Converted from a Holiday Inn hotel to a residential apartment complex, The Mod at Midtown leans into the mid-century modern design style established by its past. The structure's facelift leverages as much of the existing space as possible, unifying the building as a place that remains competitive in new markets. It's got a new spin, but it still harkens back to the retro aesthetics of the late 60's. Utilizing strategic efficiencies within the renovation process to contain costs, expedite construction, and complete the project in a sustainable fashion, the project team embraced the existing structure, room layouts, and utilities of the Holiday Inn to turn the old, run-down hotel into an affordable-by-design residential project in a desirable area. Standing out as the only construction in the area with splashes of color, gradient cladding defines and differentiates The Mod at Midtown as a modern, yet eclectic, place to live. The façade is broken up in a way that creates unique perspectives and a larger design element that is visible from the street. Opportunities for branding collateral via large panels for murals and signage adorn the exterior of the structure, connecting the building to the thriving art scene and local Sacramento landmark Graffiti Alley.

Menlo Park is one of the most desirable addresses in Northern California, with a vibrant downtown, adjacency to Stanford University, and easy access to the culture and beauty of the San Francisco Bay Area. But finding housing that feels like home in this technology mecca can be a challenge. Middle Plaza is a three-building, 215-unit residential complex designed and built for Stanford University faculty, staff, alumni and affiliates. As the Interiors team on this vital addition to downtown Menlo Park, our Urban Living team was charged to create elevated living environments that provide both respite from and essential ties to the lively university town that surrounds the 8.4 acre site. Our Urban Living team designed the common amenity spaces to be versatile and conducive to planned and impromptu social interactions. Going far beyond the typical amenity lounge, these spaces boast game and media rooms, chef-worthy kitchens for larger upscale entertaining, wellness and fitness studios, and focus rooms to extend the work-from-home possibilities beyond each residence. Each of the three building’s common areas has a bespoke design and unique “vibe,” giving residents the ability to customize their experiences based on their needs, or even frame of mind, truly curating their choices. Knowing how important it is to stand out in a multi-unit multi-family residence, the amenity spaces are purposefully designed to be aesthetically harmonious inviting multiple age groups to enjoy them at once, cultivating community that ultimately leads to happier, healthier, more connected residents. An inside-out approach to the one- and two-bedroom residences takes advantage of Menlo Park’s temperate climate and nearly 300 days of sunshine each year. Light-filled with a seamless flow to patio spaces dotted with all-season and native plantings, the wellness benefits of satisfying residents’ innate biophilia are abundant. While the city outside is bustling, a warm palette and elegantly simple fixtures and finishes lend a relaxed and tranquil feel, enabling essential reconnection to oneself and one’s family. Thanks to the futures thinking approach, the Urban Living team tapped into the increasing trend of “forever renters,” designing each residence to function as an adaptive and evolving space, rather than the revolving door of a typical apartment community. The result is a living space with both an immediate and lasting sense of home.

Park Fifth continues LA’s lineage of urban life with newfound energy and style. Together with our client, MacFarlane Partners, our Architecture and Interiors teams designed a timeless, curated living experience for LA professionals. The 25-story luxury tower of housing and retail captures the legacy and allure of Pershing Square and offers residents access to a world of high design. Park Fifth's full-height marquee element and floor-to-ceiling windows echo the grand theater scale of the former Philharmonic Auditorium. Welcoming residents and guests at the entry, a custom-designed laser-cut, granite slab at the tower’s base honors the rich, artful story of the historic building. Inside, refined, sculpture-like finishes complete the sophisticated amenity spaces and highly appointed residences. Creating the mixed-use tower combined our expertise in urban living design, 3D modeling technology, urban infill, and historical research. By working closely with the City of Los Angeles, we were able to redefine the city's 240-foot height restrictions and create a 360-degree rooftop amenity experience offering panoramic views and complete with a pool, bar, lounge and fitness area. As one of the first of its kind in the city, the innovation paved a path for future high-rises to come.

