The portions of the building facing the public roadways represent the web, with its chaos and vulnerabilities: the braced, irregular, glazed facade is built at the minimum allowed setback on the South and East edges of the site, and it contains the office spaces with the executive penthouse on the top floor.  Glare is reduced using darkened glass, while on the south there are also louvers. The green roof helps cooling the building during the hot periods of the year.
On the west side, a massive, double walled mechanical concrete "Spine" functions has a figurative protection for the courtyard and the rest of the site, occupied by other existing buildings of the same company. The "Spine" holds most of the mechanical and service elements of the building, and on the West side its dark color and uniform large surface absorbs the sun radiations and prevents the office spaces from overheating.  Additional heat exchange can be achieved by running water systems within the large concrete mass.
Two separate blocks are cladded in solar panels and provide opportunity for separate elements of the program: on the South, the Executive Briefing Center, while on the North the underground Service yard, and the Amenity area.
The Solar Orchard lays in the inner court, and provides additional renewable power production, while its pool provides freshness and moisture to the communal amenity space.

These are studies I produced for the hotel portion of a larger commercial development.  After some initial options, the designed focused on the hexagonal pods motives, which echoed the 3D hexagonal design of the storefronts, already proposed to the client.

This project was (obviously) inspired by one of the Eichler homes.

This project proposed an addition to an existing chalet in Mill Valley. The addition was composed of a expanded open kitchen, double height dining space, and a remodeled living room.

After the Schematic Design phase was completed by the the initial architect, we took over the design development of this interior remodeling, eventually producing the Planning Review set, and the Permit Set.

For this existing home, the client asked us to design a number of different items: the living room, the family room, the staircase, and the front and back yards. In the backyard, we also designed a new, detached  wine cellar.

This project provides 95% of all electrical power required by the 3 buildings on the site, totaling 120,000 SF. The geometry of the site requred us to design 6 different solar panel supporting structures, including an elegant solar tree. The solar tree utilizes the double HIT Sanyo panel which outputs 10 to 15% more power thanks to the ambient lighting captured on the back of the panel.

The following animation shows how the solar trees can be shipped flat, planted on site, and unfolded to receive the array of solar panels.

A few years back, Chong Partners designed the community center for an indian Nation, in northern California. The Tribal Council Chambers were added to the north of the site, adjacent to the school building. The relationship with the gathering hall building, the ellipse in the center of the existing composition, has been a major design factor for the council chambers. After we proposed a few massing studies, the client selected a "regular", hortogonal design which fits the contextual buildings and does not compete with the existing elliptical hall. Solar panels, hydronic slabs, and motorized operable glazing and shades, are all part of the sustainable features which make this a zero energy building. The building was designed and documented mostly in Revit. I have been the Project Architect from schematic design through 50% CDs.

After I was involved in the late master plan design and visualization for a proposed new Oilers arena, while at Stantec, I decided to pursue my original concept of the "swirling" open plaza (from the north) and green park (from the south) that generate the geometry of the arena itself, at their intersection. The arena has two concrete, organic wings: one perforated to become a large truss, to the north and east; and one more solid, to the south and west. The perforated, glazed wing allows both for a visual connection with the large plaza to the north, and northern light to flood the circulation galleria within it.

Adverse financial conditions prevented this house in Marin County from being built.

This project included the addition of 3 stories to the existing concrete frame garage. The planning officials at the City of San Jose required the elevation on Winchester Blvd. to be "broken" down and varied, both in heights, colors and materials. Therefore I had to reconsider the original design that we developed to win this project, a sleek metal mesh wrapping the concrete frame. Ultimately, the metal mesh was replaced by a more colorful and differentiated set of elements. EIFS panels, a long fiberglass cornice, metal louvers, and glazed "shopping" windows provided the requested playfulnes and variation. The project was modeled and documented in Revit, and I followed it through CA.

The Chong Partners Sacramento office proposed this project for the Performing Arts Center and School, together with residential and commercial components. The redevelopment site is the old Sacramento Railroad yard with its brick and steel historic industrial buildings. After the initial master planning, Chong Partners developed a schematic design for the Performing Arts Center, which included a 1600 seats theater. I participated in the schematic design of the whole site, but then focused on the theater and plaza, further developing the facade, the lobby/foyer, and their relationship with the adjacent public space.

This project was developed to the SD phase, as an important waterfront development in Sausalito. It features a storage building, an industrial two story building with roll-up doors for the shops on the ground floor; and an elegant office component at the most visible portion of the site, the tip toward the marina. This building also provides a plaza with restaurant / cafe' open to the general public.

