Modernizing Baker Elementary: PWA’s New Building Design Brings Innovation and Cohesion to San Diego School Campus
“School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside.” – Lon Watters PWA is creating a new tomorrow for Baker Elementary School in San Diego’s Mountain View community. The neighborhood school will move into the latest addition to its campus in November 2026. We feel fortunate to have provided the initial architectural assessment […]
Want the 411 on Balboa Park’s Botanical Building Redo? Tour with Us!
Excitement Builds as Renovation of Iconic Balboa Park Structure Progresses In the early 20th century, California was promoting redwood construction. The 1915 California-Panama Exposition was the perfect place to showcase its redwood lumber to the rest of the nation and the world. This is why the Botanical Building in Balboa Park, built as part of […]
A Post-Occupancy Survey of Park de la Cruz Neighborhood Park & Therapeutic Recreation Services
Architectural Design to Transform a YMCA Building into a Recreation Destination for all Ages and Abilities. Several years ago, we were honored to transform a 25,000-square-foot YMCA building into a City of San Diego facility accommodating therapeutic recreation services (TRS) for the City Heights neighborhood and its surrounding communities. In so doing, S
Dogs Celebrate Reopening of Upgraded San Diego Park in Carmel Valley
Platt/Whitelaw Architects’ Park Design Experience Expands to Include Torrey Highlands Park. Dogs throughout the Del Mar and Carmel Valley area are rejoicing at the reopening of Torrey Highlands Park…and maybe their owners, too. This popular dog (and people) park has been closed intermittently for the last year or so for a minor makeover. Platt/Whitelaw A
APWA Awards: A Banner Year for Our Clients
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 […]
The Botanical Building in Balboa Park – Makeover Edition!
Iconic San Diego structure will soon be restored to its original condition…plus a few improvements By Sandra Gramley, AIA, LEED NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, principal at Platt/Whitelaw Architects, Inc. Restoration is underway on the Botanical Building in Balboa Park! If you’ve been following our news site, you know that we’ve written about this building befo
PWA Project Profile: Park de la Cruz Neighborhood Park & Therapeutic Recreation Services
By Sandra Gramley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C Civic projects are the crux of what we do. Designing Park de la Cruz Neighborhood Park & Therapeutic Recreation Services (TRS) in City Heights was especially rewarding for us because we were truly designing for universal use. The intention of our client, the City of San Diego, […]
The Creation & Restoration of Balboa Park
Balboa Park’s origin story Just outside downtown San Diego are 1,200 acres of land dedicated as park space by the City of San Diego. Known as Balboa Park, the space includes many natural and planted areas as well as buildings that represent some of San Diego’s most iconic architecture. Central Park in New York City […]
Cesar Solis Community Park Wins APWA Award!
We’re HONORED to learn that our Cesar Solis Community Park project just won the 2019 Project of the Year award from the APWA San Diego/Imperial Counties! We love designing community projects, and this one had a community of its own in our wonderful project team: City of San Diego, Schmidt Design Group (prime), BSE Engineering […]