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11 Most Endangered
San Diego Arts & Warehouse District
Year Listed: 1999
Location: San Diego , California
Current Status: Favorable
Threat: Development
Significance
Searching for a site for a new stadium for the Padres baseball team, the City of San Diego wisely chose a downtown location near the lively Gaslamp Quarter Historic District. Ironically, that decision could lead to the destruction of another historic area that is undergoing renewal: the warehouse district known as the East Village. Long an urban backwater, the East Village in recent years has seen dramatic reinvestment as an influx of new residents has created loft apartments, design-related businesses and art galleries in the historic buildings that recall the area's past as the city's produce district. Tragically, many of these buildings would have to be demolished to allow construction of the proposed Padres ballpark and a new diagonal street that would improve access to the stadium.
Updates
In 1999, the park developer, the San Diego Padres, the City of San Diego, the National Trust, and Save Our Heritage Organisation, San Diego (SOHO) executed the Ballpark Warehouse agreement. The agreement stipulated establishing a Preservation Advisory Group to monitor treatment of the historic structures surrounding the proposed ball park site. The Padres development and design team demonstrated a creative commitment to the preservation and restoration challenges resulting from construction of the new downtown ballpark. Among the agreement’s innovative solutions were incorporating the 1909 Western Metal Supply Building into the new PETCO Park - a national first – retrofitting the building to accommodate suites, a restaurant, a team store, and rooftop bleachers. Equally impressive was the relocation of the 30,000 square-foot, brick Showley Brothers Candy Factory built in 1924. The Padres’ new PETCO Stadium opened in 2004. SOHO awarded the San Diego Padres its Developer of the Year award the same year and the California Preservation Foundation gave the rehabilitation of the Western Metal Supply Building a Preservation Design Award in 2006. The final stipulation in the Ballpark Warehouse agreement, designation of the San Diego Arts & Warehouse National Register Historic District, is still ongoing.
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