Breaking The Mold of Monotonous Urban Design: A Trip To Solana Beach & Cedros Avenue Design District

San Diego lines up second behind Los Angeles in terms of fostering the trend of suburban sprawl at Solana Beach.

To get from point A to point B nearly always requires boarding an interstate freeway in a personal vehicle. Regional public transit simply doesn’t exist due to the unavoidable infrastructure costs of funding bus or metro lines. Instead, San Diego County has turned to improving the freeway infrastructure by adding a network of carpool and fast-track lanes, further encouraging the prevalence of vehicular traffic. Regardless of the auto-dependent nature of the city as a whole, well-designed streets still exist throughout the county. One of these is Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach.

Cedros Avenue forms the core of the Solana Beach design district, a once dilapidated plot dedicated to industrial zoned warehouses fronting the railroad tracks. Ultimately, over the last twenty years, the city has taken the initiative to redesign the area as a new, eclectic, hip place of congregation for local residents and tourists alike. Hints of the previous environment allude to the history of the area, namely the old homes and garages that have since been converted into retail spaces. The street and the surrounding environment provide an essence of a highly designed environment. Aluminum benches appear sporadically up and down the boulevard amongst a variety of electrical boxes that have been painted by local artists. Street trees and foliage in front of and aside local businesses match the coastal California aesthetic, along with the addition of the iconic palm trees so often associated with Southern California. Not only do these elements provide Cedros Avenue with a particular identity, but they also help to cultivate a space that attracts and encourages people to interact with not only the businesses, but also the built environment.

Characteristic of the aforementioned vehicular trends, nearly everyone who interacts with the design district of Solana Beach drives there. Ample and free street parking in addition to auxiliary lots serving specific businesses tend to further promote this habit. A speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour, a plethora of speed bumps and the aesthetics of crosswalk design on the street, however, help classify this street as a pedestrian dominated environment. So, whether you’re coming for a cup of coffee, vintage memorabilia, clothing shopping, or just poking around, check out Cedros Avenue!

Cedros Avenue is located: 410 S Cedros Ave Solana Beach, CA 92075

Louis Alcorn

As a San Diego native, Louis lives by his ultimate travel tip: take a minute in each place you visit to collect your thoughts and write them down. They tend to be invaluable when you look back in the future.