Project Experience:

Pretty pictures tell a story. If you peruse our portfolio you will see that we have extensive essential services facility and State of California, Division of Architect (DSA or OSA) experience. So what does that mean? If means we have experience working on fire stations, police stations and educational facilities like community colleges. These particular buildings in the State of California, require a higher level of oversight where building codes are concerned. We are public architecture architects on top of being sustainable architects.
It means we have experience dealing with more stringent building codes and more difficult permitting processes. We can work with different public agencies, city staff requirements and are able to work with different communities and user groups. Basically, we have the ability to work with any client group, big or small.
What this means, for public projects is that you have a firm committed to producing and overseeing a project from start to finish. We want to create buildings that help change and create better communities and we hope to do so by designing sustainable buildings.
For a private client or developer this means that by selecting us, you have a firm that knows the "ropes". Most public projects have tight budgets, which means that we know how to deliver functional and good looking buildings on tight (but realistic) budgets.

We understand what it takes to evaluate a building's design and understand where we can get the most impact. That is to spend money where necessary, to research, find and evaluate materials and products that will function well, and which will stand the rigors of normal wear, usage and service.
Please understand that we are not advocating "cheap" buildings. You do get what you pay for. What we mean is because of our technical abilities, we can detail and design building components in a way that is cost effective. In other words if the market today means a building of a certain type and quality is being built for $340-$480 a square foot (these numbers are presented as an example only), we have the experience to stay within the range barring sudden or unexpected changes to the economy or market forces (or if there are client required additions). A design firm without that technical ability could potentially end up above that range.

We have the added advantage of being trained and familiar with the National Park Services "Choosing by Advantages" approach to project budgets. A process centered around selectively fine tuning a project to maintain quality while staying on budget.