“Studio E Architects exhibit an all too rare set of commitments and skills. They have shown a dedication to place, community, and craft and translated this dedication into eloquent projects that enhance the lives of the inhabitants. They have chosen to work from fundamental principles, eschewing the seduction of elaborate form making. Their work reminds us that the social values of architecture can be realized while satisfying the soul with the poetics of place.”
Buzz
Yudell, FAIA, arcCA, 1:2001
WE KNOW UNIVERSITIES + HOUSING
The work of Studio E Architects recognizes that the meaning and utility of architecture is grounded in the specificity of context. Unique site conditions inspire solutions that connect people to the places they inhabit. The focus on both physical and cultural context produces architecture that embraces everyday phenomena and rituals, expresses a richer understanding of place, and is responsive to the natural environment.
In its 25 years, Studio E Architects has been a leading designer of multi-family projects, in particular for affordable housing sponsors. This affordable housing work has honed the firm’s innovative ability to make award-winning work on the slimmest of budgets and taught the firm to embrace fundamentals in their pursuit of accommodating and inspirational living environments.
“First, I can truthfully say that the Studio E team do ‘walk the walk’ and not only listen to the customer but go above and beyond to ensure the customer’s needs and vision are fully represented. Studio E will listen to you and will do all that they can do to find a way to meet your needs and vision. Second is their commitment to finding exciting solutions with cost constraints. Team Studio E doesn’t come in and design something that the customer can’t afford. They will bring creative solutions to the table that can be enacted.”
Mark P Cunningham, Director, Department of Housing & Dining Services, UC San Diego.
MAKING COMMUNITY
Studio E Architects strives to create buildings and spaces that transcend program to provide comfortable places to live one’s life. Studio E understand the importance of community and connection in student life. Community results from collective spaces that invite shared participation and is emphasized by accommodating lingering and chance encounters which are so crucial to student well-being. The spaces are offered as “frameworks” to inhabit, as places of possibility.
BUILDING A TEAM
Studio E Architects has a solid reputation for consensus building and collaboration. The office is routinely involved in projects where public workshops and community involvement are at the center of the design and approval process. A respect for the local knowledge base, an ability to listen carefully, and an outright suspicion of formula-driven solutions has permitted Studio E to develop ambitious plans built upon the combined wisdom of users and clients.
“The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, and in elevating them to art. William Morris
As a result of our extensive experience—working with critically tight budgets and schedules—Studio E Architects has honed project management practices that facilitate cost containment and ensure responsiveness. Delivering awardwinning projects in these conditions requires clear, thorough documentation and an understanding of the processes and limitations of construction. We routinely receive compliments for the high quality of our drawings from public agencies and contractors.
THINKING GREEN DESIGNING SMART
Sustainability has been a core value from the founding of the firm more than 30 years ago. Studio E Architects is committed to reducing energy consumption through compact building planning, bioclimatic site planning, and efficient building envelope designs. We work with our consultant team to integrate highefficiency lighting and mechanical systems, to increase opportunities for natural ventilation and daylighting and look for ways to incorporate on-site renewable energy.
UC San Diego Mandeville Art Gallery
LA
JOLLA,
CA
The Mandeville Center for the Arts at UC San Diego was designed and built to serve the visual arts. Since 1969, the A. Quincy Jones designed building that houses visual arts classrooms and sculpture workshops, has been anchored at its west end by an art gallery. Conceived as a place to display student and faculty work, the gallery has had an internal role in the life of the campus. The University, though, envisioned an expansion of the gallery’s presence in the larger community, a venue to display visiting national and international artists, the integration of new media, and an anchoring connection to a new Arts & Culture corridor across the campus. To satisfy these desires, the existing gallery was completely renovated internally including new systems and a new “front porch” portal added. This portal, a steel framework that mimics the defining forms of the Mandeville Center, is a pre-function and outside lobby space, an overlook to the major north/south pedestrian promenade on campus, and a support for a large media mesh display that will display media art. The media mesh display will serve as a beacon through campus and be visible from off-campus to the west.
