Architect: Building is 'very phallic'

The developer said his design for a 40-story resident tower proposed as a gateway to downtown San Diego looks like a flower. A city consultant said it looks like a giant phallus.

"With its rounded forms and swelling of the uppermost floors...this building structure is very phallic," wrote Gwynne Pugh, a Santa Monica architect hired by the downtown redevelopment agency to review building designs.

San Diego-based Sandor Shapery's proposal for a 160-unit hotel and condominium tower was expected to go before the redevelopment agency for initial feedback this month. Instead Shapery has asked for more time to "revisit" and perhaps "tone down" the design because he does not want to offend anyone.

"If it looks like a phallic symbol, someone has a strange perception," said Shapery, who was trying to create an "organic form." "You can find sex anywhere if you want to...There's just some sick people out there."

The building's architect C.W. Kim of La Jolla said the goal was to create a unique building.

"You know, it's the mediocre buildings that anyone can do," he said. "Anyone can do a square building."

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Information from: The San Diego Union-Tribune, http://www.signonsandiego.com