Paseo from the Bay to Park

Walk all the way from San Diego Bay to Balboa Park!  The Bay to Park Paseo is designed to entice everyone to walk by transforming Park Boulevard between the Bay and the Park.  Conceived and developed by Urban Interventions, this memorable walking experience is intended to be clean, safe and interesting initiative that will produce many benefits for the community. 

The vision to connect two of San Diego’s iconic gems - San Diego Bay and Balboa Park - is more than 100 years old.  The recently unveiled 1.7-mile walking experience along Park Boulevard is designed to drive foot traffic, create activity along the route, and unite many landmarks and community icons. 

Join in

Inaugural Celebration Walk was held on April 13th, 2024.  Free guided tours of the Paseo are held on the first and third Saturday of the month at 10:30, starting at the Hilton Bayfront.   

 Paseo Planning and Design

This is a grass-roots effort intended to improve our downtown community.  San Diego Partnership, Clean and Safe, Port of San Diego, and many other public and private organizations have joined in the effort. 

 

The initial instantiation is an impermanent one, with a goal to become permanent.  This allows the project to be implemented quickly and hopefully create a ground-swell of support in the community. 

 

Initial funding raised $130k for $10k each for the thirteen sponsor organizations to subsidize their exhibits.  These thirteen design teams, working pro bono, are creating compelling artistic ‘zones’ along the Paseo.  Many of the exhibits are driven by young people and employees at downtown organizations located along the Paseo. 

 

Paseo Promenading

The Paseo starting place and signature art exhibit will be installed on the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge.  Constructed in 2011, an iconic gateway into Downtown San Diego, the bridge will be decorated with a Hermes copper butterfly.  It is designed to bring awareness to a native butterfly species whose local populations have become threatened due to wildfires, drought, and climate change.  Stay tuned for when the butterfly will take flight! 

Installations in the thirteen zones are a variety of interactive displays, murals and other types of artworks.  Many zones focus on local issues, challenges, memories, happenings, flora, environmental, and top-of-mind.  These installations are in place, and ready to be experienced along the way, including:

  • Time Capsule

  • Ride the Wave

  • What Does Home Mean to You?

  • Memories at the Midpoint

  • The Desert Super bloom

  • The Blue Line

  • Reading Between the Lines

  • I Have a Dream

  • JOURNEYworm

  • Balboa Park Tree

  • President’s Way

 

Installations will be in place through the end of 2024.  The hope it that the zone installations will become public realm.   

The goal is for the Bay to Park Paseo to begin a unique Legacy Event: The San Diego Paseos Biennale.  Every two years different teams of designers and artists may create a different paseo project, eventually weaving the city together in a tapestry of pedestrian experiences. 

Our Speakers

The Paseo is the brainchild of Urban Interventions, a nonprofit that creates and funds public art and placemaking installations and events to transform underserved places with innovative, high-impact, fast and low-cost interventions.

Beth Callender

Beth has been an active member of Urban Land Institute for more than 20 years. Her engagement in leadership at ULI has been both at the national and local San Diego level including Chair of the San Diego-Tijuana District Council, Chair of the CDC Gold Product Council, and on the national programs committee. Her role in PCBC, a leading California residential building conference, has been diverse; she has served on the board, on programs, and on strategic planning for the show. She has been a featured speaker at Urban Land Insitute, PCBC, American Marketing Association, and the International Downtown Association.

 

Pete Garcia

For nine years, Pete served as President and CEO of University Mechanical & Engineering Contractors, a major construction and engineering company with yearly revenues of over $200 million and approximately 1,000 employees. He later consulted for several companies, including Walt Disney Imagineering. Pete is also a partner with David Malmuth in I.D.E.A. Partners, LLC and developed IDEA1 as part of the I.D.E.A. District – a unique urban, mixed-use project in downtown San Diego focusing on Innovation, Design, Education, and Art. In public service, he is a Past-Chairman of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Foundation, Past-Chairman of the Board of AVID Center, and Past Vice-Chair of the State of California Commission for Economic Development.

Friends of Downtown