COMPLETION: 2023
AREA: 3,765 square feet
COST: $4.2 million
AWARDS: Orchid Award, San Diego Architectural Foundation, 2023
UC San Diego 64 Degrees
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
Located at the heart of student residences in Revelle College, this reimagined facility is a complete renovation of the 1966 Revelle Dining Commons, the campus’s original dining destination. In addition to transforming a dated “cafeteria”-style facility into a modern, vibrant dining venue, combined with a market and café, 64 Degrees creates a place for the Revelle College community to embrace as a hub for congregating and socializing.
In designing the project, Studio E Architects sought to create a dining experience that brought the kitchen from the back of house to the front of house, integrating the experience of eating with the preparation of the food. Several exhibition food platforms distributed throughout 64 Degrees provide a unique and interactive experience.
By inserting natural light, appropriately-scaled design elements, and activity in the right places, our design organized the existing building’s disparate spaces into one cohesive dining environment.
In the sunny, south-facing “front yard”, porous-paved dining areas are shaded by a bosque of palo verde trees, while oversized umbrellas provide relief from the sun on a “beach blanket” of rubber play surfacing with lounge chairs. The space functions as an important crossroads of pedestrian routes within Revelle College and organizes this circulation while providing areas for gathering and treatment of stormwater within the planting areas.
COMPLETION: 2014
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: LEED Gold
AREA: 23,000 square feet
COST: $12.8 million
“64 Degrees is the complete reimagining of UCSD’s original dining commons and commissary. The building embraces its MidCentury Modern roots while updating it to contemporary expectations and use. We tried three times to make this happen and were only successful with this design team and we couldn’t be happier.”
- Mark Cunningham, Former Asst. Vice Chancellor
UC Davis Leasing & Rec Center
DAVIS, CALIFORNIA
Acting as the town hall on West Village Square, the Leasing & Recreation Center provides fitness, gaming and administrative offices to serve UC Davis’ West Village community. Like the adjacent mixed-use buildings, the Leasing & Recreation Center expresses the fundamental West Village plan values of community, openness, and environmental responsiveness.
The building’s structure features a simple folded plane anchored by a thermal chimney tower, which sits at the center of the plan and provides passive cooling throughout. Large openings to the south, shaded by deep overhangs, open the interior spaces to a large pool area outside.
COMPLETION: 2011
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: Zero Net Energy
AREA: 13,500 square feet
COST: $3.2 million
AWARDS: Global Award of Excellence, Urban Land Institute
Best New Student Development Silver Award, Multi-Housing News
First Prize, Build Category, Green Dot Awards
UC Davis West Village
DAVIS, CALIFORNIA
West Village Square forms the heart of UC Davis’ West Village community. This mixeduse grouping comprises seven buildings — including 123 units of student housing, 42,500 square feet of retail space, and a recreation center, all wrapped around the village green - an open-air “living room” where residents and visitors will enjoy West Village’s amenities and the social interaction. In designing the project, Studio E Architects sought to express West Village’s fundamental plan values of community, openness, and environmental responsiveness.
As America’s largest net-zero development, West Village Square is a landmark in sustainable design. Photovoltaic panels on south-facing roofs capture solar energy, while a variety of energy-efficient features reduce energy requirements; as a result, the community’s entire energy needs are met with energy generated on-site. Buildings employ an exceptionally well-insulated envelope, extensive shading, ventilated facades, and large overhangs, as well as energy-efficient lighting and appliances.
Throughout the design process, our commitment to sustainable design was paralleled by the intention to create a vibrant and authentic community. Our deliberate placement of buildings, shaping of figural open spaces, and integration of groundlevel commercial space all play crucial roles in making West Village a comfortable and accommodating pedestrian place. As a result, West Village forms a new campus destination that invites residents and visitors to linger, relax, and socialize.
