration architects Westlake, Reed and Leskowsky replaced all utilities with new and seismically retrofitted he entire structure, adding disabled access.

Photo: Bernard Gagnon via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Outside, a historically accurate pumpkin-esque tone covers up the white of its non-historic exterior paint job. A replica hangs were the original marquee went missing sometime in the 1930s, though it's since been converted for digital display. The blade sign was faithfully reproduced according to the specs of the original.

Originally designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style by architect (and former "stage man") William H. Wheeler and built by building contractor C. L. Wurster of Wurster Construction Company, the Balboa Theatre building's 4th Avenue side featured six ground-floor retail storefronts, with the floors above housing 34 offices.

Reportedly completed at a cost of $800,000, the theatre opened on March 28, 1924 as both a vaudeville stage (with acts like the brother-sister duo Fanchon and Marco) and a movie house. Its initial owner Robert Ernest ("Bob") Hicks—a former Colorado newspaperman and San Diego Union editor—had been involved in exhibiting movies in San Diego since 1910 or so.

The theatre gets its name from Vasco Núñez de Balboa, first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean. His sailing ship is depicted on the exterior blade sign as well as on the historic mosaic tile floor in the entry rotunda.



While the theatre sat in limbo waiting for its fate to be determined, its foyer was actually open air—exposing it to all sorts of elements. The restoration enclosed it with new exterior doors and restored the deeply etched glass doors that bring guests into the lobby.



The historic clerestory windows facing the street above the marquee had suffered some damage, too—so they were also replaced by replicas.



In 1930, the theatre's programming of silent films accompanied by orchestra and organ gave way to "talkies" with the new involvement of Fox West Coast Theatres—which later remodeled the Balboa Theatre into the Teatro Balboa cinema, screening Spanish-language films ("todo en español," like El Dios del Mar from 1930) starring primarily Mexican talent (like Ramón Pereda). Just a few years later, the Navy commandeered the upstairs offices to house its bachelor sailors waiting to ship out during WWII.

In 1959, the Balboa almost met the same fate of the hotel that once occupied that same corner—demolition. This time, the plan was to flatten the theatre to make way for a parking lot. But it was saved when San Diego's Russo family bought the building for around $100,000 and ran it as a action movie house (with a hotel upstairs) until 1976, when they leased it out to another operator. It was threatened again in 1983, with a proposed conversion into an art museum/arts center.

It's kind of amazing that after all that, the Balboa was able to reopen as a theatre—now promarily a performing arts stage. Audiences are now greeted by ornamental plaster in the second floor "Salon" lobby that's been restored by New York's Evergreene Studios, which sculpted new molds and cast new plaster elements to replace what had deteriorated or been lost.



The original murals by Heinsbergen Decorating Company on both sides of the salon had been painted over, so in order to return the walls to their original designs...



...Evergreene recreated stencils from a single 1924 photograph and established the color palette from paint scrapings.



Inside the auditorium, the gilded historic appearance of the original bronze powder paint had lost its luster, having tarnished to a dark brown. In its paint restoration efforts, Evergreene recreated original color schemes using a bronze powder paint that supposedly won't tarnish.



The Balboa's Spanish "ship" theme continues on the stage, where the curtain's design features the Balboa family coat of arms and a 16th-century Spanish caravel. On either side of the proscenium, real water trickles down ornamental mountains set inside 28-foot-tall grottos—at first a functional feature, as the water helped cool the audience, but now just decorative.



Hanging from the ceiling above are historic light fixtures that were restored and rewired by Gibson and Gibson Antique Lighting of Chula Vista. Unfortunately, "usherettes" dressed as Spanish cavaliers in boleros and sashes are no longer in the theatre's employ and strolling the aisles!



Between the orchestra section and the single balcony, the Balboa has downsized its seating capacity from 1,513 (a hat tip to the date of the Pacific Ocean "discovery") to 1,339.



The original 426-pipe theatre organ (built by Robert Morgan in Van Nuys in 1922) was moved to the Fox Theatre (now Copley Symphony Hall) in 1929. Maker Robert Morton was second only to Wurlitzer in terms of volume of theatre organs—and the original's replacement is one of only four remaining "Wonder" models by the Morton Organ Company, now residing at the Balboa. Perhaps the first Wonder Morton to have been built, this Wonder Morton Organ's console contains more ornate carvings than the others in existence.



The 4-manual, 23-rank organ was originally placed in the Loew’s Valencia Theatre on Jamaica Avenue in Queens (now The Tabernacle of Prayer for All People). At some point (probably after the church conversion in 1977), it moved to Pennsylvania.



