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Salk Institute Expansion Approved
By Ann Jarmusch
May/June 2022
 Rendering of the Salk Institute’s new addition, looking west. Courtesy WRNS Studio
 Salk Institute, the view today. Photo by Sandé Lollis
In April 2022, the City of San Diego Planning Commission unanimously approved expansion plans for the Salk Institute that the City had previously approved in 2008 as part of the research center’s master plan. The planned extension of the Salk’s world-renowned complex overlooking the ocean came up for review again, 14 years later, after longtime SOHO member, architect, and historian Charles Kaminski appealed the City’s decision.
Kaminski argued that the expansion does not meet the design intent of Louis Kahn, the original architect, and founder Dr. Jonas Salk. The acclaimed 1963 complex consists of twin research buildings facing each other across a plaza overlooking the ocean. This formation creates a strong east-west linear axis and memorable pedestrian experience toward the ocean. In 1995, a controversial addition repeated this format by essentially elongating the plaza and adding twin buildings.
Intended as the institute’s new front door, the new addition and plaza will again continue the plaza and add paired buildings, but with some major differences that Kaminsky and SOHO's executive director Bruce Coons, argued against. Instead of opening to the sky, as Kahn intended, the new addition has twin cantilevered coverings that almost meet in the middle. A bridge joins the new buildings at the second level, and operable glass enclosures at ground level will likely be closed most of the time—blocking public access.
“The 2022 proposed design changes [such as the interior bridge crossing]…create an annoying intrusion into the primary design feature of the linear experience…that culminates at the horizon, or infinity,” Kaminsky said.
He noted the entire Salk site is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and that the new addition will significantly impact the locally designated historical resource and therefore must be reviewed by the City’s Historical Resources Board.
SOHO concurred with all, and noting that the required mitigation for this historic landmark was never properly considered, asked that this important project be sent back to the HRB for formal review by the full board.
The planning commission’s charge, Chairman William Hofman said before the vote, was not to evaluate the expansion’s architecture, but rather to determine whether it technically conforms to Salk’s 2008 master plan.
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