Platt-Whitelaw Architects

admin

A Wind(sun)fall for Schools

By

Investment Tax Credits Will Support Solar Panel Installations at our Nation’s Schools

At the end of 2020, we wrote about our work helping to implement San Diego Unified School District’s ambitious goals to create solar energy at every one of its more than 200 school campuses as well as various administrative facilities.

Our architects are providing design criteria to be used by design/build contractors for parking lot and playground shelters topped with solar panels. If you missed our article the first time around, it’s worth a look! Just click on the hyperlink above.

As that work continues and more school districts contemplate and implement solar energy systems, we’re celebrating the financial incentives now available to these school districts through H.R. 5376, also known as the Inflation Reduction Act.

According to Solar Power World, the Act includes a 10-year extension of the solar investment tax credit (ITC) at 30% (previously 26%) for both residential and commercial/utility-scale projects, direct pay for nonprofit and governmental entities, a 30% ITC for standalone storage, manufacturing credits for solar components and much more.

PV Magazine tells its readers, “Solar power projects eligible for the full 30% tax credit can increase their tax credit by an additional 10% – to 40% in total – by purchasing domestically produced hardware.”

We’re so glad this Act will support the good work already underway at SDUSD and other school districts around the country. Even better, the increased financial support may put solar energy in reach for additional school districts.

Also of note is a schools-specific provision of the Act that protects children, with investments to monitor and reduce pollution at public schools in disadvantaged communities.

Whether designing new schools, modernizing schools or helping to power schools with solar energy, it’s hard for us to imagine investments more worthwhile than schools and the children attending them. With help from the Inflation Reduction Act, our nation’s schools can become more environmentally responsible, save money on energy and divert more operating capital to providing a first-rate education.

A School with a Superpower

By

As school starts again this year, children attending Clairemont Canyons Academy are in for a big surprise. They will arrive at a colorful new 2-story administration and classroom building.

As kids fill the brand-new halls, work will continue elsewhere on the campus to modernize the existing school facilities and create a new joint-use field and ball court by the next school year.

We consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have provided the initial architectural assessment and then full architectural services for this special school…because Clairemont Canyons Academy has a superpower.

It’s a place for almost any kind of student to thrive. It’s a mainstream elementary school but with a high percentage of special-needs students. (San Diego Unified School District merges special ed programs with regular students for diversity and a stronger student body.) As such, the design plan for Clairemont Canyons Academy includes many unique features.

This unique school and its diverse student body inspired the architectural strategies and features we included to distinguish the Clairemont Canyons Academy learning environment.

The new building has 14 classrooms, a maker’s lab, a sensory room, and an administration core with student services, including counseling and speech and music therapy programs.

  • The sensory room has black-out curtains, a water feature, an audio system, therapeutic chairs, a special-needs harness, a projector and more.
  • Special education rooms must be on the first floor, so that floor includes a wheelchair storage area.
  • Special needs classrooms have running hot water to accommodate any required feeding tube cleaning.
  • The first floor also includes more single-use restrooms to provide space for helpers. Restrooms have a power source for mobility lifts.
  • The first-floor group restroom has its sinks in an alcove in front of the room of toilets for easy monitoring and helping kids at the sinks.
  • The new building includes two elevators instead of the usual one elevator.
  • Generous whiteboard and corkboard space is provided for teachers because they find it helpful to be able to pin, tape or use a magnet to display materials at all heights.
  • Since the campus fronts the busy and sometimes noisy Balboa Avenue, we found supercharged ways of managing the acoustics. This helps all kids, but especially those with sound sensitivities, focus on their schooling rather than auditory distractions.

Other creative ideas we employed had more to do with the site and circumstances than the diversity of students.

  • The long, narrow site for the news administration and classrooms building meant long, straight corridors. We broke those up with fun pops of color on the walls and the floor.
  • Reception areas can get noisy at any school. With especially high ceilings in Clairmont Canyons Academy’s reception area, we chose to hang artistic acoustic baffles above the main counter to quiet things down.
  • Natural light quality varied between offices, so we designed small windows just below the ceiling that could share some light from one office into another.