It then made its way all the way out to San Diego for a five-year rebuild by W.A. Shoberg and Company of Ramona. In September 2009, the rebuilt Wonder Organ debuted at the Balboa Theatre.



You've got to walk through the pipes a few levels up to get to the ladder that climbs up to the roof, timing it just right so they're not blasting sound while you're up there...



...which I was lucky enough to do thanks to being in the right place at the right time in March (and knowing the right people).



Inside that tile-domed, octagonal tower—whose motif is similar to the dome of the California Tower in Balboa Park—there's a new exhaust fan that just replaced a rebuilt one circa 2004 about three weeks ago.

During "normal times," the Balboa Theatre is home to a number of local cultural institutions—including La Jolla Music Society, California Ballet Company and San Diego Ballet, San Diego Gay Men's Chorus, San Diego Opera, and the annual Mainly Mozart festival.

All that's on pause right now.

Designated a national landmark in 1996, the Balboa Theatre celebrated its 95th birthday a little over a year ago. It's survived every effort to tear it down and reuse it for some other purpose so far. It was steadfast during the 1973 Horton Plaza Redevelopment Project; and it's remaining strong through this year's $330-million redevelopment of Horton Plaza from a shopping mall into a tech office campus.

It wasn't easy to save the Balboa Theatre. It was never, in fact, easy. To read just a slice of the saga as reported in the San Diego Reader in 1987, click here.

But hopefully people now understand why it's important—and how it contributes to Downtown San Diego, even as the area that surrounds it changes with the times.

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Photo Essay: San Diego Civic Theatre, Upon Its 55th Anniversary

Photo Essay: San Diego Civic Theatre, Upon Its 55th Anniversary

Believe it or not, reaching the 55-year mark is a big deal. Some places don't make it 50 years—or 10, 20, 30, or 40 years.



Fifty years is the bar that's been set for so-called "historic significance"—and if a building is younger than 50 years old, it's darn near impossible to get it landmarked.



But the San Diego Civic Theatre has hit 55 years, having opened on the night of January 12, 1965 with a performance by the San Diego Symphony. Since then, such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, Jerry Seinfeld, Diana Ross, and Maya Angelou have graced its stage—while organizations such as Broadway San Diego, California Ballet, San Diego Opera, and La Jolla Music Society also call it home.



Maybe the four-story, semi-circular performing arts center—with more than a few Brutalist tendencies—is easy to dismiss, compared to the movie palaces that were built decades before. But the Civic Theatre is important—if only for its role in helping to catalyze the development of Downtown San Diego with the creation of the San Diego Concourse complex (a.k.a. Charles C. Dail Concourse, in honor of former Mayor Charles C. Dail, who served from 1955 to 1963).

The Concourse development also included a new City Hall, a convention center, and a parking garage—and the Civic Theatre was the last of the cluster of buildings to open and provide a a stage for civic gatherings.



The Civic Theatre does benefit from its association with the Bow Wave Fountain by Malcolm Leland— added to the Concourse in 1972 in conjunction with the Security Pacific Bank tower (which is technically outside the concourse boundaries). Constructed with a steel frame clad in layered sheets of copper, the sculpture evokes the bow of a ship cutting through the sea (even when the fountain's water feature isn't spraying properly).



Like the fountain, the Civic Theatre is owned by the City of San Diego—which has leased it to San Diego Theatres, a non-profit organization that manages it along with the Balboa Theatre (photo essay coming soon), through the year 2063.



But part of the leasing terms is that  $30 million worth of renovations have to break ground by the year 2023—and that's not going to come from ticket sales, especially when the rest of the 2020 season has been canceled, postponed, or otherwise rescheduled in light of the coronavirus pandemic. In 1966, the Civic Theatre raised $36,000+ to install a Bavarian crystal chandelier in the Grand Salon through contributions from community donors. What could they raise today?



It's unclear what those renovations might be—and whether they'll take place on the exterior plaza or will address the interior, which, like the exterior, was designed by the architectural trifecta of Ruocco, Kennedy and Rosser.



Lloyd Ruocco FAIA, widely considered the "Father of San Diego's Post-War Modern Architecture" (the "war," in this case, being WWII), collaborated with Selden B. Kennedy, Jr. and William Frederick Rosser to create the city-owned performing arts theatre at a cost of $4.1 million.



Architectural critics say that Ruocco "broke apart the box" with his curvilinear performance space and its oval façade.



Inside, the continental seating arrangement—with no center aisle—makes a big impression, especially when all 2967 seats (less so when the orchestra pit is being used) are full.



The appearance from afar is seamless—but a closer look at the armrests reveals where the rows have been stitched together.



