Made by and for people who love San Diego Tijuana

The idea for 'Places We Love: San Diego Tijuana' was first planted way back in 2012. Author Megan Groth was in Helsinki during their World Design Capital year and picked up a similarly sized photo guidebook to local culture and nightlife at a bookshop on Senate Square. The book was bold, edgy and electric – and conveyed the excitement of the city in something that you could put in your bag and take with you.

When she moved back to San Diego from London in 2018, Megan found the Helsinki book in her boxes and started thinking about putting together something like it for San Diego. Life happened and it wasn't until San Diego and Tijuana were jointly awarded the 2024 World Design Capital (and after the experience of being a parent during the pandemic lockdowns) that she got to work.

Megan began the project by reconnecting with a high school classmate (who happened to be the founder of Raygun and a brilliant designer) and crowdsourcing place suggestions from as many people as possible via email, online forms and forums, text messages and casual conversations. One collaboration led to another and another and a year later, 'Places We Love: San Diego Tijuana' was released.

This book was only possible because of the incredible community of friends, colleagues and San Diego Tijuana artists that have supported it with their enthusiasm, talent and generosity.

Megan Groth is an architect, urbanist, author and educator based in San Diego, California. She is the Practice Coordinator for Woodbury University School of Architecture and teaches professional practice at the San Diego campus in Barrio Logan. Prior to Woodbury, she lived in London where she taught at Oxford Brookes University and was the Publication Manager at the London School of Economics Cities Research Center. While at LSE Cities, she managed and edited the book 'Shaping Cities in an Urban Age' (Phaidon, 2018).

Megan holds a Bachelors of Biology from Pomona College, Masters of Architecture from the University of Washington and a Masters of Sociology in City Design from the London School of Economics. She is the recipient of the 2023 University of Washington School of Architecture Graduate of the Last Decade Award, the 2020 ACSA & Buell Center Course Development Prize and was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. Megan is a member of the Transborder Association of Architectural Education and AIA San Diego Regional Design Advisory Council. She was raised in North County San Diego and now lives in North Park with her family.

On behalf of the entire team, we hope you enjoy looking through and reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Community launch party
— Nov 30, 2023