Finally, we wanted to enliven and enrich the students’ on-campus experience, so we incorporated bold colors inside (as mentioned) and out. Two exterior sides of the classroom building display copper-hued metal cladding. Brightly colored exterior window shade canopies are both practical and whimsical.

We’re excited that kids will soon fill the halls and classrooms of Clairemont Canyons Academy. We wish them, the teachers and the staff the very best for the 2022-2023 school year and beyond!

 

 

 

Give Me Shelter

By

Pallet City in Chula Vista will provide temporary homes for more than 130 formerly unsheltered people

Community architecture is our jam, and that means architecture for everyone. We’re so pleased to work on a project that will provide individuals, couples and families – all of whom currently live without shelter – with temporary homes at Pallet City in Chula Vista, California.

At a recent groundbreaking ceremony, covered by CBS8, Chula Vista city officials, the building team and community members celebrated the start of construction for 66 pallet homes, also known as tiny homes, on city-owned land.

Located near Broadway and Main Street, the tiny-homes neighborhood, the first of its kind in San Diego County, will shelter more than 130 people and their pets starting this fall.

Residents at Pallet City will also have access to multi-purpose rooms, restrooms, showers and a laundry facility. On-site services will include job assistance, medical care and 24-hour security. Residents chosen for Pallet City are vetted through Chula Vista’s Homeless Outreach Team (HOT).

Originally envisioned as one large structure, Platt/Whitelaw Architects helped the city pivot during the pandemic to accommodate small, individual structures instead of one communal space. Working with prime contractor Kimley-Horn, Platt/Whitelaw managed site planning with support from electrical engineering consultant Turpin & Rattan and fire consultant Jensen Hughes.

This work included accessibility measures; layout of the units and property gates; hardware; signage; site lighting; electrical service upgrades; and fire suppression in each unit and common areas. Principal Naveen Waney led our team with assistance from Samantha Saltzman.

“We’re proud to be part of this creative effort to provide homes for San Diegans who have faced trials and tribulations that led them to live in a vehicle or on the street instead of in a home,” said Naveen. “By also coordinating on-site services, the City of Chula Vista is making an admirable effort to help some of its most vulnerable citizens to better their lives in a sustainable and dignified way.”

Samantha, who incorporated homeless shelter design into her study program when attending NewSchool of Architecture & Design, added, “It makes me all the more grateful to play a small role in seeing this project through. It’s nice to work on something that is adding resources and value to our community.”

Western Rim Constructors is performing the sitework, including the building pads and anchorages, while Pallet SPC is assembling the shelters for installation by Western Rim. Federal funding will cover the $3.5 million project, as well as the ongoing operations costs.

PWA’s Architecture Now Includes Restaurants!

By

“Restaurants are like a machine for hosting a grand party every night.” – Peter Soutowood

And who would know that better than Peter, former restaurant owner and our senior associate? Since rejoining Platt/Whitelaw Architects, Peter has expanded our community architecture work to include restaurants.

These clients have found a uniquely qualified design partner in Peter.

“Designing is one thing but being on the ownership and operations side of a restaurant gave me a completely different perspective of why things should be laid out the way they are,” he said.

MRKTSpace

Along with Principal Naveen Waney and others from our team, Peter is helping Matt Power, owner of MRKT Space, design his third location. With locations already in Encinitas and La Jolla Shores, Matt is renovating space in downtown Rancho Santa Fe for the next iteration of MRKT Space.

As if we weren’t pleased enough to add an exciting new type of community architecture to our books, Matt selected a historic building designed by famous San Diego architect Lilian Rice for his new MRKT Space location. (This seems like a good place to shamelessly plug our experience in historic renovation.)

The Rancho Santa Fe building was subdivided over the years to make way for offices, so we’ll be restoring the original space to more closely resemble how it looked 100 years ago when it started as…a market.

