Coronado San Diego

Coronado Home Receives Award for Green Construction

LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system. Achieving LEED recognition is not easy. It involves extreme effort on behalf of the architects, designers and builders from conception to completion. It adds time and expense to a project, but the end result radiates from the intense preparations that go into it. “Lots of thought went into this,” said Mitchell. “Big houses are at a disadvantage for LEED presentations right off, so we knew going in that we had our work cut out for us. Still, we did this because it was the right thing to do. Our whole criterion was based on achieving this end result. We’re very pleased.”

When driving by Bella Vista, it’s not readily apparent what treasures lie within those unpretentious Spanish-styled walls. “We intentionally wanted to blend into the neighboring community no matter how difficult the challenge,” said Mitchell. “It would have been easy to create a grand palace with large, heavy doors and a massive presence. Certainly the size of the property could have sustained such a palace.” Most days, as the twilight hues engulf San Diego Bay, Mitchell can be found on his large paddleboard maneuvering along the waters just off Bella Vista, admiring his handiwork and appropriately feeling a larger part of that history.

Bella Vista is featured on the cover of this month’s San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine , a major prize unto itself. The article, by veteran journalist David Coddon, starts out, “Coronado’s Bella Vista manse is architecturally supreme, responsibly green and a sight to be seen.”

The home is unpretentious, yet unbridled elegance. Of the roughly 38 lots on this bay side of First Street, Bella Vista is one of the few homes where bay and street lots are combined. “Someone rich and famous could live here and no one would know,” said Mitchell. The entire home gently steps down to the water to avoid a heavy presence, and offers a breathtaking 180-degree view that takes in San Diego Bay from the Coronado Bridge north to Point Loma.

Mitchell’s previous projects have demonstrated a wide variety ranging from quaint alley homes to large estates along the golf course. For years he has held a fascination with Santa Barbara Spanish-style homes, which is romantically evident in this latest project.

Getting from the San Diego airport to Coronado Island without a ...

I'm also a little confused about the post that said the cab fare was about $5. Although the line-of-sight distance is not very far, to get there by car, you have to get out of town to I-5, take I-5 south to the Coronado Bridge exit, cross the bridge, and then drive a couple of miles across the island. I'd gues the $30-$40 estimate is much more accurate.

Fodor's San Diego

Coronado Beach, San Diego, California

Fodor's 2007 San Diego

Fodor's 2010 San Diego, With North County and Tijuana

Coastal California