Inspired by the site's history, our interior design concept for Trademark hinges on kinetic motion, contrast, and reflection. We fuse Art Deco style with elegant, abstract interpretations of train travel to bring residents aboard an experience of effortless living and contextual luxury. Trademark’s dynamic, ground-level leasing lobby encourages activity and social connections between staff and residents. The hospitality-inspired feel is reinforced through the use of natural stones, warm wood textures, luxe metals & mirrored ceilings. Upholstered front concierge desk and integrated illumination are reminiscent of glamorous train car appointments The materials are used to create an elegant, modern, and enduring bridge between past and present. Bronze metal above the leasing desk artfully recalls the scale and form of train tracks. Decorative lamps provide the intimate, warm glow throughout the space, reflecting brilliantly against wood and metal accents that highlight the custom wall covering mural behind the built-in concierge desk. Beyond the lobby, Art Deco-inspired metal screens and patterning serve as wayfinding elements that guide residents through key transition areas; they are a cohesive welcoming feature when entering or exiting elevators, units, or amenity spaces. Customized unit entry signage and lighting completes the hospitality feel of our design. The clubroom and outdoor courtyard on the third level are the “extended living room” of the luxury residence. Complete with space to entertain guests, take a fitness class, or relax in a private cabana beside the pool, our design coordinates each space to create a collective amenity retreat in the heart of DTLA.

Montrose is a reflection of the Prometheus brand that delivers a home—crafted with regional influence and curated to inspire. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the interior design syncs the brand with the context and creator culture of the area through branded expressions, strong geometric forms, dynamic art, and vibrant colors. In true California style, our design centers on outdoor amenity space, offering enclaves for entertaining, working, and reflection. Residents can start their day with a quiet sunrise meditation and end it with an intimate cocktail party on the rooftop lounge. Inside, bolder design elements interlock with subtler, traditionally crafted materials, creating a home as inspiring as the people who live there.

With an eye for regional context and aesthetic attractions that transcend demographics, we designed the interiors of two distinct luxury residences for Raintree Partners in Sunnyvale, California to appeal the area’s growing, diverse population. Now, people from all walks of life call the high-end apartment community of Encasa home. For each building, we integrated custom iron work, patterns, and tile to reflect the Spanish Mission architectural aesthetic. But Parcel I translates the style through an intricate, traditional lens, and Parcel II is diametrically refined and contemporary. A sophisticated mix of leasing, co-working, lounge spaces, and private work suites further differentiate the two residences and space for outdoor living & entertaining connects each residence to the lush surrounding landscape. Encasa Apartments are resort-style living for Silicon Valley employees and their families.

Guided by our client’s vision for a rich, warm, resort-like experience, our design team transformed the town center of Covenant Living at Mt. Miguel, a well-loved senior-living campus in San Diego, into a modern and peaceful community center. For residents and their families, their new town center is a place to gather, reconnect, and celebrate their sense of shared pride. It’s flexible yet coherent, rustic yet unmistakably high-end. Our Santa Barbara Spanish Colonial design has become the heart of this community and an icon of Covenant Living at Mt. Miguel new comprehensive plan.

St. Paul’s Plaza is a four-story senior community designed to give underserved people in Chula Vista assisted living and memory care that feels rooted, inviting, and homey, not institutional. Significantly, our work began by interviewing seniors and families of residents at our client’s other communities, learning how they spend time with each other and what they wanted most. Their insights inform almost every aspect of our architectural and interior design for St. Paul’s Plaza—from playground space for seniors and children, to private areas built for cooking family meals, to the landmark clock tower and massing that responds gracefully to nearby retail across a busy commercial street. A grand yet comfortable community anchored to the Otay Ranch neighborhood and open to Southern California’s mild climate, St. Paul’s Plaza is a place that belongs.

In the heart of California’s wine country, the Meadows at Napa Valley Senior Living Life Plan Community was long overdue to remodel and expand their primary amenity building. Designed to support the active lives of local residents who want to grow old without leaving their community, The Meadows’s new space creates a sophisticated yet relaxed, friendly, and engaged atmosphere. From its new pool and fitness center to its refined dining venues, our expansion for The Meadows brings people together through shared activities and strong connections to their wider Napa community.

The first fully affordable housing project to break ground in San Francisco’s vibrant and diverse Mission District in 10 years, Avanza 490 holds a place for formerly homeless and extremely low-income families and individuals to call home. Our design for 490 South Van Ness balances the need to create the maximum number of units possible with high standards for wellness and livability. For this seven-story, mixed-use building of 81 affordable and family-friendly apartments, we worked closely with local community agencies to integrate on-site support services—including stabilization programs, health and wellness resources for children, youth, adults, and families, and leadership training—so residents no longer have to leave the building to get the help they need.

A person’s wellbeing relies not only on their physical health and safety, but on their social and emotional health too. The senior living nonprofit Jewish Home of San Francisco recognizes this truth. It’s part of what guides their mission to help people age gracefully. Understanding this, we helped Jewish Home of San Francisco transform their nine-acre, 130-year-old urban campus into an oasis. Three concepts—discovery, equity, and beauty—underpin our work, as expressed through two new aspects and a comprehensive campus plan. The Frank Residences building serves memory care and assisted living with 190 units. Byer Square is the campus’s new community center, open to the public. The project’s urban design, three distinct parks, and highly visible green spaces, were developed with VMWP and refined with community stakeholders. This renewed campus for Jewish Home of San Francisco serves as a refuge and social hub, strengthening ties between the nonprofit, residents, and the surrounding community.

