Matt Baran
@mattbaran
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Architect. Developer. AIA. NCARB. Founder @baranstudioarch Professor @ USF, AAU, UCB ARCH & MREDD. Posts on design, construction, R.E., biz & tech.
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Joined December 2008
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In a recent developer meeting we were discussing single family residential densities and how wide they range. Suburban developments of 4 DUA are not uncommon outside of a denser urban core, while our urban multifamily podium projects get hundreds of units / acre. Sometimes we see
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When I was 7, I was kidnapped by my mom.
She put me in a car and drove off without telling anyone, leaving Detroit in the rear view. Back in 1978 there was no Amber Alert, so for months my dad had no idea where she had taken me.
At some point she called to ask for money and he
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It seems like it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out
More sorcery: "Rent in Charlotte beginning to fall as more housing available: Experts said an increase in rental options is driving rent down."
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This 850 sf, 3br / 2ba ADU was part of a series that was deployed to over a dozen properties in our client’s portfolio.
He operated as owner builder, so construction costs were kept low - about 250 / ft or 200k per unit. Soft costs were around 30k per unit.
Cost in general
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I’m glad to someone is finally taking the drawings seriously.
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I recently heard someone say this project has no ‘architectural interest’
I disagree
It used to be a garage and now it’s a place for someone to live.
Will it win any awards? Probably not
Is it a simple, pleasant and functional space in a super cool neighborhood? Absolutely!
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This 6 unit mini-lot subdivision in West Oakland was completed by
@BaranStudioArch
operating as the architect and fee developer. Each lot was ~2000sf and each unit ~2400sf. Each townhouse contained 3br plus a loft space, 3ba and a single car garage. 4 of the units had ground
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Your periodic reminder that 4-over-1s could look exactly like this if the architects had enough humility to learn things long proven to work. But no, it’s trained out of us in architecture school.
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Architecture is not for everyone.
A few months after I graduated I was at my first job, working on a giant model for a massive mall project. I was in the process of pulling several all nighters to get it done.
There were about 5 or 6 recent grads on the model, as that’s where
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As architects we need to adapt to the destructive power of wildfires, especially during a break in the crisis. Improved codes and material technology help to prevent fires in the first place, and in the future could even help to extinguish them before they spread.
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In my ongoing exploration of underrated materials, today we delve into poor, lowly Hardie Panel. This is an inexpensive variant of a vast array of fiber cement products. Typically made from cement, cellulose (plant based) fiber, mica (a mineral found in rock and sand) and other
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Robot architecture is way past due. Who needs cars when you can just walk your entire (electric only) house right over to the grocery store.
#aiarchitecture
#robot
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We recently started a new 20 unit project in Sunnyvale and went to the counter to get some feedback. A few things to note:
SB-8 requires replacement of all units, with an equal number of ‘Protected Units’
There is a 100k PER UNIT Park Impact Fee. (They may be reducing this in
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I’d like to announce that I will be leaving REtwit to head to Architecture Twitter where no one makes any money, so you can’t accuse them of doing bad deals✌️
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When you post a public notice about your upcoming construction project, you don’t expect to hear “We don't mind a little noise as you do this and wish you well”
And yet yesterday we did.
Here is the entire message:
“We were happy to receive the notice for the parcel split and
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Things that get me up in the morning
#508
. Serene wood interiors. Lake, mountains, snow or sand?
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Doing deals as architect & developer is always higher risk … but the control and potential rewards make it very worth it. We’ve done several deals like this over the years. This AIA award nominated spectacle (with a solid yield!) is our latest.
Transforming a forgotten
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Don’t let anyone tell you that real estate development is an easy way to get rich. It entails great risk, and one bad break can take you out.
This is a single family spec home I designed and helped build, it was ground up on an empty lot in Oakland.
Shortly after breaking
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Had a call with a UC Berkeley MREDD professor this morning to advise on a seminar about Small Lot Subdivisions. A wave of new developers is coming for SB-684
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My mom was a drug dealer and a great entrepreneur in general. In addition to the drug business she ran a yacht maintenance company and several other small businesses that served as a way to launder the money she was making selling drugs (the primary revenue generator).