COMPLETION: 2011
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: Net Zero Energy
AREA:
194,000 square feet
COST: $27.2 million
AWARDS:
Global Award of Excellence, Urban Land Institute
Best New Student Development Silver Award, Multi-Housing News
Award of Excellence, Golden Nugget
Award of Merit for Best Community Site Plan, Pacific Coast Builders Conference
First Prize, Built Category, Green Dot Awards
UCLA Saxon Commons
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
As part of a refresh effort of aging housing on the UCLA campus, Studio E Architects was charged with rethinking the site of a tired 35 year old complex and inserting a new Commons to provide needed gathering, socializing and support spaces. The Commons was envisioned as a “town hall” with the necessary gravitas and draw to give the entire residential complex a heart.
The 2.8 acre site is characterized by a dense canopy of mature trees that creates a retreat-like atmosphere within the urban campus. Site redesign preserved this character and captured the opportunity created by necessary emergency vehicle access to make a “clearing” with a clearly articulated esplanade connecting this site to the larger campus. The Commons straddles the esplanade and houses a lounge, a multipurpose community room, group study spaces, and offices. Surrounded by outdoor gathering spaces, the Commons emphasizes community by accommodating lingering and chance encounters which are so crucial to student life.
Acknowledging a difficult soil condition, the Commons cantilevers more than 30 feet over poor soil, making indoor spaces above and outdoor spaces below. The rough materiality of the weathering steel façade, inspired by the natural textures of the site, delicately hovers over the glass and large gathering spaces below, reminiscent of a treehouse or perch.
COMPLETION: 2015
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: LEED Platinum
AREA: 9,500 square feet
COST: $5.3 million
AWARDS:
American Architecture Award, The Chicago Athenaeum, 2018
Merit Award, American Institute of Architects, California Council, 2018
Honor Award, American Institute of Architects, San Diego, 2018
UCLA Saxon Suites
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
458 beds of thirty-year old undergraduate student housing at the University of California, Los Angeles were renovated and completely re-imagined. The existing threestory buildings were stripped to the studs and rebuilt with new exterior and interior finishes, windows and sun-shading devices along with system upgrades. The existing commons building was demolished and replaced with a new 2-story building that now offers essential amenities to students, including gathering spaces, study lounges and offices. This building, in conjunction with the newly reconfigured site, provides a new heart to the residential complex. A model of sustainable reuse, Saxon Suites has achieved LEED Platinum certification.
The project’s reconfigured site provides a variety of new community spaces—creating opportunities for social gatherings and chance encounters, and promoting a vibrant student culture. Capturing the opportunity created by emergency vehicle access, our redesign of the 2.8-acre site makes a “clearing” with a clearly-articulated esplanade, connecting the Suites to UCLA’s larger campus. A new commons straddles this esplanade with gathering spaces. Acknowledging the difficult soil condition, the commons cantilevers more than 30 feet over poor soil, making indoor spaces above and outdoor spaces below.
COMPLETION: 2015
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: LEED Platinum
AREA: 104,275 square feet
COST: $26 million
AWARDS:
American Architecture Award, The Chicago Athenaeum, 2018
Merit Award, American Institute of Architects, California Council, 2018
Honor Award, American Institute of Architects, San Diego, 2018
UC Riverside Desert Research Centers
PALM DESERT AND EAST MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA
This unique project awarded by the University of California, Riverside encompasses new construction and renovation of multiple buildings for two of their Desert Research Centers. The Sweeney Granite Mountain and Boyd Deep Canyon field stations consist of educational, office, staff residences and cabin facilities to support scientists to teach and conduct long-term research. Both locations are also part of the larger UC Natural Reserve System; a network to protect and preserve undisturbed and endangered ecosystems and important archaeological sites. To honor this mission, the project solutions are simple and use sustainable materials and construction methods.
Our partners in this design/build endeavor, Soltek Pacific Construction, agree that pre-engineered metal buildings are the most efficient solution to fulfill challenging code requirements while maintaining sustainability and limited impact. In addition to programmatic specifications, the extreme desert climate conditions and remote location of both sites require thoughtful design to provide high insulation values, high wind resistance and as much passive cooling and heating as possible. The desert Tortoise inspires the Boyd Tevis Education Center design with a strong, overhanging perforated Corten shell to shade the simple base while at the nearby campground a geode metaphor generates an exterior that blends with the landscape, and a colorful interior where scientists gather. The new Sweeney Riggs Administration building, a single story subtle structure anchored by two ends growing from the earth, appears similar to the incredible rock formations surrounding the site.
