Surfer sculpture, Cottonwood Creek, Stone Bistro among Orchids, Onions awards

By: GARY WARTH - North County Times | Saturday, December 1, 2007 10:16 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO - Encinitas was 1-1 at this year's Orchids and Onions awards ceremony, while Stone Brewery in Escondido proved to be the people's favorite design of 2007.

North County surfers who have for the last year ridiculed the Cardiff sculpture "The Magic Carpet Ride" can feel some justification in knowing that the voting members of the San Diego Architectural Foundation agreed with them. The foundation handed the sculpture an Onion at Friday night's ceremonies at the Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theater in San Diego.

Judges found Encinitas more on the mark with its design for Cottonwood Creek Park, which earned the city an Orchid.

The nonprofit architectural foundation each year recognizes designs in landscaping, historical preservation, sustainability and other categories with either an Orchid for praiseworthy work or an Onion for unimaginative, uninspired or just plan ugly creations.

As usual, most of the Onion recipients did not attend to pick up their awards. In presenting an Onion for "The Magic Carpet Ride," the evening's host announced it would be picked up by "Anna Nominous."

The surfer sculpture was described as being met with "waves of criticism."

"The Magic Carpet Ride," created by Mount San Jacinto College professor Matthew Antichevich, sits at Chesterfield Drive and South Coast Highway 101. The bronze sculpture depicts a young surfer with outstretched arms. Flesh-and-blood surfers have criticized the pose as unrealistic and effeminate, and one anonymous critic expressed that sentiment by dressing the sculpture in a bikini earlier this year.

Encinitas fared better by earning an Orchid in the landscape architecture-sustainability category for Cottonwood Creek Park at 95 N. Vulcan Ave.

Glen Schmidt of Schmidt Design Group accepted the award and thanked the city of Encinitas for daring to turn the flow from an 8-foot-wide pipe into a open creek through a park with tennis courts, a rock-climbing wall and a playground.

The San Diego Architectural Foundation this year created a people's award based on online votes. Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens earned the people's Orchid award for what was described as ìA bold symphony of concrete, stone and steel. A destination very much in tune with Southern California living.î

The bistro and gardens were designed by McArdle Associates and David Robinson Design. Stone CEO Greg Koch accepted the award.

"The world is now safe for great beer, and the world is safe for great architecture," Koch said.

The people's Onion award went to Thurgood Marshall Middle School in San Diego, which judges said represented "the worst of everything - from site planning to banal architecture to the lack of light and air in the classrooms.

Judges also awarded both an Onion and Orchid to the Black Mountain Ranch development and its showcase Del Sur Ranch House at 15455 Paseo del Sur.

While the ranch house earned an Orchid for its use of natural materials and landscaping, the housing development itself was given an Onion for being unsustainable.

The Grand Orchid was award to Aztec Green, the San Diego State University Transit Center, while the Grand Onion was given to the Interstate 5/805 merge. Judges blasted the expansion project as being shortsighted and trying to solve transit problems by merely building more lanes.

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