San Diego Convention Center

The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center in San Diego, California. It is located in the downtown waterfront area of 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 created by the City of San Diego. The company also manages the San Diego Civic Theatre through its subsidiary, the San Diego Theatres. The convention center offers 615,700 square feet (57,200 square meters) of exhibition space. As of 2009, it was the 24th largest convention facility in North America. It was designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. The facility has a capacity of 125,000 people.

The center's most distinctive feature is the Sails Pavilion, a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 square meters) exhibition and special events area. The roof of the Sails Pavilion is composed of unique fiberglass 'sails' coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is intended to reflect San Diego's maritime history and promote the center's proximity to the San Diego coast. The pavilion was originally built as an open-air facility under the roof. However, the center found it difficult to persuade potential users to book the open-air facility, so in 2000, the exhibit hall area was enclosed with glass, greatly expanding the center's usable area. Renovation of the Sails Pavilion began in December 2016. The renovation of the Sails Pavilion was completed at the end of February 2018, adding a programmable LED lighting system. Another unusual feature of the convention center is its inclined elevators, which rise along the large exterior staircase.