Del Mar Civic Center

Standing on the terrace of Del Mar Civic Center can be likened to a spiritual experience. Extensive views of the Pacific Ocean inundate the eyes, and the scent of sage and star jasmine drifts through the air bringing calm and serenity to anyone who breathes it. Surprisingly, this is not a private property, but a public place welcome to all, with the majority of the site dedicated to public open space with planted gardens, active and passive courtyards, and an area for the community farmer’s market.

The Del Mar Civic Center was designed to reflect its community, a laid-back beach town known for intimately-scaled Coastal Craftsman wood architecture. It was built using warm and natural materials such as wood and colored concrete inspired by the sandstone bluffs below. The shape and massing of the Center take direction from other beloved buildings in the neighborhood, while the horizontal low rooflines and the use of green spaces provide an aesthetic consistency, assuring residents of Del Mar that the new center will feel distinctly of Del Mar.

The warmth of the wood structure creates a welcoming and comfortable interior for the city’s main civic gathering space, which includes both a Town Hall and City Hall offices. Inspired by the needle pattern of the Torrey Pine, the iconic cupola-shaped roof over the Town Hall is spanned by a kingpost truss that includes glulam top chords and steel-tension members. Glulam beams and open-web wood trusses frame the City Hall roof while glulam columns provide support at curtainwall areas. To manage sound, designers chose a wood acoustical panel grille system. Where glulam beams and wood trusses extend to the exterior, they attached wood eave tails for added durability. The one-story structure sits above a Type 1A concrete parking garage. .

Decades in the making, the Del Mar Civic Center is, at its core, an expression of place and civic commitment. With its emphasis on indoor and outdoor public gathering spaces, the modest yet considered complex strives to be a good neighbor in this landscape of human-scaled spaces and well-loved nature.