SHAPERY PARK TOWER

Project Description

Shapery Park Tower is a proposed 40 story condominium/hotel and residential tower in downtown San Diego containing 90 hotel/condominium suites, 30 one bedroom condominium suites, 42 two bedroom condominium suites, one penthouse condominium suite, a spa/health club, pool, 40th story restaurant, roof top bar served by a glass elevator, ancillary commercial space and 164 parking spaces located in the project parking garage.

Shapery Park Tower sits on the western half of a substandard block (200’X 108’) bounded by Russ Blvd. on the north, A St. on the south, 11th St. on the west and Park Blvd on the east . It shares the block with a five story historic hotel building that was newly renovated by Mr. Shapery thereby allowing for the transfer of the excess floor area ratio to the Shapery Park Tower. The site is the last private ownership parcel south of Balboa Park and as such is viewed as a city gateway parcel sitting between the downtown core, Balboa Park and at the beginning of the historic Cabrillo highway through the Park.

The building is being developed by Sandor Shapery who previously developed San Diego’s premier mixed use high-rise hotel/office complex, the Emerald Shapery Center which can be recognized by its eight hexagon towers topped with green neon. Mr. Shapery designed the Emerald Shapery Center in conjunction with C.W. Kim Architects who is again joining with Mr. Shapery in the design of this iconic building. Mr. Shapery was also responsible for the design and development of the W Hotel in downtown San Diego.

Mr. Shapery who designed and built the Emerald Shapery Center 16 years ago has been referred to as a futurist having installed many innovations in the Emerald Shapery Center including, openable window mullions for fresh air in every office and hotel room; separate air intakes on each floor at the north side of the building to lower the temperature gradient, save energy and reduce the amount of ionized air in the air distribution ducts; the hexagon design allowed for a greater percentage of view windows per square foot of floor space along with the standardization of every exterior window and building frame component. San Diego’s most efficient air conditioning ice storage system enables the Emerald Shapery Center to reduce its air conditioning electric costs by 70% while the laundry water recycling program paid for itself in 36 months.

The Shapery Park Tower will contain these innovations and more as it is being designed to be the most energy efficient high-rise condominium/hotel and residential tower in the region. Every part of the Shapery Park Tower is being designed with quality of life, energy efficiency, environmental sensitivity and sustainability issues given primary concern.

Many internal building systems are being designed to minimize initial costs and reduce operating costs by utilizing the systems for multiple functions. Examples include utilizing the cooling tower fans to exhaust the parking garage; capturing the building air conditioning condensation water for use in the laundry, swimming pool, fire water storage system and irrigation. Additionally the projects water features are being designed to function as cooling towers for the air-conditioning system. Photovoltaic glass will be installed on the south side building balconies to reduce each tenant’s electrical requirements.

In addition to the many innovations, the building is being built pursuant to the highest standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification program.

DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Shapery Park Tower contains forty stories above grade and 4 stories below grade for a total building height of 500 feet above the mean high tide line in the San Diego bay; the maximum building height allowed in downtown San Diego. The project rises 409 feet above the lowest grade on the site with the parcel containing 10,840.5 square feet. The tower sits on the top of the parking pedestal which covers most of the site and contains the lobby, ancillary commercial uses and parking. The Tower will be constructed out of concrete and is designed in the shape of a three leaf clover with each peddle and accompanying core being identical allowing for all of the construction forming to be the same. The organic design of the Shapery Park Tower is symbolic of the environmental aspects of the project.

PARKING

The project has 7 floors of parking. Three levels above grade and 4 levels below grade.

The 4 levels of underground parking contain 86 standard sized parking stalls and 16 compact spaces for a total of 102 spaces below grade. The entrance and exit to the underground parking is located on Russ Blvd.

There are three levels of above grade parking in the pedestal of the building, being levels 3 through 5 containing 52 standard sized spaces and 10 compact spaces for a total of 62 above grade parking spaces. When combined with the underground parking spaces there are a total of 164 parking spaces- 138 standard parking spaces and 26 substandard parking spaces. The entrance and exit to and from the above grade parking is accessed by a driveway between the tower pedestal and the Historic hotel located on the adjacent parcel entering on A Street and exiting on Russ Blvd.

The hotel lobby is two stories tall measured from the entrance on the corner of 11th and A Street. The lower lobby level is connected to the drive-in entrance and upper lobby level by a set of escalators separated by two water falls integrated into the air conditioning cooling system as mentioned above.

HOTEL/ CONDOMINIUM AMENITIES

On the 6th level of the building pedestal above the parking is the back-of-the-house hotel operations system, including house keeping, laundry, security, storage and mechanical systems.

There are three elevators that serve all of the parking and lobby levels, two of which are passenger elevators and one freight elevator running from the p-4 level to the pool deck and spa located on the 7th floor. A second freight elevator begins at the back of the house on the 6th level and runs to the roof. The tower is also served by one glass elevator and two passenger elevators.

The seventh floor, which is the top of the building’s pedestal, contains the swimming pool, pool deck, jacuzzi, health spa, hotel administrative offices, parking elevators, glass elevator, and tower elevators.

The eighth floor which is the first floor of the tower contains two ballroom/meeting rooms containing 1084 square feet each, an 810 square foot kitchen/pantry and a prefunction area containing 760 square feet along with two balconies containing 170 square feet.

The 9th through the 19th floors of the tower contain 9 units per floor for a total of 90 hotel condominium units ranging in size from 375 to 480 square feet most with balconies of 85 square feet each.

The 20th through the 24th floors of the tower contain 6 one bedroom condominium units per floor for a total of 30 one bedroom condominium units from 612 to 644 square feet, one and three quarter baths with full kitchens, and containing balconies of 85 square feet each.

The 25th through the 38th floor contain 3 two bedroom two and one half bath condominium units per floor for a total of 42 two bedroom two and one half bath condominiums ranging in size from 1284 to 1292 square feet each containing balconies which range in size from 176 to 255. Two of the three condominiums on each floor have keyed elevators opening directly into the unit’s living room.

Beginning at the 37th floor and continuing to the top of the building each units’ balconies project outward and increase from 420 square feet, out to 584, and 594, square feet respectively.

The 39th floor contains the penthouse condominium containing a total of 4345 square feet of living space with three balconies containing 1782 square each.

The 40th story is a restaurant and lounge containing 3886 square feet of interior space and two outdoor balconies containing 2268 square feet.

Above the restaurant is the roof-top bar and observatory topped out with back lit canvas petals.