The 2025 Orchids & Onions Edition: The jury has spoken!

Each year, the San Diego Architectural Foundation hosts Orchids & Onions, a forum to nominate — and spark dialogue — around design projects in San Diego. Here, we’ve curated the winners and the “eyesore.”

A community masterpiece, Del Mar Heights Elementary achieves sustainability and architectural beauty rooted in a deep sense of place. The indoor-outdoor design by DLR Group connects the campus via boardwalk to the Torrey Pines Reserve, reinforcing place-based education and ecological awareness.

More than 150 stakeholders — students, educators, and neighbors — shaped the school’s vision through a seven-part symposium series. Today, the campus invites ongoing public engagement through shared trails, open green space, and a garden at the reserve trailhead.

Native landscaping and minimal grading restore habitat, increase biodiversity, and manage stormwater on site. Elevated pathways protect root zones and preserve natural flows. “The site acts as a living lab, connecting students to regional ecology while enhancing the broader ecosystem,” stated the jury. 

On the sustainability front, there is thermal massing, operable windows, clerestory lighting, and deep overhangs reduce reliance on mechanical systems. Natural ventilation captures ocean breezes, while CHPS-certified buildings ensure lasting efficiency and low energy use intensity.

The campus prioritizes comfort, movement, and sensory connection. Classrooms open to outdoor learning zones filled with daylight and fresh air. Flexible furnishings and calming coastal colors promote autonomy and well-being. “Every detail supports student health, focus, and joy,” stated the jury. 

In the heart of Balboa Park, the Botanical Building has remained one of San Diego’s most treasured icons since its debut at the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Originally designed by Carleton Winslow, the redwood lath structure was conceived to reflect the beauty and versatility of natural redwood materials within the Spanish Colonial Revival style. 

At the time of completion in 1915, it was the largest redwood lath structure in the world — a remarkable architectural feat and testament to early 20th-century design and ingenuity.

More than a century later, the Botanical Building has undergone a transformative restoration, reclaiming its original grandeur and safeguarding its role as a cultural and community resource.

The design was guided by archival drawings, historic photographs, and a deep respect for its origins. The team included Platt/Whitelaw Architects, Milford Wayne Donaldson, Waterwise Gardener, RNT Architects, Spurlock Landscape Architects.

The project restored historical elements such as the arched arcade, ornamental woodwork, and a 2,000-pound cupola. Painstaking efforts brought back redwood interiors and custom millwork while preserving rare plantings and safeguarding a century-old Moreton Bay Fig tree. 

“Today, the Botanical Building stands restored, not only as an architectural star, but as a living, breathing educational space. It offers free access to lush displays of over 2,100 plant species, engaging visitors through environmental programs, school tours, and cultural events,” stated the jury. “This project exemplifies the power of preservation — how the past, when thoughtfully honored, can flourish in service of the present. The Botanical Building now embodies a San Diego legacy, rooted in heritage and embracing the future.”

A feat of terracotta, Pacific Highlands Ranch Branch Library earned an Orchid for Public Art. This site-specific installation — designed to complement the neighborhood’s Spanish Revival design — features handmade tiles with the Latin alphabet.

Artist Janelle Iglesias’ artwork ”TEXT/TILE” fills the library’s courtyard, which acts as a back entrance to the library.

Each tile is made of two-tones of terracotta clay and was handcrafted so that each tile contains various characters from the Latin alphabet and punctuation marks. The installation was inspired by early libraries which were made up of incised letters on clay tablets. This idea relates to the Pacific Highlands Ranch Branch Library as a library overall, but also to the library’s IDEA Lab, within, which focuses on paleontology and archeology. 

The tiles, produced at the Cerámica Suro factory in Guadalajara, compliment the earth tone palette of the Spanish Revival design of buildings in the Pacific Highlands Ranch neighborhood.

Landscape elements were designed in coordination with an ethnobotanist and the landscape architect for the library. Visitors to the library are encouraged to occupy the space of the courtyard by the integration of seating elements as well as the inclusion of modular furniture.

“Step beneath the crimson Farsi inscription that graces Leila’s entrance, and you’re transported into a captivating world meticulously crafted by CH Projects’ Department of Interior,” stated the jury.

Leila in North Park, pays homage to founder Arsalun Tafazoli’s roots. And for the persnickety Tafazoli, expect beauty in the details. The restaurant is bedecked in authentic Moroccan tapestries and chandeliers sourced from the souks. The traditional clayburn oven — a hot UK import — churns out Middle Eastern fare. 

“Fabricated in the UK by the Clay Oven Company, the group who holds the accolade of being the first to mass produce clay ovens in the region and has been doing so for 50 years, Leila’s bespoke clay oven took over nine months to be built and shipped to San Diego,” stated the jury. 

Jungle Room by Post Company earned a top prize for interior design. The Lafayette Hotel’s jazz club oozes with fringe and animal prints. The clam shell stage? Everything. 

“The interiors of Lou Lou’s Jungle Room bring all the glitz and glamor of 1920’s jazz club culture back to life. The historic concrete cast clam shell stage has been restored to its former glory and a refurbished hardwood dance floor has been installed — emphasizing that this space was built with the intention of encouraging patrons to cut loose,” stated the jury. 

Va-va voom details include a fringed circular bar,  plush banquettes, ornate custom light fixtures, and roaring animal print. 

“With a capacity of 580, Lou Lou’s not only brings a unique supper club experience to the city but also fills a void for mid-size music venues where showgoers can enjoy live music in an intimate, comfortable setting.”

The SDSU Mission Valley development is transforming one of the largest parking lots in the western U.S. into a vibrant, walkable mixed-use community with housing, entertainment, and 80 acres of public open space. Schmidt Design Group is creating an ecologically driven public space directly connected to the MTS trolley at  the heart of SDSU Mission Valley. 

Designed as a “green sponge,” the park captures, filters, and slows all site runoff before it reaches the nearby San Diego River, significantly improving water quality and reducing historic flood impacts.

Floodable zones, native landscaping — including hundreds of Oaks and Sycamores — and river-inspired design elements foster both ecological function and aesthetic identity. “The park offers sports fields, playgrounds, fitness stations, courts, and solar pathway lighting, along with over four miles of accessible trails and bikeways, serving as a model for resilient, inclusive urban design,” stated the jury. 

“The redevelopment of Horton Plaza into The Campus at Horton deserves an Onion for its unfortunate failure of urban design and civic responsibility,” stated the jury.

The project, by Stockdale Capital Partners, RIOS and Ehrlich Yanai Chaney Architects, has left a vital downtown space in a state of neglect, abandoning a community gathering place for a stalled construction site,” according to the jury, stating that Stockdale failed to fulfill its contractual obligations to the city, allowing disrepair and creating an eyesore in the heart of San Diego. 

“This is a clear example of a project that has actively harmed its surroundings and disappointed the community, demonstrating a lack of commitment to meaningful revitalization, San Diego and its residents.”

“With a new vision, guided by a genuine commitment to public spaces and community needs, Horton Plaza has the potential to be a true asset. It simply awaits thoughtful and responsible development.”