Mark Skovorodko
@markskovorodko
Followers
1,245
Following
1,140
Media
1,135
Statuses
3,889
Conceptual design and brand direction for developers building meaningful places. Based in North County San Diego.
Escondido, CA
Joined February 2009
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Kendrick
• 312668 Tweets
Taylor
• 269338 Tweets
Super Bowl
• 265988 Tweets
Drake
• 181034 Tweets
JENNIE
• 143530 Tweets
#TommyHilfigerNYFWxPPGF
• 135587 Tweets
Giants
• 119073 Tweets
Steelers
• 110551 Tweets
Wayne
• 109626 Tweets
Bears
• 107010 Tweets
JISOO AT NYFW WITH TOMMY
• 88689 Tweets
NYFW24 WITH GEMINI FOURTH
• 88034 Tweets
#ZEVENT2024
• 84828 Tweets
Cowboys
• 83096 Tweets
Bengals
• 81657 Tweets
Browns
• 77959 Tweets
Panthers
• 68387 Tweets
Falcons
• 56552 Tweets
重陽の節句
• 50656 Tweets
Raiders
• 48045 Tweets
Chargers
• 41890 Tweets
Seahawks
• 39660 Tweets
Broncos
• 35109 Tweets
Daniel Jones
• 32642 Tweets
Baker
• 29577 Tweets
#GHDBT1
• 27124 Tweets
Caleb Williams
• 27112 Tweets
Seattle
• 27046 Tweets
#わたしの宝物
• 25776 Tweets
Cleveland
• 24594 Tweets
Deshaun Watson
• 23619 Tweets
Tom Brady
• 22196 Tweets
Forbes
• 18281 Tweets
Diggs
• 13220 Tweets
Zeke
• 11999 Tweets
Bo Nix
• 11030 Tweets
Will Levis
• 10962 Tweets
チャウヌ
• 10186 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
Excited to share my preliminary designs for the Downtown Escondido park & concessionaire concept I was hired to design for our local Rotary's centennial fund.
My primarily goals: convert passive space into active, bring daytime visitors downtown, & help our city retain families.
13
2
55
The past few days were a blur but MAN is Cincinnati a great city. Impressive amount of preservation of original urban fabric that’s seen an immense amount of thoughtful reinvestment in the last two decades, with Over-The-Rhine as the crown jewel. You guys gotta believe
15
18
283
Came across this barber shop last week in Morro Bay; can't be much bigger than a 12' x 20'. It's no architectural masterpiece, but it's stellar incremental economic development. Anyone have any similar examples?
@StrongTowns
@NewUrbanism
@clmarohn
@nbrhoodwrkshop
@mnolangray
12
12
199
Came across this gorgeous townhome development in Carlsbad this morning and had to pull over to take some photos on my phone (and scope Zillow 😳). Talked to a resident leaving his unit – the 13 unit site was developed by architect/developer Brett Farrow ()
16
4
175
A good word here from
@StrongTowns
— I started attending city meetings and meeting with electeds in our town of 150,000+ a few years back and am still surprised at how few folks participate in a process where you can actually advocate for meaningful policy change.
This photo is
If you've been wondering, “What is the most powerful thing I can do in my community to advance or share the Strong Towns message?” The answer is really simple: walk into your city hall.
5
32
184
3
13
112
@Derek_A_Peters
Tragic. Lots of work to be done for us to build safe towns in North America. Grateful for organizations like
@StrongTowns
working on fixing the inherent design flaws in our roadways that allow for tragedies like this.
6
1
91
Public Service Announcement: If your realtor/leasing team "has a photographer," please do your DD & confirm they know what they're doing. A residential design client of ours recently got such underwhelming photos back for their listing that I offered to shoot new ones at no cost.
10
6
93
Weekend placemaking inspiration: NW 23rd Avenue, Portland
9
2
92
My new favorite compliment from our residential rehab design work:
Got a call this morning from a local investor who was referred to us by a GC he has in common with one of our other clients because "it's so easy to work off their design documents and renderings." Music to my
7
0
69
@roundhouse208
Definitely A for a number of reasons: character of the build/materials, communal orientation of the front stoops, more intimate scale, natural ground coverings and greenery instead of large swaths of concrete.
That said, I have siblings and friends that would choose B in a
1
1
62
Interrupting the irregularly-scheduled program on placemaking, urban planning, and small-scale development to share this photo of our little chunker. After many holidays tinged with the pain of infertility, our little IVF miracle is by far our best gift this Christmas season!
10
0
62
It's a sad truth that we've largely regulated this type of neighborhood business out of a majority of our cities in the US – thank you
@EllliotttB
for sharing about Jackson Market & Deli.
