Downtown/Midtown San Diego

Site Name: Soloman Apartments
Architect: Henry H. Hester
Year Designed/Built: 1959
Address: 3200 6th Avenue
Comments: Each of the apartment floorplans are individual adding variety to exterior elements. Distinguishable block-like balconies become outside rooms enhancing privacy from neighboring tenants.

Site Name: Crabtree Building
Architect: Deems, Martin & Associates
Year Designed/Built: 1962
Address: 303 “A”
Comments: Light, fragile, floating Miesian box; its delicacy makes this a classic product of the 60s. The pre-stressed flat concrete floors cantilever from four central columns giving the building appearance of floating.

Site Name: Tucker, Sadler & Associates Office
Architect: Hal Sadler
Year Designed/Built: 1962
Address: 2411 Second Avenue
Comments: Still the firm’s office after 36 years. Reflects a Case Study House program influence.

Site Name: Rubin, Seltzer & Solomon Building
Architect: Deems-Lewis-Martin & Associates
Year Designed/Built: 1964
Address: 3003 4th Avenue
Comments: Detached Miesian box of offices floats above its garage structure. The block is suspended over its site, with light, highly refined details.

Site Name: Lightner & Hilmen Building
Architect: Mosher and Drew
Year Designed/Built: 1967
Address: 3104 4th Ave.
Comments: Quiet refined solution to problems of locating an office building on a busy street in a residential area. Reception/conference areas are screened from the street with canyons and the San Diego Harbor to the West.

Site Name: The Design Center
Architect: Lloyd Pietrantonio Ruocco (d. 1981)
Year Designed/Built: 1950
Address: 3611 5th Avenue
Comments: A glass box in the pure Miesian tradition, but much lighter than one finds in the work of the master. This quality of lightness is accentuated by delicate extended sun trellises and sheltering fences. Integrates interior/exterior landscaped space by use of glass and open planning. Nestled amidst a canyon of eucalyptus trees, wooded walks, steps, and trellises structures, each glass-enclosed office becomes a tree house barely distinguishable from its neighbor by sliding glass panels that roll open to fresh air and sunlight. Ruocco would go on to inspire other great San Diego architects Home Delawie, Paul McKim and Russell Forester (the latter of which will be profiled in Mid-Century San Diego Part Two, the two met in 1942 while both were Navy ship draftsmen).

Site Name: Union Bank Building
Architect: Langdon & Wilson
Year Designed/Built: 1968
Address: 525 B St

Site Name: First National Bank Building
Architect: Tucker, Sadler & Bennett
Year Designed/Built: 1966
Address: 530 B St

Site Name: Main Post Office
Architect: William Templeton Johnson
Year Designed/Built: 1936
Address: 815 E St

Site Name: County Administration Building
Architect: William Templeton Johnson
Year Designed/Built: 1936
Address: 1600 Pacific Coast Highway

Site Name: LKR Medical Building
Architect: Deems Lewis Martin
Year Designed/Built: 1967
Address: 3260 3rd Ave.

Site Name: US National Bank
Architect: Ervin, Raymond
Year Designed/Built: 1963
Address: 190 Broadway

Site Name: Hallmark Building
Architect: Hope, Frank L. & Associates
Year Designed/Built: 1962
Address: 6th & Cedar

Site Name: Home Savings Tower
Architect: Hope, Frank L. & Associates
Year Designed/Built: 1962
Address: 707 Broadway

Site Name: Kaplan, H.R.
Architect: Richards, Sim Bruce
Year Designed/Built: 1954
Address: 905 Fifth Avenue

Site Name: County Admin Bldg.
Architect: Detailing by Lloyd Ruocco
Year Designed/Built: 1933
Address: 1600 Pacific Coast Highway

Site Name: San Diego Civic Theater
Architect: Ruocco, Lloyd
Year Designed/Built: 1965
Address: 1100 Third Avenue

Site Name: City Concourse Plaza
Architect: Ruocco, Lloyd
Year Designed/Built: 1964
Address: Front Street

Site Name: Mills Office Building
Architect: Ruocco, Lloyd
Year Designed/Built: 1964
Address: 4th & Nutmeg

Site Name: Parking Garage
Architect: Tucker, Sadler & Bennett
Year Designed/Built: 1965
Address: Centre City Concourse

Site Name: San Diego Gas & Electric
Architect: Wheeler, Richard
Year Designed/Built: 1968
Address: 101 Ash

Site Name: Mr. A's Building
Architect: Jim Bird
Year Designed/Built:
Address: 2550 Fifth Avenue

Site Name: Burnham Office Building
Architect: Frank L. Hope & Associates
Year Designed/Built: 1962
Address: 1555 6th Avenue

Site Name: Anthony's Fish Grotto
Architect: Liebhardt & Weston
Year Designed/Built: 1965
Address: 1360 N. Harbor Drive

Site Name: Crest Importing Co.
Architect: Scholl & Geritz
Year Designed/Built: 1965
Address: 2643 Fourth Avenue

Site Name: Dr. Phillip Allen Office
Architect: Richard Wheeler
Year Designed/Built:
Address: Sixth & Ivy

Site Name: Shearson-Hammill Building
Architect: Richard Wheeler
Year Designed/Built:
Address: NE corner of 6th & A

Site Name: Watts Office Building
Architect: Lloyd Ruocco
Year Designed/Built: 1964
Address: 2970 Main Street

Site Name: California Steel Building
Architect: Lloyd Ruocco
Year Designed/Built: 1965
Address: Main Street


Salomon Apartments, 1959


Crabtree Building (1962)


Rubin, Seltzer, Soloman Bldg. (1964)


San Diego Gas & Electric (1967)


Benbough Professional Building


Benbough Medical Building