The San Diego County Administration Center is a historic Beaux-Arts/

Spanish Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In th ...

-style building in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It houses the offices of the Government of San Diego County. It was completed in 1938 and was primarily funded by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. It was previously known as the San Diego Civic Center and as the City and County Administration Building. Because of its notable architecture and its location fronting

San Diego Bay San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port located in San Diego County, California near the U.S.–Mexico border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of c ...

, it is nicknamed the Jewel on the Bay. Architects were Samuel Wood Hamill,

William Templeton Johnson William Templeton Johnson (1877 – 1957) was a notable San Diego architect. He was a fellow to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1939. Johnson is known for his Spanish Revival buildings, all in San Diego unless otherwise noted: * L ...

Richard Requa Richard Smith Requa (March 27, 1881 – June 10, 1941) was an American architect, largely known for his work in San Diego, California. Requa was the Master Architect for the California Pacific International Exposition held in Balboa Park in 1935� ...

and

Louis John Gill Louis John Gill (May 9, 1885 – August 19, 1969) was a San Diego-based architect and the nephew and one-time business partner of another famous San Diego architect, Irving Gill. The San Diego Historical Society calls Louis Gill "one of San Dieg ...

. The building used innovative construction techniques to guard against earthquakes, and the project was considered to be "a prototype of American civic center architecture".''Bridging the Centuries'', San Diego County Government website
/ref>
/ref> The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on May 16, 1988.

History

In order to consolidate city and county government offices which were scattered across downtown San Diego, city planner John Nolen was engaged to plan a civic center. Voters rejected the first draft plan (1908) which would have placed the civic center downtown. In 1926 Nolen completed a plan which placed the civic center on newly dredged tidelands. This plan was approved in a March 1927 election. There was considerable opposition to building on the tidelands, in part because it was felt such a building would be unstable in an earthquake, but it was stabilized by 30-foot-long steel pilings driven in the ground and other measures. Some of the steel pilings were alternated in a manner designed to bear lateral stress; this was a novel design and was considered to be "on the cutting edge of engineering developments." Engineering issues and the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

delayed the start of construction until 1935, when $1 million of

funds were assigned to the project (combined with $750,000 of local funds). President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

dedicated the building on July 16, 1938 before a crowd estimated as 25,000 people. In 1964 the city moved its offices to a new downtown Community Concourse, and since then the building has held county offices only. Today many county offices are housed in a County Operations Center at 5500-5600 Overland Avenue, and the county maintains several branch offices to serve the public. The historic County Administration Center is still the home of the Board of Supervisors, the Chief Administrative Officer, the Assessor, the County Clerk, the Treasurer/Tax Collector, and many forms of public records. In 2014 a waterfront park was opened on the former site of the building's parking lots.

Architecture

The design was intended to complement structures in Balboa Park, a mix of

and

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

. Southwestern touches include "a red Mission tile roof, glazed Franciscan inlaid pottery tile, and arched door and window openings." The design of the central office tower included so-called P.W.A. Moderne. The structure also features the detail of Zigzag moderne through the use of a large amount of ornamentation, "recessed windows in vertical patterns," and "smooth-surfaced columns." The county's art collection shown inside the building includes works by Charles Reiffel, Charles Fries, and a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Donald Armand Luscomb.

Artwork

A sculpture fountain, ''

Guardian of Water ''Guardian of Water'' is a 1939 fountain and sculpture by Donal Hord, installed outside the San Diego County Administration Center, in the U.S. state of California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located alo ...

'' (1939), by

Donal Hord Donal Hord (February 26, 1902 – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin. Early life In 1914, Hord and his mother moved west, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly thereafter he contracted rheumatic fever, a ...

, stands on the harbor side of the building. Murals inside the building are by Arthur Ames and Jean Goodwin; they are painted with

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

, a popular water medium used in Italy in the 13th-15th centuries.

Waterfront Park

In May 2014, the County Administration Center Waterfront Park opened on both the north and south sides of the building, formerly surface parking lots. The Waterfront Park, more than a decade in the making, contains open grassy areas, gardens planted with drought-tolerant flowers on the north side, and picnic areas, a playground with colorful swings and slides, and an interactive water fountain on the south side."New Waterfront Park Opens to Public", ''NBC7'' San Diego, May 12, 2014
/ref>

Gallery

San Diego County Administration Center 2.jpg, Detail of west entrance San Diego County Administration Center 1.jpg, Closeup of headstone on mosaic, west entrance San Diego City and County Administration Building.jpg, County Building, west facade San Diego Civic Center 2.jpg, County Building, seen from across Harbor Drive Waterfront Park, San Diego County Administration Center 1.jpg, Fountains, Waterfront Park Waterfront Park, San Diego County Administration Center 2.jpg, Playground, Waterfront Park San Diego Port Authority building (49464379223).jpg, Building lit in

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

shortly after the

death of Kobe Bryant On January 26, 2020, a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crashed in the city of Calabasas, California, around northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, while en route from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport. All nine people on board were killed: retire ...

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Country Administration Center Government buildings completed in 1938 Parks in San Diego National Register of Historic Places in San Diego 1930s architecture in the United States Beaux-Arts architecture in California Mission Revival architecture in California Moderne architecture in California PWA Moderne architecture in California Spanish Revival architecture in California Streamline Moderne architecture in California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California County government buildings in California