--- Practice Areas
Four ways
to work together.
Whether you're commissioning a new residence, developing a subdivision, planning a civic building, or looking for a senior architect to review an in-flight project — here is how the studio engages.
01
--- Custom Residentials
High-end single-family homes, designed and built by one practice.
The studio has delivered hundreds of custom residences across Orinda, Lafayette, Piedmont, Walnut Creek, Marin, and the greater East Bay since 1989. Because Dan is both the licensed architect and the licensed contractor, ownership of the drawings and the construction live in the same office — one accountable party from schematic design through final punch.
001
Full design & construction (architect-builder)
002
Design-only commissions for clients with their own GC
003
Renovation, addition, and hillside-lot expertise
004
Title 24, seismic, and local code navigation
005
Traditional and transitional vocabularies — shingled, stone, stucco, farmhouse
Multi-unit and subdivision work, from entitlement through keys.
Dan led Montebello — a sixty-four home subdivision in the Oakland Hills — as architect and builder of record. The studio takes on developments where a single experienced party can carry entitlement, site planning, architecture, and construction under one contract.
001
Site planning & subdivision design
002
Entitlement & agency coordination
003
Production housing with custom-caliber detailing
004
Residential condominium work
005
Affordable & mixed-income — HUD-recognized portfolio
02
--- Developments
03
--- Commercial & Civic
Religious, institutional, industrial, and hospitality.
A long career includes civic and commercial work that residential-only architects rarely see — churches, commercial kitchens, restaurant and bar interiors, industrial and institutional buildings. Most recently: St. Perpetua's new social hall in Lafayette.
001
Religious & institutional architecture
002
Commercial kitchens & food-service buildouts
003
Restaurant, bar, and hospitality interiors
004
Industrial facility design
005
Additions to existing campuses
Consulting, project review, and rescue.
Dan is regularly engaged by owners, developers, and younger architectural firms for senior review — the kind of judgment that only comes from having delivered through four complete cycles of the California housing market. Engagements range from a single day of design critique to full project rescue.
001
Design review & constructability audits
002
Project rescue — stalled, over-budget, or off-track work
003
Owner representation & peer review
004
Mentorship & senior consulting to smaller firms
005
Expert witness & forensic review (selected cases)
04
--- Consulting
--- How it works
A five-step
engagement, refined
over fifty years.
Step 01
Conversation
A no-cost first call to understand site, program, budget, and timeline.
Step 02
Site Walk
In-person review of the property or existing building. Hand sketches. Feasibility notes
Step 03
Schematic
Drawings, massing, plan options, and a transparent budget range.
Step 04
Documents
Construction documents, permit package, agency coordination through approval.
Step 05
Construction
Build under Dan's contractor license — or hand-off to your chosen GC with ongoing CA.