Two-story Mission Revival style house, Mission Hills (1911). Photo courtesy the California Historical Resources Inventory Database (CHRID)

In 2022, in the City of San Diego and in other cities, historic homeowners continued to dominate designations. Many of them also signed Mills Act contracts for property tax reductions in exchange for restoring, preserving, and maintaining their homes. (Commercial buildings are also eligible.) This California program is considered perhaps the best preservation incentive in the nation and it turned 50 years old last year. Accordingly, SOHO saluted the late San Diegan and former State Senator James Mills for carrying this visionary legislation, enacted in 1972, in our November/December issue of the eNews. Read about it in the SOHO President’s Message.

The City of San Diego’s historic designations in 2022 totaled 37, plus 12 in Coronado, but zero in the County of San Diego’s unincorporated areas. Despite the county’s inactivity last year, it and the two cities have been the three most active local governments granting designations. Coronado’s dozen actually encompasses more than 12 buildings, as two designations embraced the Hotel del Coronado’s 1888 Victorian building, four restored industrial service buildings, Windsor Cottage, and the Oxford Hotel, which predates the Del, all on the iconic hotel’s grounds.

The City of San Diego Historical Resources Board’s 37 new landmarks is significantly down from 48 in 2021, a reduction that may be pandemic-related. The total was subsequently reduced in 2022 by two, for a total of 35, which includes two prehistoric archaeological sites in undisclosed locations. Regrettably, despite the protests and advocacy of SOHO and other preservationists, the City Council overturned one designation to make way for redevelopment: a 1936 Streamline Moderne commercial building at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Palm Street. And, in a rare move, to which SOHO expressed strong objections, the HRB rescinded the 1987 designation of a 1904 Victorian Folk cottage and a contributor to the Sherman Heights Historic District, due to alterations and deterioration. (The 2021 designation of the 1961 Vulcan Steam Room and Sauna, an LGBTQ landmark at 805 W. Cedar Street, is to be appealed to the council at a date not yet announced as we go to press.)

The HRB also reinforced its groundbreaking designation in 2021 of a building far younger than 45 years, the mixed-use Mr. Robinson (2015) by master architect-developer Jonathan Segal. San Diego’s ordinance does not specify a minimum age for designation. In 2022, the board designated two more of Segal’s recent acclaimed, pioneering buildings: The Q, built in Little Italy in 2010, and the full-block, North Parker/Jonathan Segal Building (2014). Anticipating an obvious question, architect David Marshall, Segal’s representative assured the board (and public) that Segal considered the three designated buildings pivotal works and did not intend to nominate his full portfolio of innovative designs for potential Mills Act tax benefits. The board’s discussions and some members’ questions about “early” designations before ample time has passed for evaluation routed the subject to its policy subcommittee’s October 2022 meeting.

For your reference and reading pleasure, here are the region’s landmarks designated in 2022, most documented by a photograph and a description. A few standouts: a two-story Mission Revival style house, Mission Hills (1911, see November/December 2022 eNews); El Cantorral Court, a Pueblo Revival style bungalow court, University Heights (1928, November/December 2022 eNews); a rare, modest Minimal Traditional style house, La Jolla (1938, July/August 2022 eNews); and the Joseph and Elizabeth Yamada House and landscaping, La Jolla (1973-2020, January/February 2023 eNews).

We hope you'll enjoy this annual roundup and find it useful. Merely scrolling through the list to view the photos offers a rewarding survey of the diverse historical architectural styles we value today.

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