Capstone Development Partners came to us with a complex design opportunity. Could we help fulfill San Diego State University’s need for dense student housing one block south of campus, in a neighborhood of single-family homes, while aesthetically and socially fitting in? Our key approach: Community outreach. By listening actively and carefully to project and community stakeholders, as well as local jurisdiction, we learned what the community needed and what concerned them about misaligned visual aesthetics, more traffic, and noise. With their input and ongoing collaboration throughout the project’s design phases, we refined its scale, outcomes, and aesthetic, and met both SDSU’s and the community’s needs. Our courtyard design for M@ College, provides a new student housing option of 327 beds in one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments, delivers on the school’s required density of units. Not only did our collaborative approach meet the project’s design outcomes, it delivers student housing that beautifully integrates with its surroundings.

Needing to breathe new renovation life into their San Diego Life Planned Community, Casa de las Campanas contacted Ankrom Moisan. With our broad expertise not only in senior living but also in hospitality, we saw opportunities to create a beautiful, functional new core from their over 25-year-old facility—to build up, enhance, and reuse instead of tearing down. One of Casa de las Campanas’s primary requirements was giving their residents more access to outdoor space. Wellness too, in all its forms, was critical. Our team understood that what was healthy, peaceful, and restorative for current residents would also draw future residents. By balancing what current residents need with what future residents want, our design finds transformative ways to speak to both.

Nestled right between San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, the Market Street corridor, and the Mission, 1 Franklin is luxury mid-rise housing whose striking design fully integrates with its eclectic urban community. We accomplished this by gradually extending the scale and architectural language of Market Street, arguably one of the most important streets in San Francisco—not with a high rise but with an intimate condominium of eight stories—and by earning strong community support throughout 1 Franklin’s development.

Part of the 5M Development, a large-scale community plan for San Francisco’s historic Chronicle Site on 5th and Mission, The George tower is one of the city’s largest housing developments. Our design for this 21-story high rise embraces the authentic, dynamic culture of SoMa, delivering a bold statement of individuality and functionality. A mix of 302 units, the tower’s amenities appeal to a socially conscious, tech-centric community and brings much-needed housing in this evolving neighborhood.

An underutilized, city-owned parking lot for decades, a site at the north end of San Jose’s Japantown will soon be a bustling center of life and activity. Our plan combines housing and retail with open, public areas for the residents, neighbors, and guests to celebrate, shop, and connect to one another. It’s an extension of Japantown’s energetic commercial hub that brings the new and existing communities together.

Nearly a million people live in San Francisco. High prices and limited schools makes living in the city a challenge for many young families, and the need for multi-family housing, perpetual. Mason on Mariposa brings one of the first new multi-family living developments to the Potrero Hill neighborhood. Our team proudly served as Executive Architect for the development that provides 299 new homes and retail across 3.5 acres. A publicly accessible greenway from Mariposa Street to the 18th Street retail corridor and nearby elementary school make the three-building development an ideal home base. The three residential buildings were an undertaking of complex design, engineering, and construction. As Executive Architect, we planned and coordinated every aspect of the architecture, from initial permitting to final completion. Working alongside our client and three separate design architect teams, we brought hundreds of new, desperately needed homes to the city.

How does an established global retail brand engage thousands of sports fans, follow their brand standards, and push the experience forward into an original moment? Through expert coordination, streamlined communication, and smart, informed decisions that bring the client’s vision to life. The result is a brand-specific, completely original retail brand experience at a 3,100 SF bank inside a major urban sporting facility.

On former parking lot adjacent to one of the busiest BART stations in San Francisco, right up against the I-580 freeway in Oakland, we imagined an entirely new place for people to live and play. Transforming the site’s car-centered history—car shops, garages, parking—into a small, lively, pedestrian-oriented village, our mid-rise housing project of MacArthur Commons now contributes 400 homes, retail and flex space, and a public mews at an intimately residential scale. Even though we refined it, re-centered it from cars to people, we kept this new place grounded in its historic past. Street-level pathways, community courtyards, and the people-friendly landscapes of MacArthur Commons add to the area’s culture and overall spirit. Its colorful, visually compelling design welcomes travelers, many departing the nearby BART station, to this artistic and vibrant neighborhood in central Oakland.