San Diego Convention Center

The San Diego Convention Center is the main convention center for the city of San Diego, California. It is located in the Marina district of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive. The center is managed by the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, a non-profit public benefit corporation.

The convention center offers 525,701 square feet (48,839 square meters) of exhibit space. As of 2005 it was the 21st largest convention facility in North America. [http://www.sdccc.org/aboutus/history.cfm] It was designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson.

The center's most distinguishing feature is the Sails Pavilion, its central hallway. The hallway's roof consists of distinctive Teflon-coated fiberglass "sails" intended to reflect San Diego's maritime history, as well as to advertise the center's proximity to the San Diego shore.

History

San Diego voters approved a measure to fund construction of a new convention center in 1983 on land owned by the Port of San Diego. Construction of the original building began in March 1987 and was completed in November 1989. An expansion which doubled the gross square footage of the facility was completed in September 2001.

Notable events hosted at the convention center include the annual Comic Con convention, the annual ToorCon hacker conference, Wizards of the Coast's 2001 Super Trainer Showdown for the Pokémon Trading Card Game and an episode of "Antiques Roadshow". Television game show Wheel of Fortune did live tapings of shows at the Convention Center featuring contestants from the San Diego area that aired nationally in 1997, 2003 and 2007. It was also the venue for the 1996 Republican National Convention.

External links

* [http://www.sdccc.org/ Convention Center website]
* [http://www.portofsandiego.org/ Port of San Diego website]
* [http://www.yellowbikecab.com/ Convention Ad Campaign Pedicab Outdoor Advertising ]
* [http://www.vippedicab.com/advertise.htm San Diego Convention Advertising]

succession box
title = Host of the
Republican National Convention
years = 1996
before = Astrodome
after = First Union Center