Current Projects

 

Gazebo and Trellis

In partnership with the Port of San Diego and Point Rotary Club, this artist-designed shade pavilion and community gathering place is a community driven effort to replace the now demolished Rotary Pavilion once located near the roundabout on Shelter Island Drive. The sculptural gazebo designed by James Hubbell and constructed in collaboration with Gar-Kev Builders is built of sprayed concrete with mosaic tile detailing, and adjacent trellis is made with poured-in-place concrete columns, heavy timber beams, and wrought-iron ornamentation.

The project’s primary goal is to create a beautiful gathering site for the Shelter Island community and for visitors to this spectacular bay front location. Other goals for the Phase II of the project include development of the surrounding space to accommodate future donations of sculptures, plaques, and benches, engraved tiles, pathways and landscaping elements offered by the community.

We envision this project as part of a larger outdoor sculpture gallery that includes the Pacific Portal on the east end and the existing Pearl of the Pacific park on the west end, linked together by a walkway featuring future gifts of sculpture and art given to San Diego by our international friends and sister cities.

We truly believe this small park--offering beautiful gathering places, shady resting spots, and a promenade where visitors can stroll the length of Shelter Island and enjoy an intimate exploration of art along the harbor--will become a landmark for San Diego.

Many thanks to the team that made Phase I of this project possible, including:

Port of San Diego; Point Loma Rotary; James Hubbell Studio; Hubbell & Hubbell Architects; Gar-Kev Builders - General Contractor; Burkett & Wong - Structural Engineering; A Rover Electric - Electrical Engineering; California's Own Native Landscaping & Paul Maschka - Landscape Design; North County Gunite; TC Welding & Engineering; and Arizona Tile.

 

Coronado City Hall and Community Center Fountain

This art piece and sculptural element is designed to connect the City Hall building and the Community Center building. This particular space will be a place of celebration and of meeting. The activities of both the government and of the citizens will have a place for celebration. It will be placed in the formal entrance to the Glorietta Bay Project. It will be the focal point of both the theater and Glorietta Bay. The sculpture’s form reiterates the sense of understated coast line of both the bay and the ocean.

 

 

Earth Discovery Institute, Crestridge Ecological Preserve

The Crestridge Ecological Preserve is a 2600 acre parcel of land to the south of Interstate 8, in the town of Crest, near El Cajon, California. The land is largely coastal sage scrub habitat and home to more than fifty sensitive and protected species of plants and animals. The land has been rescued from development and preserved through the tremendous efforts of the citizen group The Endangered Habitats League, the Back County Land Trust, the California Department of Fish & Game, and others. The California Department of Fish & Game, who now owns the land, has agreed to lease a part of it to the Back County Land Trust for the creation of the Earth Discovery Institute.

The Earth Discovery Institute is an educational program and facility being developed at the Crestridge Ecological Preserve to give students from nearby Granite Hills High School (and eventually other schools) a place to learn about the natural world outside of a classroom. Creative Writing, Art, Social Studies and Biology students will have an opportunity to use Crestridge and its plant and wildlife as their subject for creative, historic, geographic, and scientific studies. With funding from the Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) grant, the High School is creating the EAST lab, a state of the art facility that will be housed at Granite Hills High. Each semester, twenty-eight students will have an opportunity to work in the field at Crestridge, bring back data to the lab, and work on creative problem solving techniques and develop transferable technical skills that will serve them in further studies, work experience and life. The project- based curriculum will allow students to design their own project which can range from literature, art, history, architecture to permaculture and community gardening.

Hubbell and Hubbell Architects have been brought into this partnership to design and build the two structures that will be a part of the Earth Discovery Institute. The first structure, the Bridge to Nature, will be a gateway to the land, the bridge between the human world and the natural world. The second building is the Field Station. This building will incorporate sustainable design principles and it will be a place for the administrative and educational aspects of the Institute.