If you have a favorite neighborhood business, post it below! Would love to see all of your
There’s a sandwich shop and deli that operates out of a single family house mid block well inside a Culver City residential neighborhood and I don’t know how it exists but there’s no chance anyone would allow it today even though it’s awesome and has been functioning for 100 yrs
14
4
73
2
8
57
Introduction to those that have followed recently, and some background for those that have been following for a bit:
1. Before I got into the world of placemaking and real estate, I was a commercial photographer and spent just short of a decade shooting outdoor recreation,
4
0
53
@MatznerJon
Doing my best to amend your map to this — Escondido is a gem and not enough people know it:
10
1
51
@berkie1
It’s about time we reverse decades of restricting great small businesses from a majority of our neighborhoods. Any notable elected officials advocating for this at the state level anywhere,
@nbrhoodwrkshop
@YIMBYLAND
?
It's a sad truth that we've largely regulated this type of neighborhood business out of a majority of our cities in the US – thank you
@EllliotttB
for sharing about Jackson Market & Deli.
If you have a favorite neighborhood business, post it below! Would love to see all of your
2
8
57
1
2
42
Couldn't fall asleep last night so stayed up way too late tweaking design concepts and rendering the north side of the new bath in the house expansion. Going for earthy tones and a natural feel with the arches + terra-cotta/oak/stone finishes.
One of my favorite rendering tricks
6
0
42
@Cobylefko
Love seeing the Santa Barbara shoutouts! My folks immigrated here from the former Soviet Union and I was lucky enough to call it home for 20+ years.
Definitely my pick as far as natural beauty and our historic downtown (State Street) goes.
0
0
39
Okay who on retwit is the expert on kiosks like this? Underwriting a 4 unit corner property on our main street with a ton of parking on the corner – no parking reqs anymore due to AB2097, plenty of downtown parking, so would love to drop this onto it as a 5th unit and landscape
17
2
40
Does anyone have a product/material they've used and love for a ceiling treatment like this, and thoughts on using in a bathroom given frequent exposure to humidity? Working on designs for a higher end flip here in North County San Diego and leaning heavily into this vibe (props
20
0
37
@Eric_Erins
@nathanelia_
What a bitchin building. But almost as importantly, this cloud is definitely Donkey from Shrek
1
0
36
Had an opportunity recently to do some rendering and exterior conceptual design for a local fee developer. The project didn't require photorealistic renders, but I decided to take the opportunity to push the level of realism I had achieved in renderings of my own rehab projects.
6
0
35
Just got off an hour-long call with our deputy fire marshal. I've had both helpful and frustrating conversations with city staff in the past several years, and a common thread I see emerging is that high-quality visuals seem to help tremendously in building rapport during the
10
1
32
I love how Santa Barbara's foothills light up right before the sun dips below the horizion.
#santabarbara
#california
#beach
#sunset
#dji
#seesb
#visitsantabarbara
#visitcalifornia
@visitsantabarbara
@visitcalifornia
0
6
26
@moseskagan
Literally my worst fear when at family gatherings with the little nieces and nephews. With pool accidents being the close second
1
0
25
Weekend placemaking inspiration: Coronado Island
[Yes, it was in the high 70s and sunny this weekend in San Diego – in other words, everyone come visit]
1
2
26
Forever bullish on Escondido, CA.
Shot this during sunrise this morning while doing some contract photo work for our city’s comms department — couldn’t help but film a little motion in between photo angles
5
0
25
Before I knew the difference between a joist and a rafter, I spent 8 years honing my craft as a commercial photographer and freelance creative director.
I've been inspired reading
@mwmoedinger
and
@antonia_mdprjct
's pro tips this year from their areas of expertise, so a thread:
5
2
25
@jasoncoxnc
Drives me crazy — my folks immigrated here from Belarus and have been strong contributors to the economy for over 30 years now. Talked to a developer yesterday who has a guy working for him that walked for 4 months from Honduras to the US to support his 6 kids. People are people!
2
1
25
FORCE APPRECIATION ON YOUR REAL ESTATE WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK
3
1
23
Stoked to see a photo of mine helping spread the message of fine-grained urbanism, small business incubation, and
@samj_day
’s awesome work at
@GrantHumphreys
’
@WheelerDistrict
. Precisely why I photograph neighborhoods built following the tenets of
@NewUrbanism
and
@StrongTowns
—
@WheelerDistrict
With a narrow width of ~15 feet, these live-work townhomes minimize street frontage & public infrastructure needs, limiting costs and enabling aspiring small business owners to reasonably & affordably take the risk to open a business.