The idea
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If 12 units with no parking is upsetting, what will we do with 88 units with no parking? Coming soon…
12-units. Single family lot.
No elevator. No parking. Minneapolis.
Co-developed with Left Lane. Designed by Christian Dean Architects.
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Once upon a time, when I was about 7, my mom got pissed off at my step dad while we were down in Mexico and decided to grab me and hitchhike home
She was in her 20s at the time and likely not wearing a whole lot, so we were lucky enough to catch a ride with a big, drunk truck
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Corrugated Metal. A Love Story
One of my favorite materials (that might not be very well regarded) is galvanized corrugated steel. It’s inexpensive, durable, and can act as a rainscreen, protecting the overall life of a building.
I also really love how it reflects the
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I recently started listening to the book ‘Range’, about how maintaining broad interests can actually help you gain perspective and excel in your area of expertise.
The central premise contradicts the conventional wisdom of the ‘10,000 hours’ theory laid out by Malcolm Gladwell
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We completed this sweet little ADU in Berkeley at the end of last year. While I’m not so sure about the staging choices (the dining room table features pretty heavily into the layout, among other things 🌸 🌸 🌸) it’s still a pretty cool project.
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Project costs have been increasing exponentially, including A&E, high city fees, and construction, along with less tangible costs such as subjective design standards and risk of NIMBYs that work to block density. These in turn cause delays that can cost LOTS of time and money.
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I went with my daughter and her friends to an ‘escape room’ last night. It was far more interactive and spatially elaborate than I expected. It was a very cool place and experience!
I spoke to the owners about the process of getting the interior renovation permitted, and learned
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I wish there was a echo chamber for Architecture Twitter where you could get info on design, approving projects, and maybe running a business. Sadly it appears it’s just people arguing about whether traditional styles are better than modern styles and maybe why they like bicycles
Yes, ReTwit is one big "circle j*rk" where we get:
- access to experts on any asset class, in any market in America, ~instantly
- deal flow
- access to $$
- subject-matter experts in adjacent fields (insurance, law, etc.)
(Oh, & now-IRL friends who share our dorky obsessions.)
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If this site condo project been built under SB-684 it would have been a fee simple subdivision. And we *may* have avoided a painfully arduous process affecting everyone involved.
The project was stopped early in the process by neighbors who appealed a Berkeley Zoning
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It’s a good idea to look carefully at any market you’re stepping into. It turns out, Oakland is not Martha’s Vineyard, but you might fall in love with it in the end.
This SFD started out as a project for a couple that was developing high end houses on the East Coast, and they
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Breaking news! Baran Studio Architecture has been selected as part of the team to reconfigure Oakland’s Lake Merritt! Plans include a 15 megawatt hydropower dam, and a black monolithic museum of AI technology. Design is underway, and construction is scheduled to start in 2033
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@Telegraph
Pick your side, find evidence on the internet to support your position. Yawn. So bored.
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Last week we had an interdepartmental round table with the City of Berkeley for our 11 units (55 bedroom) affordable /student housing project on University Ave. We were surprised to hear we had made a mistake - not including a stair to the roof. It was surprising because it
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Thank you so much Artem for generously offering your time with me and for your advice. I wish there was something I could have done for you in return.
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Here’s what I can tell you about modular construction from my own experience and what I’ve seen in the industry.
There is little savings for very small / one off projects like ADUs. This usually can be explained by economy of scale, but once you consider the soft cost, site
What happened to the modular home movement?
I remember over a decade ago they were hyped as the future of housing in Dwell
@mattbaran
@AdamNMayer
@carywesterbeck
insight?
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@alex_gayer
@CrazySRVFan
@AskDrBurt
@StephenFleming
I get this. I consider myself a vegetarian because I don’t kill animals myself. I just go to the store and there they are!
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I’m very happy to announce that three of our projects have been selected as finalists in this years AIAEB Design Awards. One in each category: Small, Medium and Large. They are: Arthaus Six affordable by design housing with Riaz Capital, CROP Campus for formerly incarcerated
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Today is a tale of the power of the sink to shift the the housing landscape. Yes, a small basin and faucet made this Opportunity Zone project for the missing middle in West Oakland possible.