Toirano is a medieval borgo laying in the hillside of the northern-Italian Liguria region, 3 kilometers from the sea. I was asked by the major to design a feature that would improve the presence of the borgo from the provincial street, which connects it to the rest of the region. Located on the provincial street itself, only a couple of blocks from the entry to the borgo, this open, public plaza wants to slow potential tourists and redirect them toward the borgo. A short circular wall, at the end of a pedestrian amphitheater, offers a prime location for a stainless steel sign reading the name of the borgo. At the same time, the plaza respects and preserves the trees planted here at the end of WWII as commemoration of the citizens fallen in the conflict. Having visited the borgo several times, I paid special attention to the materials currently in use in the existing historical buildings as well as the new ones. The original design called for split face local stones, cobble stones, wood, and a shallow pool of water.

This project was a proposal submitted to a potential high-end silicon valley client. When I was asked to visualize the building, there was a wood block model of the campus, and some old studies for the elevations. I therefore created a new Revit model, and begun to design and render the building, interpreting the campus concept design.

This project was part of a competition’s entry for SFGH master plan, in partnership with SmithGroup, San Francisco office. After a preliminary team space planning, I began the design of the entry pavillion, to be nested between the brutalist modern hospital to the East, the new replacement tower (unbuilt) to the West, and the neo-romanesque, red brick and terracotta building to the South-West. For the competition, most effort was spent on the main waiting lobby and the front desk areas, which were to provide a welcoming entry point from two distinct directions: South (from the garage and vehicular drop-off) and West (the pedestrian entry from Potrero Ave.).
After the submission of the competition I focused on the design of the entry pavillion. With its dramatic double height slanted glazed wall, this space provides an ample seating area, a cafe’, a corner for a large art piece, and the West entrance to the hospital. Below the interior glazing of the community room on the second floor, a dropped cloud ceiling helps to define the circulation toward the front desk. Materials include exposed aggregate sand blasted concrete for the columns, glossy two-colors terrazzo for the pavements, wood veneer paneling for the custom cabinetry, painted steel cable bracings and tube columns for the curtain wall, and horizontal terracotta tiles for accent walls.

California Academy of the Arts is a unique partnership of professional theater companies and primary and secondary educational facilities on an urban site, geared toward providing theater patrons with unparalleled experiences, and allowing students the opportunity to learn along side professional actors and crew. The complex comprises four theater venues: 1500 seat theater, 600 seat theater, 200 seat flexible use theater, and 100 seat flexible use theater. Educational and rehearsal space for the visual and performing arts is directly adjacent to the theater complex – facilitating an integrated learning experience for primary/secondary students, as well as BFA candidates.
The California Academy of the Arts forms the centerpiece for the new public piazza in the Rail-yards, developed by Thomas Enterprises in Sacramento, California. Full production facilities to support the theaters are also on site. The complex envisions planted outdoor roof gardens for use before and after theatrical events, or for private and public events. The project has been envisioned by many of the major arts groups in the region, including Sacramento Theater Company, California Musical Theater, Sacramento Ballet, Capitol Stage, Sacramento Choral Society, Sacramento Philharmonic, among others.

This 242,317 Sq.Ft. leasable area addition project includes the expansion of Macy's, JCPenney, and Sears, space for 100 new stores, 2 parking garages, a new 50% bigger dining terrace consisting of 820 seats, relocation of Crate & Barrel, and numerous changes to the Promenade. In particular, a new and enhanced indoor shopping promenade was designed, completed with three major spatial nodes: the South node, the new Main Entry space, and the North node. I have been involved since schematic design thru 100% Construction Documents. In the early phase of design, I developed a Revit model whose exports made up for over 75% of the entire pricing set for the project. Later, during design development and CD phases, I focused on the main entry node, with its glazed moment frame toward the exterior plaza, the large canopy, and the pedestrian bridge at the second level.

This project explores different options for the remodeling and conversion into a domestic terminal of the San Francisco Internation Airport Terminal 2, formerly the international terminal, closed in 2000. Several schematic designs were developed, paying attention to the deficiencies of the current building, and the ever-changing needs of a new domestic terminal. The study proposes increasing levels of intervention, from a simple remodeling of the existing building to its almost complete demolition and replacement. In all schemes, Boarding Area D is mostly preserved since its current design already serves efficiently the highest number of gates possible.
I was one of the designers in the team, and below are shown my contributions to the final proposal.

This waterfront development included industrial, storage and office components. A wood boat construction school was also to be preserved in the program, as an existing artisanship center linked to the history of the place. The site occupies half of the historic shipyard which built all the Liberty ships during WWII.

This was a relatively fast master planning exercise, where I rendered the site plans and the perspectives from the same 3D Studio MAX scene. Several options for office, lab and parking expansion were analized and proposed.

This master plan explored the addition of 3M square foot of new office space to the existing campus, including the required parking, and public open spaces. Several concept design schemes were produced and presented.

These are options for the Hilltop site of the Genentech South San Francisco campus. Also, we developed the graphics for a general campus site plan.

This is my proposal for rebuilding New-York Ground Zero. I also produced the animation below.