San Diego, California, USA

Designed by Los Angeles-based architects RCH Studios (formerly Rios Clementi Hale) and EYRC Architects with RDC as the architect of record and developers Stockdale Capital Partners, the former Horton Plaza Mall will be retrofitted into a new office campus in downtown San Diego.

The new Campus at Horton will include 700,000 square feet of sustainably-driven creative office space and 300,000 square feet of retail, with an abundance of onsite amenities focused on food and beverage, health and wellness and arts and entertainment.

Stockdale Capital Partners purchased Horton Plaza, a once-vibrant downtown mall, in 2018 with the intention of transforming the post-modern buildings into a life science destination.

“With all major entitlement hurdles behind us and this financing now secure, we look forward to completing our redevelopment and revitalizing this incredible asset,” states Daniel Michaels, managing director at Los Angeles-based Stockdale Capital Partners.

Sustainability efforts will be of the highest priority, with features set to include high-performance facades to improve energy performance while providing an abundance of natural light; solar panels on most roof surfaces across the property’s 10 acres, with battery storage for electricity generated; the first private blackwater system in San Diego, which will reduce the water footprint of the project by 50 percent, and a design that will be carbon neutral.

“The Campus at Horton will be the pinnacle of mixed-use campuses in Downtown and the exemplification of what’s possible when innovative office design meets access to leading food, beverage, health and wellness offerings, said Steven Yari, managing director at Stockdale Capital Partners.

“We’re creating what we believe is the best product of its kind in San Diego—a place that will be a hub for thousands of high-tech jobs from all across California and for San Diegans to enjoy and experience.

Some, however, have taken issue with the rush to change Jerde’s postmodern mall, which local preservations, including the Save Our Heritage Organization, see as a historic, post-modern landmark.

“I’m aware that the postmodern style is not in fashion,” said David Marshall, chair of AIA San Diego’s preservation committee.

“Victorian houses were out of fashion in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, and many were demolished.”

“Today, they are appreciated. It’s a matter of these buildings surviving those times when they’re not in fashion.”

The preservationist group Docomomo mounted a campaign to protect Horton Plaza, urging San Diego’s Historical Resources Board to consider it within the context of other treasured local buildings from the same era, like the Salk Institute and Geisel Library.

Architects: RCH Studios and EYRC Architects
Architects of Record: RDC
Developer: Stockdale Capital Partners