33 years

In Search of the Present

Alison Herf, Bill Behun, Bob Dickens, Bruno Duarte, Bryan Harris, Catherine Herbst, Celso Gonzalez, Chris Fassler,
Colin Parmalee, Dave Madigan, David Dahlberg, David Solnick, Dennis Yoshi, Dominik Uhrmeister, Dorie White,
Duncan MacIntosh, Eric Johnson, Everett Considine, Gabriel Diaz, Gary Paige, Gavin Wilson. George Hideg, Greg Yeatter,
Guillermo Tomaszewski, Helen Ewing, Herb Lira, Im Schafer, Jack Mosher, Jackie Geller, Jackie Herman, Jim Darroch,
Jimmy Brunner, Jimmy Talarico, John Silber, Judy Clinton, Julie Scaramella, Justin Coleman, Kate Roe, Kathleen Hallahan,
Katy Hamilton, Kevin deFreitas, Lee Platt, Leslie Nordman, Loralee Arnold, Mario Lara, Martin Sprouse, Mary Ann Hall,
Maryanne Welton, Mel McGee, Michael Golino, Paige Newbern, Paula Detwiller, Richard Kunz, Robert Flock, Roberta Aldrich,
Scott Bennett, Sheri Hirsch, Susan Garrett, Teddy Cruz, Terrie Long, Thea Quigley, Todd Jager, Todd Rinehart, Tom Grondona,
Trudy Morse Verdick, Vladimir Frank, and Wendell Shackelford.

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002 2003 2004

Esther McCoy, Joe Esherik and Frank Gehry give the Cohen Solar House
an Honor Award.

Rob and oce put together the annual

San Diego AIA Awards Night at a local aircraft
hanger after the AIA rejected his rst venue idea:
the drive-in movie theater.
The oce people served food on rollerskates,
and the belly dancer was a big hit.

Linda Vista Public Library

Linda Vista, California / completed 1987

These are the first and most recent civic projects; Both are libraries.

San Diego New Main Library

San Diego, California / to be completed in 2008

The Linda VIsta Library, a 10,000 s.f. branch facility in a San

Diego suburb, serves as a community focal point and cultural
center. This civic anchor is located on the corner of a major
intersection and adjacent to a local shopping center. Tall
cypress trees are planted at the edges of the intersection to
create an urban room. This public forecourt begins a diagonal
sequence of events culminating in the rotunda.
The project attempts a contemporary restatement of regional
issues historically described by delicate vines and wrought iron
played against massive adobe walls. The (apparent) weight
of the exterior massing and the bouyant, interior celebration of
lightweight stick framing honestly address questions of regional,
stylistic dreams and Type V construction reality. The exposed
joist sections on the ceiling are covered with perforated metal
and absorb sound. Sandblased concrete block anchors the
rotunda and acts as a passive heat sink.
Natural daylighting animates interior spaces. Typical daytime
use requires illumination of only table-mounted task lamps.
The modern library is as much about social interaction and intercultural
exchange as the storage of books and delivery of information into the
hands of individuals. The New Main Library was conceived as a simple
nine-story archive of flexible space sandwiched at the top and ground
floors with diverse and accessible public amenities. This library will
depart from other new main libraries in a significant way: The top floors
serve as a cultural penthouse available to all of the people of San Diego.
The great, airy, three-story crystalline roof top reading room anchors this
public amenity and is shaded by the dome latticework overhead. A series
of open terraces look down into the reading room and out to the city and
bay beyond. The extroverted public top not only celebrates the central
civic role of the modern library but intrinsically links this primary cultural
and educational resource to one of San Diegos greatest physical
amenities: Balboa Park.
The great open trellis in the shape of a dome protects the public rooms
and terraces from both the summer sun and cool bay breezes. It provides
shelter and protection not only for pursuits of the mind but for social
gathering and civic discourse.

San Diego Childrens Museum

San Diego, California / to be completed in 2007

Although contemporary in design and detail, the Activity

Center joins the family of Balboa Park buildings built for
world expositions in 1915 and 1935. Both the buildings
proportions and planning concepts follow Beaux-Arts
tradition. The center is carefully sighted on a knoll
overlooking the city and will become a southern terminus
of an existing formal axis of fountains and gardens.
The 35,500 s.f. one-story structure houses facilities for
volleyball, badminton, table tennis, and special events.
Tilt-up concrete walls contain the large, flexible space.
Unlike a basketball gym, here all sources of direct light or
glare must be eliminated. The concrete walls tilt outward
to let soft overhead light enter discreetly. Other skylights
and windows are carefully baffled and screened. For
special events, direct sunlight may be admitted by raising
large, roll-up shutters.

