Among San Diego’s ever-increasing number of glittering, glassy high-rises there's something new and unique at the corner of Park and Market downtown, four stories of infinite possibility.
The Voices Of Our City Choir sang of a "bright, sunshiny day" at the opening of Park & Market, and that made for a perfect musical metaphor for this place.
“It connects people to share ideas, to explore concepts and to discover the not-yet-imagined," UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said.
Park & Market is part of UC San Diego in lots of ways; it is connected to the main campus by the Blue Line trolley, just steps away.
That same trolley also goes to the border, and that’s an important connection for Park & Market.
“This building is dedicated to the notion of a cross-border relationship, of a deep intertwining with Baja California. ... We as a region are saying extremely clearly that we will bring the university to your community," Mayor Todd Gloria said.
Park & Market is home to the UC San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and an array of other organizations, including the Burnham Center for Community Advancement. It’s also the new home of San Diego’s Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Digital Gym Cinema.
There are, of course, the kinds of things you’d expect to see in a university building, like the computer lab. But, taken altogether, Park & Market is designed to be so much more than the sum of its parts.
In a statement, the university said the space was "designed to serve the entire San Diego community as a social and intellectual hub for civic engagement, learning and collaboration."
The official opening of Park & Market is a weekendlong affair. It continues on Sunday, with more live music, family activities, a free movie screening at the Digital Gym Cinema and a book giveaway.
