The project includes a five-acre rooftop park, a truck tunnel for
exhibitors and a 500-room hotel to be built on top of a nearby parking
garage. The San Diego Tribune reports that architect Curtis Fentress was
appointed by the convention center board. The design would make San
Diego's expanded 750,000-square-foot exhibit hall the largest on the
west coast, big enough to accommodate the ever-growing annual Comic-Con
and other conventions. The 80,000 square foot ballroom will be the
largest ballroom in a convention facility on the West Coast.
"Fentress'
design for the Convention Center builds on the success of our iconic
facility by embracing the waterfront location with a new, 5-acre rooftop
park while delivering an expanded facility that will help drive our
regional economy, generate jobs and build on our reputation as a
world-class convention and meeting destination," said San Diego Mayor
Jerry Sanders in a statement. "The Convention Center continues to be one
of San Diego's strongest assets driving jobs, tax revenues and economic
benefits, all of which will significantly increase when the building
expands, and Fentress' design will take us there."
The
3.5-million-square-foot facility will have green features including
gray-water processing and photovoltaic cells. The project seeks to earn a
"LEED Gold" rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. It sounds
great but the question of financing is a perennial problem. It's not
clear yet how it will be paid for, although the new design is cheaper
than earlier plans. The expansion plans will undergo an an environmental
review and if approved construction could begin in 2013.