Balboa Park Activity Center

San Diego, California / completed in 1999

The San Diego Childrens Museum will be a two-story

tilt-up concrete building. The Museum is a series of open,
flexible spaces visible from, and interacting with, three streets.
The primary orientation entrance is to the south- embracing
the Childrens Park. Like the art-oriented childrens activities within,
the architecture seeks to engage and educate the users.
The new building will include 13,000 square feet of galleries,
a public lobby, retail store, a cafe with exterior decks, activity areas,
and a 25,000-square-foot multipurpose performance space.
The Museum also houses a 6,000-square-foot Charter School
for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 and administration space
for the Museum staff.

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Rob was the only San Diegan and one in four architects featured in
Esquire Magazines The Best of the New Generation: Men and
Women Under Forty Who Are Changing America

Solana Beach Transit Station

Solana Beach, California / completed in 1995

Sherman Heights Community Center

San Diego, California / completed in 1994

The Sherman Heights Community Center was created through a

series of bi-lingual community workshops in which the participants
determined the building program, architectural image, and urban
character of the center and an adjacent park.
The project consists of a new 12,500 s.f. building, a restored
two-story Victorian house built in 1890, and an adjacent park that
was enlarged and relocated. A multi-purpose room on the second
level embraces flexibility and can be divided into as many as six
spaces depending on the occasion: lectures, theatrical
performances, banquets, parties, and large community meetings.
With this project, as well as the Balboa Park Activity Center,
the Escondido Transit Center and the Childrens Museum,
Rob is attempting to enoble the tilt-slab construction vernacular.

The Baltic Inn is the rst Single Room

Occupancy hotel built in the United States
in fty years
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Rob is honored in the Forty Under Forty, The Architectural League of

New Yorks American prole of the next generation, people predicted
to be inuential forces in design

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Capistrano Beach House

San Juan Capistrano, California / completed in 1993

Robs rst monograph is published by Rizzoli. In it, Aaron Betsky writes,

What escapes notice is the reality of construction: how something was made,
of what, where, by and for whom. Rob Wellington Quigleys architecture
responds to the situation through articulation that makes the structure
of our society visible in construction itself.

Alden Residence
Beverly Hills, California / completed in 1998

Locke Residence

Temecula, California / completed in 1992

This small, weekend villa responds to the hot, arid climate of Rancho California
and its vineyard-covered site. The detached garages provide a ceremonial
entrance to a gre at courtyard, carved from the vineyards.
The house is a dialogue between vulnerability and security. The simple stucco walls
and trellis form a compound enhancing the idea of safety in this rural site. At the
same time, the roll-up garage doors, a transparent entry and extensive decks
openly invite the outside in.

The owner complained that this passively designed house

over-heated in the mid-winter months.

The Sanctuary
Telluride, Colorado / completed in 1992

This project is an intimate 24-house subdivision located between

a large developer-oriented housing project and a rustic canyon
preserve. The first two 3100 s.f. houses have been built on the
downhill side of the street. The next eleven houses are to begin
construction later this year.
It was proposed that the development be given shape and character
by creating a tight linear wall of houses on the uphill side of the
street. This uphill urban edge is contrasted by the rural downhill side
of the street adjacent to the canyon. These houses are made as
narrow as possible to let the rustic canyon landscape reach
uninterrupted to the roadway.

Shaw Lopez Park

San Diego, California / phase 1 completed in 1996
phases 2 and 3 to be completed in 2007

The five-story office/residential building sits on a 50 by 50 lot in the

Little Italy neighborhood of downtown San Diego. The buildings
ambiguous imagery, neither office nor residential, underlines its
role as an urban mediator.

Gilman Mixed-Use Parking Structure

University of California, San Diego / completed in 2000

Code loopholes allowed for 75 high wood-frame and stucco

construction. The buildings forms and shapes respond to bay
views, the hot sun, and personal interpretations of San Diegos
local architectural heritage. The dark, unpainted stucco, atypical
of this region, reduces both glare and the buildings bulk.
The rooftop apartment consists of a series of flexible spaces
arranged around one central courtyard, in the Mexican tradition.
The open courtyard serves year-round as the main living space
of the house.

Beaumont Building
San Diego, California / completed in 1988

This project aspires to co-exist provocatively with adjacent academic buildings

on the campus of the University of California, San Diego while honestly and
economically embracing its humble task of storing 780 cars.
The parking experience is humanized through choreography of car and pedestrian.
The ground-level credit union, storefront parking offices, and a second-level coffee
house are strategically located to activate the garage and make it more secure.
Form and texture are derived from manipulating the post-tension structural system
most standard with this building type. Flagstones compliment the poured-in-place
concrete and punched aluminum woven screens.

Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station

Stanford University, Palo Alto, California / completed in 2002

This is a research and educational facility located in the Jasper Ridge Biological
Preserve in the foothills adjacent to the Stanford campus. It provides centralized
facilities for research, educational and small symposia. The facility reflects design and
construction strategies that contribute to the understanding of the Earths systems
and protect natural resources.
Roof forms modulate natural daylight, collect rain water to store in a 25,000-gallon
cistern and provide photovoltaic collectors. All occupied spaces have operable
windows. No artificial lighting was used during daylight hours for the first 99 days
of occupancy. Engineered with no load-bearing walls, the main research space
allows flexibility and can be reconfigured as needs change.
The design and construction process took into consideration all aspects of energy
conservation and construction sustainability. Ecologically speaking,
the building has a zero footprint.
It is a building that holds promise for the future while, through its use of reclaimed
materials, provides linkages to the past.

Otay Ranch Community Center

San Diego, California / completed in 2000

Rob is bestowed a Fellowship by the American Institute of Architects.

William Turnbull writes of Rob, His is not the architecture of High Fashion, Mod,
Post Mod, or whatever ism comes to mind.
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Early Childhood Education Center

University of California, San Diego / completed in 1995

Tijuana River Estuary Visitor Center

Imperial Beach, California / completed in 1990

Escondido Transit Center

Escondidio, California / completed in 1990

Student Academic Services Facility

University of California, San Diego / to be completed in 2007

This facility will gather existing UCSD student services into one central location.
Located next to the Student Union at the heart of the campus,
the building is intended to enhance, define and connect the three major campus quads
adjacent to the site. Continuous outdoor loggias and a pervious ground floor plan
encourage campus cross-circulation and help shape the adjacent quads and
courtyards. Ground floor retail further enlivens the loggia and public spaces.
Intended as an example for future adjacent buildings, this is an architecture
of connection, more a frame than the picture. Campus activities and the adjacent quads,
rather than the building itself, become the object.
The facade of the building will be comprised of a curtain wall system with sun screens,
allowing the building users flexibility in relation to views and sun protection. This transparency
is reinforced on the ground level through the use of the arcade and placement of the
glass-walled multipurpose room connecting the green space
at Myers Drive to Matthews Quad.

As the first new single room occupancy hotel in San Diego

in seventy years, the Baltic Inn paved the way for a new era
in affordable housing. The design team, motivated by intense
housing affordability problems, worked closely with the City
to create new ordinances that would make SROs a good
investment for private developers. The Baltic Inn began a wave
of SRO construction in San Diego that now includes
more than 2,000 rooms.
The Baltic Inns sensitive design emphasizes quality of life for
its residents. Offset windows, light courts, natural ventilation,
and decks stress comfort and privacy. Special attention and
more expensive materials were focused on the tiled entrance,
lobby, and front porch, lending an uncommon street presence
and sense of place to this otherwise economical building type.
Winner of several architectural awards, including an National
Honor Award, the Baltic Inn also received a Presidential
Commendation from Ronald Reagan.

Robs contribution to the LIND block is a mixed-use building

for low-income families.

Baltic Inn

Included in the retail and residential development are

market-rate apartments, row houses with backyards, and
live/work spaces. A few retail/cafe spaces will be sprinkled
in the block. The housing on Kettner is kept low to allow
bay views from the other units. The interior of the block
is kept soft and is dominated by landscaping.

San Diego, California / completed 1987

Villa Maria on the LIND Block

San Diego, California / completed in 1995

La Pensione
San Diego, California / completed in 1995

The project consists of a four-story 80-room

single room occupancy hotel over two street-level
restaurant spaces on a 8000 s.f. site.
Parking is underground.
La Pensione acknowledges the traditional 50 lot
rhythm of the area by retaining the historic facade
of the corner building and creating a facade of
separate indentity adjacent to it on India Street.
An open alley between the two buildings leads to
a light court and patio for outdoor dining
in the tradition of the area.
Small and efficient, but with 9 ceilings and filled
with natural light, the hotel rooms contribute
to the citys efforts to provide affordable housing
and a good quality of life.

202 Island Inn

San Diego, California / completed in 1992

Having improved and expanded upon its predecessor, the J Street

Inn opened in 1990 with a dedication from HUD Secretary Jack
Kemp, who called it a model we would hope to emulate in other
areas of the country. This SRO features 221 rooms, each with
a private bath and microwave oven. Laundry, reading, and
exercise rooms extend along the street level with large windows,
giving the building an animated presence. The central, landscaped
light court includes a grove of bamboo and a waterfall that masks
noise from the rooms. Large decks at each upper level permit
secure but visible activity.

J Street Inn

San Diego, California / completed in 1990

Campaige Place
Las Vegas, Nevada / completed in 1992

Alma Place

San Jose, California / completed in 1997

This 320-unit building serves low-paid hotel and tourist industry workers in downtown Las Vegas.
The layout of the building is designed to promote security as well as community. The lobby
is centered in the project with an open reception desk located to permit surveillance and
control of the entrances, one from Eighth Street and one from the auto court. The reception desk
can also monitor access to the elevators, the laundry, and the gym area. These areas are placed
to encourage social interaction between tenants and chance meetings.

