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 […]
Platt/Whitelaw Architects
Aspects of Creativity in the Architectural Design Process
Architecture is unique for its blend of art and science. Architect Antonin Gaudí, for example, is world famous for his unconventional shapes, colors and textures. But, at the end of the day, his designs for the Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell and other noted structures had to be technically sophisticated enough to reach into the sky […]
Hello, Sunshine! Platt/Whitelaw Architects Helps SDUSD Schools Go Solar
By Sandra Gramley, AIA, LEED ap BD+C At Platt/Whitelaw, we’re helping empower schools in more ways than one. While school design and modernization have long been part of our work product, some recent San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) directives have us literally powering schools. As of September 2020, 7,332 K-12 schools throughout the nation […]
Rick Strickland Promoted to CFO of Platt/Whitelaw Architects, Inc.
Congratulations to Rick Strickland, who has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Platt/Whitelaw Architects. His duties include management of all financial and human resources activities. He previously served as our Chief Financial Manager. Rick joined Platt/Whitelaw over six years ago after working as Controller for another San Diego-based architecture firm for seven years. “We’re […]
Unique Design Considerations for Temporary Homeless Shelters
By Sandra Gramley, AIA, LEED ap BD+C & Keiko Newton Our moderate climate and high cost of housing result in San Diego grappling with a large homelessness problem. A 2020 count found nearly 5,000 people experiencing homelessness in the City of San Diego. Platt/Whitelaw has been helping both the City of San Diego and the […]
Decarbonization Succeeds Net-Zero-Energy as Sustainability Goal
By Sandra Gramley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C As little as a year ago, zero net energy dominated the discussion in sustainability circles. In architecture, that means designing or retrofitting buildings to produce at least as much energy as they consume. Since that goal was based on solar energy supplied by roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels, […]
Integrating Art into Public Spaces to Engage, Enhance and Inspire
By Naveen Waney and Sandra Gramley, Principals at Platt/Whitelaw Architects A percentage of estimated construction costs for new buildings are required by many public agencies to be set aside to integrate public art. This can be at the federal level, like the General Services Administration, or the local level, like the City of San Diego […]
Pandemic Brings Changes to Everything from Offices to Apartments
San Diego Business Journal, June 22, 2020, By Ray Huard: Sandra Gramley, co-principal of Platt/Whitelaw Architects in North Park, said now “is a time to reflect because we don’t have the answers.” “As we go forward, I think mostly about flexibility,” Gramley said. https://www.sdbj.com/news/2020/jun/22/pandemic-brings-changes-everything-offices-apartme/