Pond 20 - OTI University, Imperial Beach Area - Why this Building

This blog immediately follow the blog titled “Pond 20 Options – World Class OCEAN TECH INSTITUTE 4-year University for IB Area”

Back in about 1987, when the City of IB was facing bankruptcy, I decided to formalize an idea that I thought could greatly improve the future of our city.  The concept was for the IB Area to pursue the development of a 4-year Institute of Higher Education.

I wanted to write this blog to share with you how the building design described in my prior blog post came to be.  First, understand that when I designed this building the Pier and Pier Plaza were in shambles with halted construction, there were no Dunes Park and IB Club, and there was an empty lot across from The Plank.  Two separate developers were proposing time-share skyscrapers at the ends of Palm and IB Blvd.

I never considered the OTI University to be on Seacoast.  The candidate locations for OTI University were Ream Field, Western Salt Works land, and the Radio Station area.  However, as an exercise to try to give the look of the OTI building a connection to what IB was about, I envisioned the building being built on the beachfront Montz property, spanning over to where the IB Forum is now located.

In the original drawings, attached to this blog, the highrise building was envisioned to sit on the Montz property, and the lower structure was envisioned where the Forum is located, and the foot bridge connecting the two spanned across SeaCoast Drive.  Again, this was only a design exercise and I never expected the residents of IB to want a highrise at the beach (BTW, I am in full agreement with the current Master Plan for Seacoast, namely, a classic beach area with a laid-back residential priority).

The parameters that I tried to achieve in the building design were to give the structure a marine ocean-going look, to make a structure that would not block access to the beach from people walking on SeaCoast, and to produce an iconic image that everyone, worldwide, would recognize as unique to our community.

Now, about 25 years later, I firmly belief that the building design is a perfect fit for the OTI University located in the Pond 20 parcel, as shown in my prior blog (see all figures at www.pchdinnershow.com).  The building design meets all of the objectives stated in the prior paragraph.

The OTI University drawings show nine iconic structures fanned out in a radius pattern.  There are seven “sub-buildings”, with three “Plazas” smartly distributed throughout the plan.  There is a “cookie-cutter” aspect to the OTI University layout, but in this application it works well.  For example, when you visit UCSD you see a cacophony of differently shaped buildings, mostly monolithic, with confusing access paths. Each building is a completely different design and had to be separately designed and engineered, which is why UCSD has lavishly spent $billions.  With the OTI cookie-cutter scheme, the design and engineering is done once, and the specialized molds to make the “pontoon arches” can be moved from one “leg” to the next.  Since each building is essentially identical, the cost of construction is greatly reduced.

The original design was intended to provide view corridors and unrestricted people access to the beach area “through” the building.  However, with Pond 20, the elevated pontoon arches allow for unrestricted access and migration of wildlife.  For example, look at the elevation views and the plan view of the whole university site, then imagine the students and faculty conducting most of their daily activities “above grade” on the elevated platforms.  The grade-level grounds would be landscaped in native flora, and the native fauna would be free to enter and exit throughout the university site.  This design exemplifies coexistence, humans and wildlife.

Another surprising feature of the elevated pontoon arches is how it addresses the concern about rising sea levels.  The elevation drawings provided show a 20 foot archway under the main buildings.  This should accommodate any sea level concerns for 100s of year (if not, the flooding of the OTI structures will be our least concern).

The OTI University concept may seem very bold, but, it is very do-able.  The citizens and leadership of the IB Area only have to say “we want it”.  When you consider this concept, please remember it is not about us …..  it is about the future, the children and our posterity that will live with the decisions we make today.

Please stop the “land bankers” that are trading away our future, and support the OTI University and PCH Dinner Show for Pond 20.