The beautiful ground floor space, where a café and gourmet market will go, includes adobe, wood-framed walls. Above that level, Matt has already secured permission to create a roof deck with a full restaurant and bar, with a brand-new and historically complementary, stepped-back, second-story structure.

The Rancho Santa Fe MRKT Space will help re-activate the village center by providing an all-day venue. Opening is estimated for late 2023, and the food and beverage selections will be top-shelf and Italian-inspired.

We’re excited to be working with such a visionary restaurant owner (with impeccable taste in architecture) who has plans for further expansion of his food and beverage concept.

Little Madi & More

Fans of Madison in University Heights will be happy to hear that we’re also working with this restaurant owner to design an offshoot of Madison, called Lil’ Madi, focused on brunch service. This client is also having us design a pizza restaurant.

Allow us to drop hints about also working with some other entrepreneurs who are planning to open everything from bars to burger joints to patisseries.

No matter the type of space, “There’s a gigantic flow of stuff that needs to be invisible to people who come in, but the space still has to be as efficient as possible,” said Peter, adding that he always has the client walk them through the exact operation of their restaurant’s food or beverage concept before starting design.

Whether it’s Rancho Santa Fe, midtown or another of your favorite neighborhoods, keep an eye open for Platt/Whitelaw Architects banners on the next exciting hospitality construction site.

APWA Awards: A Banner Year for Our Clients

By

The vast majority of our firm’s architectural design work happens for public agency clients. That’s why honors from the American Public Works Association (APWA) mean so much to us.

We’re celebrating our clients’ wins this year at the San Diego APWA Awards Program:

Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit, County of San Diego – Project of the Year: Structure

  • Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit is a new, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week walk-in facility based on a living room model that offers a kinder, gentler approach to intervention and stabilization for anyone suffering from a behavioral or mental health crisis.

Bud Kearns Memorial Swimming Pool, City of San Diego – Project of the Year: Historic

  • The Bud Kearns Memorial Swimming Pool is an outdoor facility located in Morley Field Park in the North Park Community. First opened in 1933, it is San Diego’s oldest public pool. It was reopened this year after a two-year renovation process.

North Park Mini Park, City of San Diego (prime consultant: KTU+A)

  • North Park Mini Park is a new, half-acre park and plaza with family-friendly amenities situated behind the historic North Park Theater.

Ocean Beach Walkway, City of San Diego

  • The walkway needed rebuilding over a jetty to provide an accessible path of travel onto Dog Beach.

As projects of the year, Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit or Bud Kearns Memorial Swimming Pool could be selected by the jury to be recognized at the APWA San Diego chapter gala in the fall. That project would then get submitted to the national APWA competition.

Further North

It’s also worth noting that further north, the Ventura County APWA honored the City of Camarillo for its North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant. We teamed with engineering lead Brown & Caldwell and their partners to design a reverse osmosis facility. Here the city of Camarillo can leach enough salt from the groundwater to significantly reduce its reliance on imported water.

Congratulations to all of these agencies up and down Southern California for your vision and leadership and to the many firms that collaborated to bring these projects to life.

Photo Left to Right: Sandra Gramley.

Woot! Sandra Named to SDBJ’s Women of Influence!

By

We’re celebrating our co-owner Sandra Gramley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD&C, for landing a second consecutive spot on the San Diego Business Journal’s annual Women of Influence in Architecture list!

To understand why she’s such a rockstar, we’re sharing some of the ways Sandra has built her distinguished career and made a difference in our region and in our profession.