An AIA California Council Firm Award reveals that it isnt just Rob.
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Esperanza Garden Apartments

Encinitas, California / completed in 1994

Robs work is published by the

Phaidon Press in 10 X 10.

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March 21 is pronounced Rob Quigley Day by the mayor of San Diego.

Sherman Heights Community Center

San Diego, California / completed in 1980

The client is right 90% of the time.

The art in architecture is knowing which 90%.
Rob Quigley

Slayer Beach House

San Diego, California / completed in 1980

Asche Residence

Coronado, California / completed in 1985

The clients desired a getaway beach house. The site, however,

is 150 feet away from the beach. The buildings are organized
not by geometry, but by the natural forces of the seaA symbolic aquatic event leaves in its wake an intimate urban
village, magical and faceted in its asphalt setting. This narrative
is a design device used to give the landlocked house a rapport
with and immediacy to the sea.

House for a Musician

San Diego, California / completed in 1981

The exploration, therefore, is not into natural architecture,

but rather into the interface between man-made objects and
nature. The resulting beach house investigates the idea of
permanence in a transient Southern California society.

Jaeger Residence
Del Mar, California / completed in 1983

Oxley Residence

San jJuan Capistrano, California / completed in 1983

The American dream remains the detached single-family home.

This little house explores that dream in the context of its economic reality.
The Oxley house is a one-room residence for a retired single woman. Utility rooms and separate
guest quarters occupy the ground level below. On the south, an outdoor lath house with
movable shades filters the summer sun, expanding the living space and allowing for direct gain
passive solar heating in winter. The house contains 700 square feet on each level.
The complete cost for the project, including a detached garage, was $97,000.
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The American Diabetes Foundation awards Rob the

Father of the Year award.
A year later, the Leslie Shao-Ming Sun Field Station is recognized as one of
the nations Top Ten Green Buildings by the AIA.
Rob still surfs his longboard at a beach where he claims he is the youngest surfer in the water.

After years of walling off the bay, the port of San Diego recently selected this plan for the last urban
bayfront redevelopment area. It offers a final chance to authentically connect the social and physical fabric
of the city to the bay. Positioned between an emerging neckless of bay-front amenities and a barrier-like
wall of tourist resources, the site calls for a bold and engaging statement- not in terms of iconographic
architecture but in civic activity, community recreation and physical engagement with the bay.
The plan achieves this goal with two simple gestures. The existing city street system and familiar patterns
of lot development are extended to the waters edge. Secondly, a great circular public boardwalk will offer
strolling, pet walking and jogging with unique views both up and down the bay and back to the city.
This paseo, or Arc Walk, also acts as a breakwater and engages additional amenities for residents and
tourists alike, such as a 6.5-acre central park, a downtown beach, Tuna Harbor and the G Street Mole
amphitheater with its floating stage.
The 213-million dollar design includes up to 450,000 s.f. of commerical space,
12.8 acres of park space and 1430 parking spaces.

Little Italy Neighborhood

Development (LIND)
San Diego, California / completed in 1998

San Diego Harborfront

San Diego, California / first phase in progress

designed in collaboration with Sasaki Associates

McCormick
Brisbois

Quigley

Smith +
Russell

Segal

Brown

Redevelopment technique in San Diego, as in most American

cities, is to promote full block projects by a single developer.
A life long foe of this megablock disfiguring of American urban
cores, Rob, along with five other local architects proposed
and built this full block alternative to redevelopment business
as usual.
Built within the same timeframe and with many of the same
economic benefits one the one block one developer
formula, the LIND project creates authentic architectural
diversity and preserves the fine grained urban village quality
of Little Italy. More importantly, it creates true social diversity
on a single block within a single development. Market rate
apartments, fee simple town-home condos and subsidized
family housing by the different architects attract their own
tenet types and are complemented by ground level retail and
large inner-block communal open areas.
The project is not gated.

My work is concerned with investigations into the concepts of transfer, order, economy, and emotion.
I am interested in the irony of todays architectural paradoxes
such as permanence in an essentially transient society,
timelessness in a society that values short-term gains above all else,
identity in an era of instant global communications,
spirituality in a rational society,
and the relevance of craft in a world that considers art a luxury.
I am concerned with the physical and cultural immediacy of a local architectural language
as a method of transcending provincialism.
The backyard of region is the source; climate is the inspiration.
Like Irving Gill, our work seeks to reinterpret the Arcadian dreamthat Southern California promise of a better life synthesizing Yankee practicality and expediency
with Latin graciousness and love of life.