The San Diego City Council voted unanimously to approve “Campus At Horton” on Monday. It's a redevelopment plan that would turn Horton Plaza into a tech hub. Stockdale Capital Partners, an LA-based real estate firm, bought Horton Plaza from Westfield back in August with known intentions of redevelopment. When Stockdale announced the purchase, the firm said their new tech hub plan for Horton was expected to create 4,000 jobs, and generate $1.8 billion each year. — KPBS

With the iconic Jon Jerde-designed Horton Plaza mall in San Diego poised for transformation, one of Southern California’s key works of postmodern urbanism is soon to be lost.



Horton Plaza in San Diego, Image ©Coolcaesar

In designing the superblock mall in 1985, Jerde, who was referred to as the Frank Gehry's “evil" twin in the Rem Koolhaas-produced Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, sought to reintroduce the communal act of shopping back into the city center. Designed as pop-pup historical context, Horton Plaza is organized around a central shopping courtyard framed by classically-inspired, multi-story facades.

Those colorful facades will soon give way to expanses of curtain wall glass and other contemporary finishes. Developer Stockdale Capital Partners aims to start construction later this year.