COMPLETION: 2019
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: LEED Silver
AREA: 9,200 square feet total
COST: $2.5 million total
“The remote desert locations and challenging code requirements at these sites inspired creative design solutions.”
UC San Diego One Miramar
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
Studio E Architects designed One Miramar Graduate Student Housing, a 800-bed student community on the University of California, San Diego campus, as part of a design/build competition. The project comprises 404 two-bedroom apartments in four buildings and a small retail/cafe, mail services, and administrative offices building at the entrance to the site linked to a 680-space parking structure nestled into the hillside.
The buildings define spaces and offer distant views. The exterior walls suggest both a whitewashed village on the hill visible from the south and west and a weave of color and texture reflecting a vital and diverse student culture on court and canyonfacing facades. Buildings are placed to form an open space network of courtyards and passages that foster a sense of belonging and neighborliness.
COMPLETION: 2007
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: LEED Gold Equivalent
AREA:
420,000 square feet
COST: $58 million
“One Miramar Apartments was conceived around a village street that connected everyone in a cohesive community of scholars. This internal street was placed to suggest future connections eastward as Mesa Housing redeveloped. The vision has come to realization.”
-
Mark Cunningham, Former Asst. Vice Chancellor
UC San Diego Athena Parking Garage
LA
JOLLA, CA
Developed via a design-build process with McCarthy Building Companies and IPD as Architect of Record, this 1270-stall parking structure serves the needs of patients, visitors, and staff at the UCSD Medical Campus. Conscious that many users of the garage will be arriving and leaving under highly stressful circumstances, Studio E Architects sought means and methods to make the parking experience as intuitive and pleasant as possible. Furthermore, we sought a scheme that offered a lowmaintenance, cost-effective, and highly functional building that recognized the longterm challenges faced by the University.
The three teams who competed for the project were faced with the additional request to accommodate two 1.2 million-gallon thermal energy storage tanks somewhere on site. Our winning scheme split the garage open— creating a large palm-filled “canyon” that allowed the tanks to be nested within the heart of the garage. Perforated metal fins sheath portions of the exterior, creating a variegated veil to block direct views of parked cars. Pedestrian circulation—including walks, stairs, and glazed elevators—was drawn to the edges, bringing life and human activity to the facades.
COMPLETION: 2016
SUSTAINABILITY RATING: Smart Park Certified
AREA: 446,170 square feet
COST: $23 million
AWARDS:
Award of Merit, International Parking Institute, 2017
UC San Diego Housing & Dining Services
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
Studio E Architects’ design for the UC San Diego Housing & Dining Services building resolves a sequence of specific responses to the project’s program and coastal setting. The 43,400 square-foot building has three distinct identities: it serves as an active 13,000 square-foot main catering kitchen, a prominent and welcoming home for the campus’ staff, and a series of inviting rentable meeting and event spaces.
In consideration of the building’s multiple purposes, as well as its location, our design expresses varied degrees of transparency and opacity. The catering kitchen, requiring service yard access on the north, is concealed along the western public frontage and the southern campus-connecting ramp. The Housing and Dining offices, in contrast, are positioned to achieve necessary visibility and direct campus and public access.
The design references the project’s coastal location through rough board-formed concrete walls at the lowest level, a sheltering overlook pier above a grotto-like entrance, a west-facing site stair whose zigzagging form echoes local bluff-climbing beach flights, and an ocean-colored glass wall. Meeting, conference, and event spaces are raised to upper levels, where the west-facing glass screen wall affords ocean and sunset views while confronting intense solar gain.
