"We must not build housing, we must build communities."
--Mike Burton
click to enlarge 2008 Gold Nugget Award Pacific Highlands Ranch Category 40 - Best Sustainable Community Attached San Diego, CA Builder/Developer: Pardee Homes Architect: Bassenian/Lagoni Architects Planner: Latitude 33 2007 Gold Nugget Award Pacific Highlands Ranch Category 43 - California Green Builder Residential Project Category 49 - Attached Sub-Urban Residential Project of the Year Category 50 - Master Planned Community of the Year San Diego, CA Portico: Pardee's 185-unit home project also in Pacific Highlands Ranch was tops in the California Green Builder Residential Project competition. The homes, ranging from 2,165 to 2,413 square feet, currently sell for up to $726,000; so far, 113 of 120 homes released have been sold, a sales agent said. The project last year won merit awards for sustainable neighborhood design and one of the models. The judges said the project's designers, Bassenian/Lagoni Architects of Newport Beach, produced “stylish, thoughtfully designed homes,” which include optional solar-power cells, energy-efficient appliances and features, upgrades of sustainable materials and other “green” features. These are 'green' homes that are marketable and set a good example for the home-building industry to follow,” the judges said. John Coons, an architect with San Francisco-based Sasaki Associates and a judge on the Gold Nuggets panel, noted that the entries were down from last year's 700 competitors, a sign of the slumping new-home market in California and most of the rest of the country. But he said the winners displayed a greater sense than ever of the importance of sustainable design. “There were some striking contemporary designs this year,” he added, a contrast to the “Tuscan vernacular” that so many builders chose in the past decade. One trend common to the San Diego winners and to many others was the prevalence of first-floor bedrooms, when previously bedrooms were routinely located upstairs. “That bears testimony to the aging population,” he said. “We boomers – our knees are giving out.” But Coons said luxurious bathrooms and spacious master-bedroom suites were still in evidence: “They are very potent selling tools.” Traditional designs that cleverly link indoor and outdoor spaces remain popular, he said, and more and more builders are successfully downplaying garages by locating them at the back of the lot. Looking to the future, he called the housing industry's health “promising” going into 2008. “The outlook, in spite of the turndown in the marketplace, is very optimistic,” he said, “and there are a lot of very good, creative examples to address affordability, sustainability and denser urban living.”
--San Diego Union Tribune
2008 Gold Nugget Award The Grand Del Mar Hotel Category 5 - Best Specialty Project San Diego, CA Builder/Developer: Manchester Construction Architect: Altevers Associates Architecture Planner: Latitude 33
click to enlarge 2007 Gold Nugget Award Cielo Club, Rancho Cielo, CA Category 01 - Best Public/Private Special Use Facility Builder: Taylor Frager Developer: Rancho Cielo Estates Architect: Dahlin Group Architecture Planning Planner: Latitude 33 Arabella - Plan Two Category 26 - Best Single Family Detached Home Builder/Developer: Pardee Homes Architect: JZMK Architects Planner: Latitude 33 Pardee Homes' 140-unit project in Pacific Highlands Ranch in the State Route 56 Corridor won gold for its 2,056-square-foot Plan 2 design, currently selling for $768,900 in the category for houses with less than 2,300 square feet on a small lot of 3,200 to 4,500 square feet. There are 17 unsold homes in the development, according to the sales office. Arabella's Plan 3 won a merit award in last year's competition. The project architect was JZMK Partners in Irvine. "With references to historic California architecture, the warm colors and natural stone materials are at home in this coastal ranch setting," the judges said.
--San Diego Union Tribune 2003 Gold Nugget Award SDSU Fraternity Row Complex , San Diego, CA Best Public/Private Special Use Facility Builder/Developer: The Pierce Company Inc. Architect: M.W. Steele Group Inc, Taylor Frager Inc. Planner: Latitude 33
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