The San Diego International Sports Arena, built in 1966 and slated for demolition in a redevelopment plan, is notable for its contribution to the region's economic growth after World War II, its association with local sports industry luminaries, and its new It has historical significance in terms of formalism. architectural style.
The decision was made by cultural resource management firm ASM Affiliates in an April report prepared as part of the City of San Diego's environmental review of the Midway Uplift Special Plan.
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The development plan aims to redo city-owned property at 3220, 3240, 3250 and 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard. There are thousands of apartments, a public plaza and promenade with shops and restaurants, park space, and an all-new 16,000-seat arena.
On Thursday, San Diego City Planning Department staff will ask the city's Historic Resources Commission to formally designate the 58-year-old sports arena as a historic resource. City planners recommended the designation, according to a staff report prepared for the meeting.
The legislation is expected to complicate developers' plans to replace the oval concrete venue with a modern entertainment venue. However, the designation does not prevent demolition, and the resource report states that the developer intends to include interpretive exhibits in the new venue to communicate the arena's importance.
“During any redevelopment process, it is standard and best practice that the City's Historic Resources Commission evaluate all buildings over 45 years old for potential historic designation.” Midway Rising's Project said Shelby Jordan, director and sports industry executive. and Entertainment Facility Operator Legend.
“The Midway Rising team has prepared a technical report as part of an ongoing (environmental) analysis, working with the city’s Historic Resources Commission and city staff to build sports within the largest affordable housing complex. We look forward to thoughtfully preserving the arena's rich history as a development in California history. ”
In September 2022, San Diego City Council members selected Midway Rising to lease and redo the city's sports arena real estate. The development team consists of Zephyr, a market-rate housing developer, Chelsea Investment Corp., an affordable home builder, and Legends. The Kroenke Group, a subsidiary of billionaire Stan Kroenke's real estate company, is the company's lead investor and limited partner.
According to a report documenting its historical significance, the sports arena represents the New Formalist architectural style. The venue exhibits features consistent with its style, including monumental scale, rigorous symmetry and formality, smooth exterior surfaces, repeating full-height columns, decorative concrete, raised platforms, and open plazas at ground level. I am.
(From Christian Carreon/San Diego Union-Tribune)
The project calls for 4,250 residential units, a 16,000-seat replacement arena, 130,000 square feet of commercial space, and an unspecified number of parks, plazas and public spaces.
In December, the city began an environmental review process required by the California Environmental Quality Act to examine the impacts of the project and additional development planned on three private lands adjacent to the site. This review is a preliminary step between the city and the developer finalizing a development agreement for the land. The environmental impact report is expected to be completed by the end of the year and will need to be certified by the city council.
As part of the process, ASM Affiliates evaluated the existing sports arena, now known as Pechanga Arena, to determine its eligibility for national, state, and local historic property listings. A 114-page Historic Resources Technical Report determined that the arena is eligible for all three registers based on its association with significant periods, connections to important figures, and its association with admired architectural styles. did.
The San Diego International Sports Arena, which opened in November 1966, was built on city-owned land acquired from the federal government. Records show that the arena replaced frontier housing projects and temporary housing built to house World War II workers.
The concrete-walled, flat-roofed facility was built by Trepte Construction Company. The venue was designed in the New Formalist architectural style by Trepte's in-house architect, Victor Meyer. Meyer favored the use of concrete and specialized in designing large buildings with symmetry and repeating patterns, his technical report said.
Former San Diego State University head football coach Robert Breitbard is credited with making the arena's construction possible and helping privately finance the $6.5 million venue. He was the owner of the San Diego Gulls until selling the team in 1974. Breitbird also founded the San Diego Rockets, a franchise in the National Basketball Association that played in the arena from 1967 until 1971.
According to the technical report, the facility represents the development of recreation and entertainment after World War II. The construction marked the biggest postwar change for the Midway-Pacific Highway community and ushered in a new era of commercial and industrial growth, the report said.
“Construction of the arena represents a period of growth for San Diego as a whole and a move to expand the city's economic enterprise into new industries,” the filing states. “Sports arenas were the most important catalyst in the transformation of the Midway area from a World War II residential area into a vibrant entertainment and commercial center. It was San Diego's first modern stadium/arena. and one of the major entertainment venues.”
The authors of the technical report and city planners argue that the arena is also historic for its association with Breitbird, a locally significant figure in San Diego sports history.
“Soccer coach and businessman Robert Breitbard was instrumental in initiating and funding construction of the International Sports Arena,” a staff report from the city's Historic Resources Commission states.
Additionally, this purposefully impressive venue epitomizes the New Formalist architectural style, which combines modernist and classicist styles.
“Sports arenas are characterized by their monumental scale, rigorous symmetry and formality, flat roofs, smooth exterior surfaces, repeating full-height columns, decorative concrete, raised platforms, ground-level open plazas and integrated parking. It exhibits many characteristics of this style, including the garage,” the technical report says. “This style is most commonly applied to commercial and civic buildings, and the sports arena is one of the few remaining examples of the style applied to stadiums and arenas not only in San Diego, but throughout California and the nation. is.”
The 48-acre sports arena site in the Midway neighborhood is surrounded by Interstate 8, the San Diego River, mountain peaks and commercial development. Development team Midway Rising is reimagining city-owned sites at 3220, 3240, 3250 and 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard. There are thousands of apartments, a public plaza and promenade lined with shops and restaurants, park space, and his all-new 16,000-seat arena.
(KC Alfred/San Diego Union Tribune)
ASM Affiliates also said in its report that Midway Rising's proposed demolition of the venue would “result in the loss of historic resources.” Recommended mitigation measures should be taken to reduce the impact. However, the impact cannot be reduced to an insignificant level. ”
Mitigation is a technical term used in environmental analysis to identify a developer's legal obligation to offset a project's environmental impacts.
The historic resource mitigation recommended in this document requires developers to thoroughly document the property using historic photographs and original architectural plans according to established standards. Midway Rising also requires installing publicly accessible interpretive exhibits in the new arena, designed with the help of historians.
The local preservation group Save Our Heritage Organization does not take a position on saving the building, executive director Bruce Coons told the Union-Tribune. The group has previously sued, in some cases successfully, to prevent buildings from being demolished.
“Sports arenas are definitely historic and need to be recognized and documented as such. It's a very important part of our cultural heritage,” Koons said. “We supported several competing (sports arena) proposals that would be renovated and adaptively reused as part of the project.”
Koons, who saw Jimi Hendrix and the Doors in concert at the arena, said the venue played an important role in his life.
“I also drove the likes of Alice Cooper and Bob Hope around in classic cars and parked them behind the stage to watch concerts and attend parties,” he said. “It would be sad to see it go.”
Efforts to preserve large, historically significant sports venues through paper alone are not without precedent locally.
The environmental measures prepared for San Diego State's Mission Valley campus project followed similar mitigation measures and reached similar conclusions for the since-demolished football stadium in Mission Valley.
The stadium, known as SDCCU Stadium, was also historically significant and eligible for local, state and national registration, according to a historical documentation technical report prepared at the time. The university compiled documents and installed interpretive exhibits, including a Jack Murphy statue and medals, which are now on display at the newly constructed Snapdragon Stadium. The school also used concrete from the old stadium to pave parks and picnic areas.