COMPLETION: 2009
AREA: 43,400 square feet
COST:
$18.2 million
AWARDS:
Divine Detail Award, American Institute of Architects, San Diego, 2010
Orchid for Architecture, San Diego Architectural Foundation, 2010
Best of 2010 Award for Higher Education, California Construction Magazine Design Awards, 2010
UC San Diego Mesa Pedestrian Bridge
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
Studio E Architects’ design for a pedestrian bridge connects two mesa tops across a natural canyon on the East campus of UC San Diego. This is a classic San Diego landscape condition and there is a long history in this region of bridges making direct connections when natural features prevent easy access. This nearly level viaduct holds straight the line between the medical complex and the various graduate housing facilities with the southern visual axis terminating at the upcoming Marketplace of the Nueva Mesa West development. Its proximity to the recently opened Gilman Bridge, connecting the east and west campuses over Interstate 5, ensures that it will be a highly used thoroughfare. The project’s details generate efficient functionality, and also strive to create a sculptural addition to the landscape with community space for lingering and observing the protected canyon habitat.
This design emphasizes movement and repose and transitions between the two. The center of the span is straight and designed to encourage continual movement while varying cantilevers create the sinuous shape and wide gathering areas at each end. Sparkling blue glass embedded in the foot path symbolizes water rippling through an aqueduct and is experienced at a pedestrian pace. In contrast the bicycle track is a neutral color with smooth surface. The metal tube fencing is intended as a protective veil instead of a static barrier. Not only does it follow the horizontal plane as it ebbs and flows, it also sways ten degrees in and out along its vertical axis. Studio E Architects continues to emphasis lightness and harmony with the canyon by utilizing tapering concrete pylons, chamfered to minimize the visual weight.
COMPLETION: 2020
COST: $12 million
AWARDS:
National 2022 PCI Design Award, Transportation Award: Best Non-Highway Bridge
Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute
Orchid Award for Urban Planning San Diego Architectural Foundation
Outstanding Bridge Project
American Society of Civil Engineers
Project of the Year
American Society of Civil Engineers
Project of the Year, Structures Category
American Public Works Association
Point Loma Nazarene University Master Plan
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
The guiding vision for the Campus Master Plan is to cultivate communities of learning, personal enrichment, and spiritual development in supportive and transformative settings. Therefore, the Master Plan is centered around placemaking, community connections, and responding to the special characteristics of each campus. The focus throughout is on the spaces between buildings because here is where the unstructured, but enriching life of a community is cultivated and nourished. Buildings frame and create these spaces. Open spaces will be linked in a continuous realm of invitation. Together, buildings and open spaces, will create a community connected to each campus’ unique landscape and setting.
The Campus Master Plan is based on the following guiding principles:
• Respect the Land: Work with and draw from the unique opportunities on each campus and on each specific site.
• Make Space, Don’t Just Fill It: Buildings should work together to frame and create usable outdoor spaces. Individual buildings can bend, fold, and wrap community spaces.
• Be Responsible: Use resources wisely and endeavor to reduce environmental impacts.
• Respect the Views: When presented with beautiful prospects, capture those views for all. When focused on the ocean at the Point Loma campus, give those views to people inside, and outside buildings.
• Make Services Close, but Discrete: Find suitable locations for all the critical services necessary to operate the University, but shield and screen storage, trash, electrical, and mechanical infrastructure.
Founded in 1987, Studio E Architects is a San Diego based design collaborative, practicing throughout the Southwestern United States. The firm’s varied portfolio—private residences, housing, mixed-use, civic, institutional, and urban planning projects—has been recognized with numerous design awards and has been featured in scores of publications. The firm is led by five principals: Eric Naslund, FAIA, John Sheehan, FAIA, Maxine Ward, AIA, Mathilda Bialk, AIA, and Charity Dunphy, AIA.
Studio E Architects’ work recognizes that the meaning and utility of architecture is grounded in a building’s physical and cultural context and thus responds to the natural environment, connects people to the places they inhabit and expresses a richer understanding of its place.
Our Mission:
At Studio E Architects, we design places that cultivate community, enhance wellbeing, and make the best use of resources. We listen carefully, uncover opportunity, and expand possibility.
Diversity Statement:
Diversity is a core value at Studio E Architects. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment. We believe every member on our team enriches our work by exposing us to a broad range of backgrounds, skills, and views.
