new museum > architect

About Rob Wellington Quigley, FAIA
Rob Wellington Quigley, FAIA, with offices in San Diego and Palo Alto, California, has 33 years of experience producing award-winning buildings throughout the western United States and Japan. A nationally known designer, Rob has taken on a range of projects from the design of libraries and cultural centers to specialized and multi-family housing to high-rise office space.

Rob has earned more than 60 design awards for design excellence from the American Institute of Architects. He was named an AIA fellow in 1991 and received the Firm Award from the AIA California Council in 1995. A 250-page Rizzoli monograph devoted exclusively to his work was published in 1996. In 2005, he was awarded the Maybeck Award from the AIA California Council.

Rob’s landmark Baltic Inn is considered responsible for starting the national trend in new Single Room Occupancy hotels. Another such project, 202 Island Inn, was selected by Time magazine as one of the “Ten Best Designs of 1992” and received a national AIA Honor Award. Recent honors focus on the firm’s work with sustainable design.

Architect’s Statement
The Children’s Museum San Diego will be a 3-level, 50,000-square-foot building located on the north side of Island Avenue between Front and Union Streets. Like the art-oriented children’s activities within, the architecture seeks to engage and educate the users.

The Museum is a series of transparent, flexible spaces visible from and interacting with three city streets.

Exposed “temporary braces” holding the tilt-up panels illustrate and teach concepts of gravity and structure (as well as deal with a tight budget). A central glass chimney contains a transparent elevator and distinguishes the building from the surrounding commercial and residential uses. As importantly, the chimney is also a cooling tower, which exhausts hot air from the naturally cooled and heated gallery spaces. The majority of the gallery and staff spaces are naturally day lit, augmented by rooftop photovoltaic panels. The architects worked with scientists and engineers at UCSD to create a building that will set a new standard for urban green architecture.

The roof is designed with the same artistic care as the façades. No mechanical equipment will be visible from the surrounding high-rise buildings.

A vibrant and interactive children’s park has been designed to compliment the building by landscape architects Spurlock-Poirier. The Museum and adjacent park will provide a civic anchor for Island Avenue—perhaps the area’s most important east/west pedestrian street. A large second level balcony overhangs the city sidewalk, engages the street and park, and increases seating for the café. It provides a western, visual terminus for Island Avenue.

The street between the Museum and park will remain open to cars but can be safely configured as a temporary pedestrian plaza for special events.

The new building will include 13,000 square feet of galleries, a public lobby, retail store, a café with exterior decks, activity areas, and a 2,500-square-foot multipurpose performance space. The Museum also houses a 6,000-square-foot education center and administration space for the Museum staff.

While the architecture has a lively interaction with the surrounding city and adjacent park, the interior is more subdued and neutral. More the “picture-frame” than the picture itself, the building will encourage energetic uninhibited contributions from busloads of young Picassos.

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