@samj_day
with some excellent work here!
1
10
132
2
3
22
Got to celebrate this girl turning 30 AND her first Mother's Day on the same day this year – still don't know how I lucked out marrying Meliss. From renovating multiple 100+ year old homes by my side to enduring IVF so we could have a family and being an absolute rockstar of a
1
0
21
6. The goal for 2024:
– Help developers that are building meaningful urban neighborhoods with their brand identity, rendering, and websites
– Expand into small multifamily and small retail clients for our conceptual design work, and only work on as many single-family projects
4
0
22
One last drone shot for now. Purple mountains framing the beautiful Santa Barbara harbor.
#santabarbara
#california
#harbor
#beach
#sunset
#dji
#seesb
#visitsantabarbara
#visitcalifornia
@visitsantabarbara
@visitcalifornia
@visitsantabarbaraharbor
1
3
20
@StrongTowns
Graphics with before/after photos from cities that have innovated in the public realm, but with stats/metrics directly typed onto the graphics for easy sharing— e.g. Lancaster, CA’s rambla conversion in their downtown. When electeds/staff see what was possible in other towns and
0
1
21
The Santa Barbara Harbor from 300 feet.
#santabarbara
#california
#harbor
#dji
#seesb
#visitsantabarbara
#visitcalifornia
#santabarbaraharbor
@visitsantabarbara
@visitcalifornia
@visitsbharbor
0
3
19
Photos from the linked Dezeen feature below. Exteriors by , interiors shot by .
@Cobylefko
have you posted about this one? Has
@DevaniAlkarim
/
@rndsqr_
design vibes, but just a TEENSY bit less attainable 😬:
2
0
20
@moseskagan
Our go-to moves on our project interiors:
1. Cased (not just drywall) statement arch.
2. As many windows/natural light as possible.
3. Craftsman headers, >3" casing and base, crown.
4. Kitchen "jewelry" – pot filler, unique sconces and cabinet hardware, timeless vent hood.
1
0
20
Little man pulling his first building permit! Highly considering tracking his height on the side of the counter — should we do it?
3
0
20
Our city just had a subcommittee meeting on post-pandemic parklet policy. There's an influential local group that opposes parklets, so I did some pro-bono design work for a local consignment store owner to build support for parklets by showing that they can be delightful places.
2
2
19
Found the world’s best-looking outdoor trash can today and I think I’m in love
3
0
19
@Tesho13
I’ve been looking for developers building product similar to this in overall unit count, unit sizes, and architectural style/feel for a while now and haven’t had a ton of luck. Closest examples in terms of unit size and feel I’ve visited besides Wheeler are in Serenbe, Glenwood
0
3
18
Boldest local F&B brand decision award goes to The Crack Shack for using all their 1 star reviews as bathroom wallpaper 🤣
A good reminder that brand is more than a logo, color palette, and collection of typefaces. Rather, it’s every choice you make that influences how the folks
3
0
18
@_bailey_g
This street is full of these rad "accessory commercial units" (as coined by
@nbrhoodwrkshop
)
2
0
17
@NotJustTheNorm
The fact that freestanding stoves haven't been outlawed yet.
Slide-in ranges all day every day
5
0
17
@JeffSpeckFAICP
says it better than I can: "Planning around the car is a self-fulfilling prophecy: traffic studies and parking minimums perpetuate and worsen the very car dependence that they hope to mitigate." Revitalize or Die puts it well also:
2
6
17
Good buildings don’t have to be complicated (and often aren’t).
Exhibit A: this great little Italian place in Mainstrasse Village in Covington, KY (which happened to have incredible gnocchi to boot).
Amped for the next several days of exploring Cincinnati at
#CNU32
!
1
0
16
@CohenSite
I grew up in Santa Barbara and remember when that second one went up! Can’t say I’m a huge fan of the more eclectic projects but definitely a talented guy.
1
0
16
@shiloebear
The demo is absolutely stunning, but can we talk about how this thing is going to be on the front lines of the robot apocalypse
1
0
16
Renderings I put together for an adaptive reuse cowork concept for a site in downtown Escondido. Concept was ultimately shelved, but still dreaming of working here when my home office inevitably gets adaptively-reused for a kids bedroom 😂
Modeling: Sketchup
Rendering: V-Ray
0
0
16
Years of prayer were answered last Wednesday – Tucker Isaac Skovorodko decided he was ready to see mom and dad and came into our lives 8 days early! Meliss and I never imagined what a difficult journey fertility could be and are so grateful for the existence of IVF.
