Orchids, Onions: OMG

View the photo gallery: Orchids & Onions 2014

The Grand Orchid went to a UC San Diego biomedical research building, hailed as a "sustainable jewel box."

The Grand Onion went to 2,200-unit Casa Mira View apartments in Mira Mesa, derided as a "monster ... truly Wal-mart living."

Such went the raves and rants at the annual Orchids & Onions awards program Thursday, where the San Diego Architectural Foundation's jury took the temperature of San Diego's built environment.

There were 12 Orchids, six Onions and two "Planted Bulbs" that could go either way, depending on how things turn out.

Only one Onion winner was brave enough to mount the stage at the San Diego Air & Space Museum and accept the embarrassment.

The project was oversized street signs warning motorists not to park oversized vehicles on the street -- and the judgment came from an online vote by the public for the People's Choice Onion.

"So we made a mistake," said Linda Marabian, deputy director for city traffic engineering.

She explained that the sign had to be 30 by 36 inches to contain all the words necessary for the police to use in citing illegal parking. The jury commented that the signs are "comically enormous eyesores" and that "bigger is not always better."

For the five other Onions, comedian and event mistress of ceremonies Lauren O'Brien accepted the "honors" and added her own jibes. She opened the two-hour presentation with an acknowledgement that she didn't know much about it.

"When I was asked to go to Orchids & Onions, I though I was going to attend a new craft brewery," she said.

Of course, the program long predates San Diego's obsession with beer.

Begun in the mid-1970s, the program is the only one of its kind in California, if not the nation, that lauds the best and shakes its finger at the worst examples of architecture, landscape architecture, planning and other facets of the cities we build and inhabit.

And as in past years, the jury got its dander up when it came to the Onions, using zingers like "bizarrely creepy," "Frankenstein" and "pure crap."

On the Orchid side, recipients exuded pride. Arne Holt, accepting for the parklet built in front of his Caffe Calabria in North Park, said he wanted to make San Diego like Italy, with sidewalk cafes and people places available as possible.

"Keep 'em coming, all over San Diego," he said, after saying he was off to Italy for another to soak up the cafe culture.

Supervisor Ron Roberts accepted an Orchid for the county's five-month-old waterfront park on Pacific Highway and said its immediate success, especially on hot days when visitors flock to its interactive fountains, led the Board of Supervisors to install more restrooms and tables and chairs. An architect himself, Roberts previously had accepted an Onion for another county project.

"I love hot dogs and onions are the best thing in the world," he said. "It's far better to be up here for an Orchid."

Program cochairman Craig Howard said the eight-member jury of industry professionals found a theme among the winners and losers that more, well-designed public space is needed.

"There was a willingness to put more exposure and reward projects' public space," he said.

At the same time, as less building land leads to denser development, some of the big apartment projects came up short.

"There's a right way to design development and a wrong way," Howard said. "The jury is pointing the finger at two or three projects on the side of absolutely the wrong way to do it."

One of the jurors, Matt Johnson, an architect at Webcor Builders who was chosen to represent the public on the panel, said he spent about 19 hours over several days reviewing nearly 140 nominations from the public.

In only two cases, he said, did representatives of Onion nominations meet the jury on its day-long tour and then persuaded the panel not to put them on the stinker list. All nominations were posted on the program's website, along with public comments and counter-comments.

But he said the jury wasn't necessarily focusing on the winners and losers individually as much as drawing lessons for designers and developers of the future.

"San Diego is 'America's Finest City' but sometimes it's just fine," Johnson said. "We've got to take that and make it great."