The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center

Convention center

A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...

 in San Diego, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. It is located in the Marina district

Marina, San Diego, California

The Marina district is a neighborhood in the southwest section of Downtown San Diego, California, U.S.-Geography:The district is bordered to the north by the Columbia district, bordered to east/south-east by the Gaslamp Quarter, and is bordered to the south-west by the San Diego Marina.This...

 of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive. The center is managed by the San Diego Convention Center Corporation

San Diego Convention Center Corporation

The San Diego Convention Center Corporation is a non-profit public benefit corporation created by the City of San Diego to manage and market the San Diego Convention Center...

, a non-profit public benefit corporation

Public benefit corporation

A public-benefit corporation is a public corporation chartered by a state designed to perform some public benefit.A public authority is a type of public-benefit corporation that takes on a more bureaucratic role, such as the maintenance of public infrastructure, that often has broad powers to...

.

The convention center offers 615,701 square feet (57,200 square meters) of exhibit space. As of 2009 it was the 24th largest convention facility in North America.http://www.sdccc.org/aboutus/history.cfm It was designed by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Arthur Erickson

Arthur Erickson

Arthur Charles Erickson, was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied Asian languages at the University of British Columbia, and later earned a degree in architecture from McGill University.-Biography:...

. Capacity for the facility is 125,000.

The center's most distinguishing feature is the Sails Pavilion, a 90000 square feet (8,361.3 m²) exhibit and special event area. The Sails Pavilion's roof consists of distinctive Teflon-coated fiberglass

Fiberglass

Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...

 "sail

Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...

s" intended to reflect San Diego's maritime history, as well as to advertise the center's proximity to the San Diego shore. The Pavilion was originally built as an open-air facility under the roof. However, the center found it hard to convince potential users to book an open-air facility, so the Pavilion area was enclosed in glass, greatly expanding the usable area of the center.

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

Port of San Diego

The Port of San Diego is a self-supporting public benefit corporation established in 1962 by an act of the California State Legislature. In 2007, The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics ranked the Port of San Diego as one of America's top 30 U.S. containership ports bringing in nearly of...

. 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. In September 2008 the center took steps to acquire adjacent property for an additional expansion.

Notable events hosted at the convention center include the annual Comic Con International

Comic-Con International

San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego , and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans...

 convention, the Society for Neuroscience and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention. 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. In 1996, it hosted the Republican National Convention, where Bob Dole

Bob Dole

Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...

 and Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp

Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...

 received the nomination. Dole-Kemp went on to loose to Clinton-Gore. It was also the venue for the 2007 California Democratic Party Convention. Famous guests have included Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

, Selena

Selena

Selena Quintanilla-Pérez , known simply as Selena, was a Mexican American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits...

, Halle Berry

Halle Berry

Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...

 and Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...

.

The new Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge

Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge

The Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge crosses Harbor Drive at Park Boulevard in San Diego, California. Completed in 2011, the bridge was built to accommodate pedestrian traffic from the Petco Park baseball stadium crossing to and from parking areas on the other side of Harbor Drive at the Hilton...

, opening in the spring of 2011, will link the Convention Center with the neighborhoods on the other side of Harbor Drive.