  • Sandra is co-owner of one of San Diego’s oldest architectural firms…that’s us! She continues our firm’s legacy of designing for public/community projects, and many of our region’s schools, libraries and park facilities, came from Sandra’s imagination and talents.
  • Sandra’s expertise in historic architecture helps preserve the legacy of San Diego – including work in Balboa Park, at SDSU and other historic preservation projects in the county.
  • Sandra believes in employing people that reflect an array of cultures, races, lifestyles, and genders, and that our projects are more successful for it. She safeguards Platt/Whitelaw Architects’ reputation for diverse hiring practices — not just accepting different cultures but celebrating them.
  • A champion of improving accessibility for everyone, many of Sandra’s projects involve accessibility improvements to public spaces. For example, she recently worked with the City of San Diego to develop a Therapeutic Recreation and Agewell Services Recreation Center, the first of its kind on the west coast.
  • For 13 years, Sandra taught interiors and sustainable design at the Design Institute, helping a new generation of designers start designing spaces with minimal environmental impacts.
  • Sandra has given generously of her time and talents to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), serving as president of the San Diego Chapter in 2020, interim president last year, and in several other AIA roles over the years.
  • Many years ago, Sandra and her AIA San Diego Committee on the Environment team worked with the community to determine specific goals. They then secured a Sustainable Design Assistance Team grant from the national AIA organization to set up the Pacific Beach Eco-District. To this day, the Eco-District works to increase equity, resilience and climate protection for the Pacific Beach region.
  • Sandra served a two-year term on the AIA California’s Board of Directors.

We’re all honored to work with such a great role model and someone who genuinely cares about elevating the architectural profession. Thank you to the San Diego Business Journal for recognizing Sandra and including her on the Women of Influence list.

HOME 2024 – What’s in Store for Our Bi-National World Design Capital?

By

In 2024, San Diego and Tijuana will co-host design enthusiasts from around the world who come to see the first bi-national region to be selected as a World Design Capital®. They will see graphic, industrial, architectural, artistic and other design projects that help define our region.

Billing this historic event as ‘Designing Transborder Futures,’ the local HOME 2024 team that put together the San Diego/Tijuana bid to become a World Design Capital is currently developing and aggregating much of what will be featured that year by bringing together a diverse group of creatives. The World Design Capital 2024 planning effort explores ways to design for innovation, transformation, activation and imagination.

According to the HOME 2024 website, the World Design Organization (WDO) “is an authoritative voice on design and design-driven innovation internationally. Every two years, they select a ‘World Design Capital.’ This yearlong designation involves an array of public events and legacy projects and shines an international spotlight on one successful city”…or two.

Part of what stood out to the WDO selection committee, in addition to the cross-border collaboration between San Diego and Tijuana, was our region’s focus on human- and community-centered design.
HOME stands for:
• Human-centered
• Open
• Multicultural + Multidisciplinary
• Experimental

The refresh of Balboa Park buildings was mentioned as a factor in San Diego-Tijuana’s designation. (As Platt/Whitelaw is currently working on two of these refresh projects and previously helped design refresh projects at Balboa Park, we couldn’t be happier to hear this news!)

While the groups that spearheaded the HOME 2024 bid include the Design Forward Alliance, UC San Diego Design Lab and the Burnham Center for Community Advancement (as well as the support of San Diego and Tijuana governments), a broad cross-section of design leaders helped present to the WDO committee. To provide an architectural perspective, AIA San Diego Executive Director Leigh Eisen was one of them.

We chatted with Leigh to get her perspective.

PWA: Does the architectural community have a designated project(s) it’s contributing to HOME 2024?

Leigh: Not yet. The HOME 2024 committee is completing a visioning process. They don’t want to be prescriptive. Instead, they want design organizations to leverage their strengths. One of the great things that I see happening is that the Design Forward Alliance brought different design groups and nonprofits together, both through its formation and later through its co-leadership in securing the World Design Capital designation. While we still don’t know what the specific contributions will be from architecture and other design professionals to the World Design Capital experience, we’re working more collaboratively than ever before.

PWA: Can you tell us about touring with the WDO committee?

