American Institute of Architects, East Bay Chapter recognizes Studio One Art Center
Studio One Art Center received a Citation for Architecture award from the East Bay Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Design team led by Harish and Jyoti Shah, the Studio One Art Center is the home for a City-run community arts program. Built in 1894 as an orphanage, the building was a 20,000 square foot, un-reinforced masonry and wood frame building. The Arts Center is a locally designated historic landmark and required extensive seismic reinforcement and upgrades to all its building systems. The project received a PG&E Savings by Design Award for its energy efficiency. The preservation goal was to maintain the historical character of the façade, while still giving it a new life and civic presence. To achieve these objectives, as well as serve the programmatic requirements of a modern arts center, the interior was completely gutted and redesigned to create functional and efficient spaces and flexible community spaces. A new entry forecourt was designed to better connect the project with the surrounding neighborhood and give the building a more prominent and civic street presence.
Oakland Fire Station No. 8 receives National Award recognition for the Society of American Registered Architects
City of Oakland Fire Station No. 8 recently received National Award recognition from the Society of American Registered Architects.
Design team led by Alan Kawasaki, Fire Station No. 8 is located in the Temescal district in Oakland. A 1950’s era fire station, which formerly occupied the site, was deemed seismically and environmentally unsafe to its occupants, and was torn down. It was imperative that the new station be designed, constructed and occupied in a record 15 months in order to restore services to the community. The 8,000 square foot station, is nearly twice the size of the old, accommodates modern fire-fighting apparatus, and provides a comfortable living environment for the firefighters. This includes two apparatus bays, living quarters for 10 firefighters, exercise room, a publicly accessible community room, and a central communication “watch room”. The buildings sustainable design features includes a passive natural ventilation system that uses convection and prevailing wind to cool the building. A public art story-board of the history of Temescal and Station 8 has been integrated into the front entry walk-way.
Moraga-Orinda Fire District unanimously selects Shah Kawasaki Architects to design new Fire Station 43
Shah Kawasaki Architects is providing planning and design services for the MOFD Fire Station 43 Replacement Project. The program will include a pass-though bay that can accommodate two apparatus, living quarters for district personnel, an exercise room, kitchen, dining, and day room.
The team will work to achieve the district’s goal of having the new station in service by the fall of 2013.
Oakland Fire Station No. 18 awarded Station Style Bronze Award
The City of Oakland Fire Station No. 18 was just awarded the Bronze Award from Station Style in the category of a satellite station. A national design award, Station Style Awards seeks to recognize outstanding architecture and design within fire departments nationwide. Oakland Fire station 18 was the only California fire station to be recognized.
As the first LEED fire station in the city, it is a place of pride within the community and serves as a major construction milestone to promote sustainable development. The fire station is designed to have a minimum of a fifty-year life span, while meeting strict operational and seismic requirements for an essential service facility. Through an integrated team effort in design and construction, the project exceeded the City’s goal of LEED Silver and obtained a LEED Gold rating while bringing the project in under budget and ahead of schedule.
For more information about Station Style and the 2011 award recipients please visit: Fire Chief
Highland Hospital Acute Tower Replacement Project breaks ground in Oakland
Highland Hospital Acute Tower Replacement project, the largest construction project undertaken by Alameda County, breaks ground in Oakland. The $668 million project will construct a new building for urgent care, cardiac care, respiratory therapy and infusion, hematology, oncology, and other services. The new space will also house administrative functions including admitting and registration, medical records – public information only, volunteers, cafeteria, and executive administration. As part of the Clark Design-Build team, Shah Kawasaki Architects serves as Associate Architects, along with Ratcliff, with SmithGroup, Project Architect.
Inside Bay Area features Shah Kawasaki Architects
OAKLAND, CA- (Inside Bay Area – May 1, 2011) – http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_17959719
What a screenwriter is to a great movie, an architect is to an impressive structure. Without one, you can’t have the other.
For Shah Kawasaki Architects in Oakland, the parking canopies at Oakland International Airport, the renovations at Studio One Art Center and the ground-up design of Fire stations Number 8 and 18 in Oakland are all examples of projects that came out of the minds of the firms founders.
But sometimes when it comes to public perception, the architect’s contribution is forgotten, said Harish Shah, co-founder of Shah Kawasaki.
“The biggest misconception about architects is that we don’t do a lot, because the buildings only appear in reality when contractors start construction,” Shah said. “But because we provide the road maps to make the buildings possible, I think we are the most important part of the process.”
Because architects’ value is not always realized, the profits they make aren’t substantial, Shah and co-founder Alan Kawasaki said.
As a result, despite bringing in about $2.4 million in revenues in 2009, the profit margins are small.
“If we walk away from a project with a 7 to 9 percent profit, we’ll be lucky,” Shah said. “Compared to the contractors, we don’t make a lot of money.”
But for Shah and Kawasaki, money has never been the duo’s driving force.
Eleven years ago the two left a larger firm, RMW Architecture in San Francisco, with the goal to work in a personal environment, being your own boss trumps big paychecks, the said.
“We are much more passionate about the value we provide to society by what we do as an architect than we are interested in making money,” Shah said.
Shah’s wife, Jyoti, 63, and his son, Manan, 34, are also partners of the firm. Shah, 64, and Kawasaki, 56, set the firm up so that neither is more powerful than the other. There are no evaluations, and everybody makes the same amount of money.
Instead, they each have their specialties that they market primarily to city planners. Shah loves working on community centers and museums, while Kawasaki finds his passion in designing firehouses.
“I personally love that firehouses are very small yet very intense,” Kawasaki said. “The challenges of making them efficient as possible in a limited amount of space is a challenge I really like.”
Overall, the industry has become much more competitive, said Sidney Sweeney, executive director of the American Institute of Architects East Bay Chapter. Where in the past, a project might see 10 firms bidding on a project, today there might be 50, she said.
Also there’s no consistent pattern on the type of firms that have survived the downturn in the economy.
“Honestly, it’s that magic mix of having the right clients, strong architects, a strong practice and plain old luck of being at the right place at the right time,” she said. “Unfortunately we have had some great firms that did fantastic architecture, but they had to close their doors because their clients couldn’t get the money to hire them.”
Shah Kawasaki has used a combination of word of mouth and self-generated marketing to keep the firm going. One reason the firm has survived the economic downturn is that about 90 percent of the company’s projects are targeted at the public sectors, Kawasaki said.
The members of the firm also spend a lot of time trying to get to know each client on a personal level. If there’s a community hearing on a potential project, one of them attends.
More than just the aesthetics of the building, the safety and efficiency of the building sometimes take the vast majority of the design time. Those who think architects just draw up designs don’t understand how involved they are involved in the entire process, Kawasaki said.
“We try to understand what our clients do and listen to what their dreams are,” Kawasaki said. “We aren’t just building buildings, we are building communities.”
Contact David Morrill, Contra Costa Times, at 925-977-8534.
Shah Kawasaki Architects’ specialty is public sector projects. Here’s a small sample of some of its work:
- Studio One Art Center, Oakland
- Fire station Number 8 and Number 18, Oakland
- Public Works Building Expansion, Martinez
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
- San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose
- Sheriff’s Regional Training Center, Dublin
- Sobering Station, San Leandro
- LeConte Hall Computer Center, Berkeley
- Highland Hospital