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Best of 2000: Best Place To Contemplate Human Capacity For Ugliness

City Operations Building
1222 First Avenue, Downtown

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There is a tendency in modern buildings to look as though the concept models upon which they are based were constructed from Legos, a childlike blockiness and friendliness that lacks any air of substance and gravitas -- fun buildings, play buildings. That the new courthouse downtown should have such a look brings a smile to the face, but that smile quickly fades at the sight of what stands, or squats, behind the jail: the City Operations Building. Former city planner Mike Stepner once told a Reader reporter that the building -- a gray, slit-windowed square atop a tan solidified-lava-esque pedastal, as if the place had been vomited from hell itself -- was the original inspiration for the Orchids & Onions Architecture Awards here in San Diego. Something had to be said. The founders of the awards likened it to architecture inspired by Hitler's bunker. The place has a totalitarian, unapproachable air to it, an unattractive quality for a government building in a nation that is supposed to be a democracy. One begins to sympathize with government workers (a curious feeling), to wonder at the envy they must feel for the criminals next door, squirreled away in their cheerful confines.

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City Operations Building
1222 First Avenue, Downtown

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There is a tendency in modern buildings to look as though the concept models upon which they are based were constructed from Legos, a childlike blockiness and friendliness that lacks any air of substance and gravitas -- fun buildings, play buildings. That the new courthouse downtown should have such a look brings a smile to the face, but that smile quickly fades at the sight of what stands, or squats, behind the jail: the City Operations Building. Former city planner Mike Stepner once told a Reader reporter that the building -- a gray, slit-windowed square atop a tan solidified-lava-esque pedastal, as if the place had been vomited from hell itself -- was the original inspiration for the Orchids & Onions Architecture Awards here in San Diego. Something had to be said. The founders of the awards likened it to architecture inspired by Hitler's bunker. The place has a totalitarian, unapproachable air to it, an unattractive quality for a government building in a nation that is supposed to be a democracy. One begins to sympathize with government workers (a curious feeling), to wonder at the envy they must feel for the criminals next door, squirreled away in their cheerful confines.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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