Leigh: I attended the tour and presented to the jury at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla. We all had 10 to 15 minutes to pitch to the jury members. The bid committee chair MaeLin Levine was really helpful in pulling the entire presentation together. I think one thing that made a difference with the judges was highlighting San Diego’s annual Design Week, which is already a big collaborative effort between architects, designers, arts institutions and more.

PWA: How does the AIA San Diego plan to keep the World Design Capital vibe going beyond 2024?
Leigh: We will have a chance to keep the collaborative partnership between many different groups. We’re all part of “Design with a capital D,” meaning architects and designers are part of a broader community. This includes our counterparts in Tijuana and those serving on AIA San Diego’s international associate members committee.
Another of our committees, the regional design advisory council, which is comprised mostly of architecture and planning professionals, is focusing a lot on HOME 2024 and will likely identify ways to parlay that experience into a lasting legacy.

PWA: If people want to get involved with HOME 2024, what can they do?

Leigh: All regional design advisory council meetings are open to anyone. It’s a broad coalition and a dynamic group.

We’d like to thank Leigh for sharing her insights with us. We’re excited to see what lies ahead for the World Design Capital of 2024!

https://home2024.com/

Designing a Better Way for Behavioral Health Services

By

By Sandra Gramley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C

The County of San Diego provides crisis stabilization units to deliver services in community-based or hospital settings for people experiencing a mental health or substance-use crisis.

For people in the midst of a crisis, being taken to a jail or hospital may not constitute an appropriate level of care. However, going to a place that has been specifically designed and staffed as the first line of intervention will likely yield better results in the short and long term.

Platt/Whitelaw has been fortunate enough to provide architectural design services for two of the County’s crisis stabilization units, including the Oceanside location.

Here, our firm created a way to transform a first-floor parking garage into a LEED Gold, 8,300-square-foot crisis management center for at-risk adults called the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit. The center also includes landscaped indoor and outdoor spaces designed to promote peace and calm.

While not much about the past couple of years of pandemic seems fortunate, the unusual time of isolation and lockdown gave our designers an unexpected perspective about how to design the center. Mental health was in the limelight for everyone.

Our designers expressed this collective ethos through curved instead of hard edges and corners, landscaped green walls and water features, and a calming but diverse color palette.

“We wanted to give people a space that’s pretty and inspirational – a space that would let them know others care about them,” said Project Coordinator Yolanda Velazco.

Yolanda added that already having designed one crisis stabilization unit for the County meant the team was already full of ideas of what could be done, and what challenges they would need to address.

“We spent a lot of time in meetings going over door hardware,” she said. It turns out that creating a welcoming but secure center with separate entrances and treatment areas customized to different situations requires some very sophisticated door security technology.

Also notable was the design team’s approach to plumbing fixtures. Traditionally, a facility of this type would have stainless steel toilets, sinks, and faucets. Instead, the team found a way to use fixtures and finishes reminiscent of residential or high-end office spaces that still offered the safety required for a crisis stabilization unit.

The existing building presented a challenge, too. Our team had to navigate and incorporate many of the columns of the original parking garage into the design and provide the right balance of window and door openings. It took significant effort to develop ways for the covered parking structure’s transformation to include indoor and outdoor courtyard spaces, too.

As with all successful projects, the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit took a village to design and build. We were fortunate to be teamed a second time with Turner Construction Company’s team, who also built out the previous crisis stabilization unit we designed.

Our collaboration with frequent sub consultants, landscape architect KTU+A and MEP engineers Turpin & Rattan, also paid off. And kudos to this project’s LEED consultant, Doo Consulting – LEED Gold certification came through for the Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit without a single hitch.

We commend the vision and guidance of the County and want to give a shout-out to its project manager, Project Management Advisors.

Our whole team was inspired by the chance to positively impact a sector of society that’s hurting.

If you or someone you know is looking for mental health or substance use services, call the San Diego Access & Crisis Line (ACL) at 1-888-724-7240 or visit this website for more information.

Watch San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher talk about Oceanside Crisis Stabilization Unit and the County’s efforts to build a better program for behavioral health services.