The Urban Corp of San Diego will be involved in green construction of the buildings and habitat restoration on the Crestridge site. The Urban Corp team will be taught to identify plant and animal species, trained in green building construction, taught conservation designs and technologies that are applicable to their homes and communities, and will prepare an oral history and pre-history of the site. They will also assist with surveying and mapping, and will work with the general contractor on construction.

www.earthdiscovery.org

 

The Earth Discovery Institute project is a collaboration between many diverse groups and individuals includings

The California Department of Fish & Game
Back County Land Trust
The Urban Corp of San Diego
Granite Hills High School
Hubbell & Hubbell Architects
Project Coordinator, Michael Beck

 

Other groups and individuals also involved with the development of the Earth Discovery Institute include

The Wildlife Conservation Board
The County of San Diego
The Conservation Biological Institute
County Supervisor, Dianne Jacobs
Ecological Life Systems
The Nature Conservancy
The California Wildlife Foundation
The California Department of Forestry
The Endangered Habitat League
Archeologist, Susan Hector
Kumeyaay, Larry Banegas

 

Lakeside River Park

The San Diego River Park- Lakeside Conservancy, a non-profit group, is in the process of developing plans for a river park along the Lakeside section of the San Diego River. These plans include the establishment of a Nature and Cultural Center at Riverside Drive and Channel Road. The land for the cultural center will be donated by Hanson Aggregates, Inc. Hubbell & Hubbell Architects has collaborated with landscape architects Schmidt Design Group to create a preliminary design for the park.

www.lakesideriverpark.org

Entry Monument

Lakeside's River Park Conservancy completed the first on-the-ground project with the help of artist James T. Hubbell. In a beautiful combination of organic, natural materials, the Hubbell Monument acts as the future gateway into Lakeside's River Park. Located on Channel Road and Lakeside Avenue, the monument depicts a great egret with wings spread overlooking a mosaic stream of fish created by Lakeside's schoolchildren. The egret is surrounded by large natural boulders and is beautifully lit at night by solar energy. (excerpted from www.lakesideriverpark.org)

Other elements to be incorporated into the Lakeside River Park include:

-A complex of ball fields where tournaments and other programs encouraging youth sports will be hosted.

-Creating a Heritage Park for displaced historical homes of Eastern San Diego County.

-Establishment of a trail system for passive recreation such as birding and hiking.

-Purchasing, restoring and linking over 100 acres of river habitat to a viable wildlife corridor to the east and west of the project area.

-Building an assisted care facility for the elderly to be located in such a way that residents can freely access the river trail and watch children at play on the ball fields.

-Developing a water quality and pollution control strategy.

Board of Directors:

Chair- Michael Beck, Vice Chair- Bruce Robertson, Secretary / Treasurer- Robert Hutsel, Jo Ann Anderson, Thomas DiBenedetto, Carol Leighty, Betty McMillen, Gordon Shackelford

 

The Friends Center, San Diego, California

The Friends Center, a center for peace, social justice and spiritual growth, will be an energy-efficient building featuring a steel post-and-beam structure with straw bale walls, as well as solar power, passive solar design, water recycling and other energy-efficient components. This project is the result of collaboration among members of the First Church of the Brethren, the San Diego Friends Meeting (Quakers), the Peace Resource Center of San Diego and the American Friends Service Committee U.S.-Mexico Border Program. It will be the first permitted straw bale building to be constructed in central city San Diego.

Visually, the building’s design was inspired by Spanish courtyard homes and Midwestern grain silos. Located at 3850 Westgate Place, San Diego, 92105, the project was developed and designed as a showcase “green” building. As such, it will demonstrate commitment to wise stewardship of natural resources and function as a model for architects, builders and other construction professionals, as well as members of the general public who are interested in living lightly on the planet. Besides being a demonstration model of earth-friendly values for now and for our future, the building demonstrates how advocates of peace and justice can collaborate to share resources and space.

The process of creating this special building includes plenty of room for volunteers of all sorts to contribute to a permanent center for San Diego that will promote peace, social justice, spiritual growth and a sustainable environment.

TO DONATE skilled/unskilled labor, equipment or building materials, please call Hal Brody at 619-222-3825.

TO VOLUNTEER for support work and administrative tasks, or for general questions, please contact the Peace Resource Center at 619 263-9301.

The Friends Center, San Diego, California
3850 Westgate Place
San Diego, CA 92105
619-549-3826

http://www.sdfriendscenter.org/