6
0
16
@seandsweeney
My word that diamond siding is gorgeous. And absolutely genius how the balcony railings play off of the same diamond motif
1
0
16
Weekend placemaking inspiration: Assorted coffee shops, Portland
@UpperLeftRoast
/
@goodcoffeepdx
/
@coavacoffee
1
1
15
Such a good time yesterday hanging with the
@StrongTowns
team down in San Diego! Thank you
@clmarohn
,
@normvep
,
@johnepattison
, and the rest of the team for the great conversation. For those that don’t yet, follow the work this crew does to build vibrant, safe, & resilient towns!
0
2
14
Just had a real-life conversation straight out of the writings of
@clmarohn
– spoke with the city regarding engineering reqs for a potential multi-family site. Engineer noted that the corner curb radius would have to be expanded as part of the project based on the city’s plans...
2
1
15
@CohenSite
@_SuperLA
Damnnnn dude just found my new favorite California developer. Incredible design and branding work all around.
1
1
15
Happy new year folks! May you all be as unphased in 2024 as Tucker is by absolutely everything under the sun
0
0
15
One of my favorite aspects of designing digitally in 3D is being able to model out the exact sizes of our lighting fixtures and various FF&E to see how they play visually in the physical space, let alone being able to communicate the exact vision to both our clients and their GCs
3
0
12
Let's ask the audience:
Grand Avenue in Escondido (left) and La Jolla Boulevard thirty five minutes down the road (right) are the same width. Which city's consultant designed the better solution?
@StrongTowns
@clmarohn
@JeffSpeckFAICP
@MikeBradleyMKE
@nevitate
@NewUrbanism
After the transformation of La Jolla Blvd, noise levels dropped 77%, retail sales rose 30%, and traffic crashes fell by 90%.
23
404
2K
1
3
14
Who here on REtwit has attempted to design and permit a splash pad on one of their projects before?
Curious to compare notes.
In my county, any interactive water feature requires at least a 4000 gallon recovery tank with additional surge capacity and, the real kicker, public
I don't care what the cost is - you'll never convince me that a public park is a bad use of space or an irresponsible use of government money.
8
2
60
4
0
14
I've been modeling out design concepts for our house expansion + ADU build in Sketchup and rendered this bay window idea for the new bath. I think 4' is the widest I should go given the vanity and toilet locations – anyone think 4' is too narrow for a bay, or do y'alls dig this?
7
0
13
@JoshInEncinitas
It's on our bucket list! What are the top places you'd recommend going while there?
4
0
12
@Cobylefko
Absolutely love Vancouver! Check out Granville Island if you haven't gone yet. Also the view from the Island Park Walk (near Spruce Harbour Marina) at night is gorgeous. One of my favorite photos to date:
1
0
12
@dtmorgan18
Love the Santa Ynez Valley! One of my all-time favorite MTB trails is a stone’s throw from there
3
0
13
Came across these old hand-drawn storm drain sheets in a records request for a design project I'm working on.
Is it just me or are these an absolute work of art? 😍
4
0
13
@aussieflya
This exactly! As far as quick grasp of design intent goes, the level of upgrade going from plans and elevations to rendered perspectives is huge.
0
0
12
@mnolangray
That left photo 🥰 Is the problem that design review predominantly regulates materials and massing while the bigger issue is the actual urban form and allowed uses/density?
1
0
13
@StrongTowns
Underwriting small-scale mixed-use and walkable retail projects! Would love for a genius like
@bernicebuffalo
or
@montewanderson
to walk us Strong Towns readers through the financial modeling, key metrics, and construction costs of a real-life project.
2
0
12
From yesterday evening's run. So good having open space in the midst of hundreds of square miles of urban sprawl.
http://t.co/2WaH1TGXg8
1
1
13
Weekend placemaking inspiration: San Elijo Hills
Largest development with new urbanist features I've seen in San Diego County (featuring a 70 acre town center) albeit with a lot of single-family on the perimeter. Anyone have other examples of new urbanist projects in SoCal?
2
0
12
@CohenSite
This is rad!! Thanks for sharing. Here’s the Urbanize article — replaced an auto shop!!