On my tour, it struck me how huge—or, rather, deep— the stage is‚ from the proscenium line/apron to the upstage (back) wall.



Of course, it has to be in order to accommodate the Broadway touring companies and other stage productions that arrive ready to put on a show.



Backstage, there are also 64 sets of counter-weighted lines on steel guides and three sets on wire rope guides—installed by R.L. Grosh and Sons Scenic Studios, founded in 1932 on Sunset Boulevard in LA by scenic artist Robert Louis Grosh.

Grosh and Sons worked with all the Hollywood studios—MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount, United Artists, Universal, 20th Century Fox, RKO, and Columbia, especially for movie musicals. They even worked with Disneyland and the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel.

Today, 88 years later, Grosh—now in its fourth generation, operated by R.L.'s great-granddaughter— is still known for its scenic backdrops and stage draperies

So the Civic Theatre may be lacking the obvious cosmetic grandeur of the great movie palaces of Old Hollywood—but it's not without its ties.

Then again, in 1965, some of those theatres weren't yet 50 years old and had fallen out of favor as garish or even tacky.

Early Modernism was essentially a backlash against that over-the-top aesthetic. And now, 55 years later, we're still trying to figure out how to appreciate both—and how both can coexist, without being replaced by the next new thing.

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Photo Essay: A Pink Stucco Palace Overlooking the Pacific

I'd never noticed "The Pink Lady" before, with her Spanish-inspired architecture by Pasadena-based architect Reginald D. Johnson. Then again, whenever I'd been in La Jolla, it was usually down by the Cove.



La Valencia Hotel was opened opened by La Jollans MacArthur Gorton and Roy B. Wiltsie just before Christmas in 1926 as an apartment hotel,  "Los Apartmentos de Sevilla."



The San Diego-La Jolla Railway line used to run right in front of it—but back then, La Jolla wasn't much more than a suburb of San Diego. Tourists didn't stop there. They headed all the way down to the Hotel Del Coronado.



Two years later, an eight-story second unit—designed by Herbert Mann and Tom Shepherd—added hotel-style rooms. And with the addition of the tower that same year, the hotel's name changed to La Valencia. The Great Depression that followed ended up being too much for La Valencia's proprietors—but the tower proved useful as a lookout during WWII. The hotel became a temporary home for soldiers on leave or on their way overseas during the war.



New ownership of La Valencia acquired the neighboring Hotel Cabrillo (opened in 1909 as the Wilson-Acton Hotel) in 1956. (It was around that same time that the whole thing got painted pink.)



Designed by architect Irving Gill (and a landmark in its own right), it now serves as La Valencia's west wing.

We didn't know what we were looking for—or what we would see—when we arrived to La Valencia during San Diego's Open House weekend.



Fortunately, they let us go wherever we wanted.



We ended up in Cafe La Rue, on the Prospect Street level, with its 1940s murals by Wing Howard—an "artist in residence" at La Valencia in the most literal sense.



The Philadelphia artist provided his watercolors of French scenes (including that of the Bois de Boulogne) in exchange for room and board (and reportedly to pay off his bar tab). He repainted them in the 1970s after the originals had deteriorated.



The Whaling Bar, which replaced the street-level shops in 1953, is gone as of 2013—despite being one of Raymond Chandler's favorite watering holes and home to the favorite booth of local resident Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodor Seuss Geisel). (Its iconic namesake mural, “The Whale’s Last Stand,” has been chopped up into four pieces and relocated to a hotel conference room.)



The Sky Room (circa 1960s) on the 10th floor has been gone since 2015. And the elevator to get to it is no longer manual.



The interior design has changed, too...



...though thankfully the lighting fixtures are old, if not original...



...and the Spanish tile remains, too.



But as much as what's stayed the time, La Valencia is constantly evolving—with private villas having been added in 2000, after a dozen years' worth of planning.



Even the pool—which overlooks La Jolla Cove—wasn't built until 1950, when the lower three floors (4, 5, and 6) were constructed into the cliffside. (Floors 1, 2, and 3 don't exist.)



Out there, by the terraced gardens, with the Pacific Ocean in the background, is really the pièce de résistance of La Valencia.



That's where you'll find a tile mural of the Pink Lady's own mascot in traditional Spanish costume, wearing her mantilla over her peineta and waving her fan over her pink dress.



According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the 1928 tile portrait was contributed by tilemaker Ernest Batchelder, who also supposedly contributed a tile scene depicting Poseidon elsewhere in the hotel.

I have my doubts, but I've been unable to verify one way or another.

It should be easy enough to figure out, now that La Jolla isn't so hard to reach and attracts the attention of vacationers from Hollywood and all across the country.

Some might even say they started coming because of La Valencia.

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