Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley (Done under the leadership of Charles Moore, Chairman of the Architecture Departments at UC Berkeley, Yale and U of Texas.)

A building committee and a fundraising committee were set up by Dean Miles and the initial funds were given by Walter Haas and his family.

At the start of the design process, the building committee and stakeholders were shown buildings from campuses around the world and asked to select the ones they most preferred. That became the design direction of the ivy-covered arches and courtyards.

The house is located on top of a levee and has views of two rivers on one side and the owner’s island on the other.  

The heating and cooling system was designed to use the river water for heat exchange with an underfloor plenum that provides tempered air and radiant floors. 

The last photo is a 2D art piece based on the site plan of the property.

We designed the building along with Sim Van Der Ryn, State Architect, to be the textbook for building energy management.

Every viable energy saving innovation known was included and illustrated in the building. In addition the corridors are wide and equipped with lecterns, elevated seating and natural light to provide numerous informal places for learning.

The building was equipped with both radiant floors system as well a forced-air system, each in a separate half of the building. All systems in the building were monitored with sensors and then shown in real time on displays in the lobby.

This was the first building in the United States to be awarded a LEED Platinum award for a college building.

The City of Morgan Hill needed a facility to house their public service objectives and include a classroom building for Gavilan College.

We provided a “Law of the Andes” Spanish colonial master plan with a large plaza at the center of the activities. These included a ballroom, large auditorium, kitchen, children's activities center, a band shell, art displays, offices and Gavilan College.

We included custom light fixtures, drapes, natural lighting, and extensive landscaping all connected by archways.

The building started life as a winery in 1875 with thick gravity stone walls that were starting to fail.

We converted it to the Clayton City Hall that included the police department and City offices. An immense redwood beam 18”X 36” extended for over 80’ through the center of the building.

Damage was noted from earthquakes, so we stabilized the walls by boring holes vertically to the new foundations and inserted a horizontal steel frame to knit it all together.

These historically important buildings no longer accommodated the functions of the City and had become badly deteriorated.

We designed the interiors to meet the new functions and designed the renovation of the exteriors.

The station serves all air and surface transportation modes and was the largest station in BART. It included a connector to SFO, heavy rail, light rail, bus, taxi and autos. The task was to cover a multistory building with a fabric roof/steel structure and include all the equipment needed for the BART operation.

As requested by the city of Richmond, we designed a strong visual landmark to add energy to a depressed area of the city.

The site was congested by a heavy railroad on one side and BART rails on the other and all connected by a tunnel to the lobbies of each transportation mode.

Earlier we had done the 9 block of Japan Center in San Francisco and were asked to convert the Kabuki theater into a multiplex for AMC.

I removed most of the many kabuki stages and created a lobby with a 130’ skylight and opened 3 stories of corridor to the lobby and street. The light spilling out to the street added warmth and activity to the entire Japan Center.

It is still the theater for the annual cherry blossom festival.

This Beaux Arts building was selected in a national design competition in 1912. The building suffered serious damage in the Loma Prieta earthquake and we assisted the City with emergency repairs then went on to design the repairs and code upgrades to the entire building. This included the removal of years of temporary offices and their systems, and to reveal the historic fabric of every room in the building. We were ably assisted for the interiors work by interior designer Marie Fisher, and associated architects Michael Willis.

We assisted the City of Oakland with the Office of Emergency Services, FEMA and other agencies to secure the funding.

We chose to use a base-isolation system from Australia to isolate the building from future earthquakes, and carefully wove additional steel frames, shear walls and other structural elements into the building without affecting the original marble, cainstone, and terra cotta finishes.

We were honored with awards from the National Preservation Foundation and the State of California Preservation Foundation for its authenticity and structural innovation. It was the first high-rise preservation project in the US to be base-isolated and was a popular tour destination for groups of engineers from Australia, Japan and China.

We were retained to bring back two city blocks of old buildings (26 total) dating from 1865 to their former glory.

Now these blocks are restored and have become a vibrant meeting place for the citizens of Oakland.

The Center is comprised of several local rowing clubs such as the Lake Merritt Rowing Club, Oakland Strokes, Artemis RC, Berkeley RC and several others.

The site was provided by the Port of Oakland and funded by the City of Oakland.

It rests on 110' concrete piles reaching through the bay mud into dense clay. The site is on the Alameda Estuary and is all bay fill.

In addition to 5 boat bays, there is a multipurpose room above as well as conference rooms and a kitchen. The bays serve over a 110' floating dock.

Last observed, the boathouse serves over 300 bay area youth and 3 boat clubs.

This Amtrak station was able to fulfill a number of opportunities to improve the connectivity within the city of Oakland. It was located in an older industrial part of Oakland that needed a connection to the historic Jack London Waterfront on the other side of the tracks. For over a 125 years, the tracks have historically separated the city from its waterfront and it was time to consider better options. We included a bridge to the waterfront and to new high-density housing. Since this first bridge, several other bridges have been added to open even more connections.

On the same side of the tracks (city side) the station had to connect to an adjacent large parking structure and a park that commemorates porters from the historic days of railroading and includes public sculpture and artworks. The main entrance to the station is from this park.

The station also had to upgrade the depressed industrial area around the building and therefore have a strong presence on the street. This in part explains the high bay of the station as well as the color, artwork and transparent walls.

Since the station was the western terminus from Chicago, it had to handle large amounts of baggage and passengers and protect them during boarding.

Of all the stations built by Amtrak, this was the most ambitious and, we think, successful.