3
0
12
Who on Twitter is the self-proclaimed SoCal ramen expert? Looking for the smallest footprint ramen operators in LA, OC, or SD with at least 2-3 locations. Bonus points if you can estimate the square footage of their current sites
@dtmorgan18
@CohenSite
@JulieChangRE
@moseskagan
17
0
12
@joshcowman
@jasoncoxnc
Here's the working list of follows I always send folks in the real estate/development/design space:
@moseskagan
@iononrecourse
@seandsweeney
@khzny
@CohenSite
@aussieflya
@bobbyfijan
@mwmoedinger
@antonia_mdprjct
@carywesterbeck
@jasoncoxnc
@djh11375
@DevaniAlkarim
5
1
12
I was particularly excited about this shoot because the marketing staff at Hotel Santa Barbara wanted to photograph not only their hotel but also the beautiful scenery that Santa Barbara has to offer. We started out our shoot on SB's gorgeous waterfront.
#santabarbara
#cali
…
1
2
11
@jasoncoxnc
Ah this is exactly what we’re doing with the murals in our alleys! Love that this is a common workaround. Our main impediment was city requirement for ROW closures for painting artwork directly on walls, so started with providing artists with sealed plywood panels and now
2
1
12
@Cobylefko
Absolutely love how this project interacts with the street and blends into the neighborhood so seamlessly.
@TortiGallas
won a much deserved CNU Charter Award for this one in 2021:
0
0
11
The award for most feel-good marketing tactic goes to
@monikergroup
for their fake newspapers at Moniker Coffee Co. advertising Moniker’s design arm. Feel like this would translate well to the STR space — anyone done anything similar to this on your properties to advertise your
2
0
11
Exactly 1 year ago today on the law office to residential conversion (promise I was helping Meliss unload the truck)! Loved turning this asphalt parking lot back into a proper backyard.
And yes, we had to drop bills on an unsightly carport because of off-street parking reqs 😐
2
0
11
When Meliss and I lived in the Highland Park area in LA, there were a lot of great neighborhood businesses – one of our favorites was Jane on York, built inside a beautiful old craftsman home:
1
1
11
Few things better than syrupy-sweet smell of California chaparral experienced at the pace of a hill climb and subsequent descent. These days months go by between MTB rides instead of days, but always grateful for chances like today to get back out on the trails.
Side note: the
3
0
11
Alright REtwit/urbanism folks, who's going to CNU32 in Cincinnati? Loved OKC and CLT the last two years but have been on the fence this year because little Tucker is way too cute these days. CNU33 will likely be out of the question so might be my last chance for a minute. Talk me
8
1
11
Our city has been in the process of writing up a new specific plan that upzones portions of our East Valley neighborhood and this public comment just takes the cake.
@cayimby
@mnolangray
I'm sure you guys have seen worse but thought y'alls would enjoy this line of "reasoning"
1
1
11
@shawngorham
Hey I downloaded this and the UYOC cell isn't updating when I change the capex, can you fix it
2
0
11
Folks seemed to resonate with my Escondido boosterism, so here are some more photos of
@cityofescondido
's historic downtown (Grand Avenue) and surrounding local amenities. A.K.A. a visual representation on why we're bullish on the future of Escondido, and why you should be too.
@MatznerJon
Doing my best to amend your map to this — Escondido is a gem and not enough people know it:
10
1
51
2
0
10
@CohenSite
BROOO literally one of the best places in LA. One Colorado is my personal fave down there, especially the summer movie nights
0
0
9
Excellent point from Sam that doesn't get enough airtime. Residential density at this scale creates the kind of local economy that can sustain great, creative local businesses, and within walking distance (provided your city's zoning allows it) of those residences, so the impact
Infill apartments keep the doors open at your favorite neighborhood coffee shop and elementary school.
1
1
28
0
2
10
While this is absolutely atrocious design work, I feel like the bigger takeaway here is how the standard setbacks in American cities are a major contributing factor to our housing affordability crisis and structural municipal fiscal health issues
🚨Who needs grass anyways?!!😂😂
How many lbs of bark you think he used on this ?!
Flippers tryna save a dollar. Yikes !
90
2
100
2
0
10
Redesigning this small wet bar space in this family room - what do y'alls think on triple 18s with a dinky little sink versus double 27s with a larger sink but less counter space? Want to stick with equal width cabs for some visual rhythm but going back and forth on aesthetics
3
0
10
Transforming sad places into happy ones is one of my favorite aspects of working in design. We completely redesigned interiors/exteriors on this unremarkable SoCal home for one of our clients, and happy to say it just sold at asking price. Yes, that first photo was the front 😬
3
0
10
2. When I discovered urbanism through
@StrongTowns
and
@NewUrbanism
, I learned how much damage auto-centric planning had done to our neighborhoods and cities, grew disillusioned with my predominant source of income, and stopped taking on automotive clients. Call me an idealist,
2
1
10
@bobbyfijan
Bro you know you can’t say that without posting the recipe
Will trade you for our butter chicken recipe
3
0
9