The intent was to create affordable yet well designed spaces for teachers, essential
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I think the narrowest we’ve gone is around 12 feet. This is impressive.
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@mnolangray
Here’s a classic. They say the architecture students love Wurster Hall (I’m a fan). Everyone else on campus hates it
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I once designed a domed city in the desert that was meant to have flying cars and giant vacuum cleaners to clear nuclear fallout after World War III.
This was for an actual client and I was paid.
She and her husband (he was a lawyer as I recall) were Bodhisattva. She visited
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There is a great chapter in Freakonomics about drug dealers still living with their moms, and it explains how most of them make a lot less than you think (which parallels the realities of real estate development, among other professions). It goes on to mention why prostitutes
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We try to make sure the spaces we design connect meaningfully to the outside, and in tight urban infill projects this can be a real challenge. Balancing privacy, views and open space can be difficult. One device we’ve used repeatedly is sliding and folding doors.
Depending on
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Since the city of Oakland reopened after Covid, they only answer questions for 8 people max on Monday and Wednesday at the planning counter. I don’t think this is helping us with the housing crisis.
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My mom left me shortly after I was born, and came back when I was about 3. Not really sure what happened there, she always told me it was Post Partum Depression. My dad and some neighborhood people took care of me in the meantime, which worked out ok.
From 3 until I was about 7
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Way back In 1999 I left my full time job at The Jerde Partnership and hung out a shingle. The first project I (air-quotes) “completed” was a modest cottage for a family friend in Manhattan Beach.
She owned a property with 2 separate units on the beach. It had been in her family
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I wasn’t expected to go to college. I had been written off: A complete loser who would end up dead or in jail (as many of the people I grew up with have).
But in 1996 I graduated from
@USC
, without paying a dime of tuition. It was paid in full by a scholarship provided by the
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This ADU garage conversion in Berkeley is ~600sf and features a highly efficient layout with a cozy sleeping loft tucked into the back. The space feels much larger than it is thanks in part to the height, the skylights and the use of a ladder in place of a large stair.
This is
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At times there are benefits to seeking out, working with, and paying for experience. This is particularly true if you don’t have it yourself.
And sometimes this has to be learned the hard way.
Back on 2017 we entitled this project for 6 condo units. When the owner of the
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I spend significant time and money investing in the architects that work at Baran Studio, so they can grow and develop as professionals.
You might ask, but what if you invest in them and they leave? And the answer is, what if I don’t and they stay?
Ultimately the system works
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There was quite a response to the recent post on SB-684, and I want to let you know there we have a downloadable “Density Guide” illustrating methods & strategies for yield - many apply to SB-684. We also provide initial looks at properties for potential.
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@KenjiCapital
Not sure if people realize that affordable units cost more to build than market rate units, and will ultimately yield less, so tax payers cover the delta. Developers are compensated in fees and tax incentives or they wouldn’t build them at all.
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I hate to tell you this, but most houses are boxes.
The reason I dislike delivering this sad news is that people really like to say they don’t like boxes. But if you give them a circle they can’t put furniture in a corner. So they settle for a box with a triangle on top of it.
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I once had a professor who loved to tell us, “if there was an earthquake, the architecture would fall off” of any given student’s design. It was meant to convey the idea that the structure was the essence and the architecture should be integrated - not just surface decoration.
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@marquedefeu
That’s wild. I hope it was for the best. I definitely had a tumultuous relationship with my mom later in life. It seems it never goes well for the parent trying to control and manipulate. It makes me pretty sad when I see it now.
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Construction progress on W Street in Sacramento. Framing is in place on the first of 2 units coming soon!
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Another recent Baran Studio ADU in Berkeley. Weighing in at 450sf (~32x14), 1 BR and 230k all in - 200 hard, 30 soft, land was an existing rear yard. This took about 9 months - 3 in design and permitting, and 6 in construction. It was a personal project for a developer client.
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The former fire station turned church that we converted into a SFD. We also designed the secondary unit just behind this (posted yesterday).
Being in CA there were definitely some challenges with the brick and ensuring the structure was seismically sound. But overall an
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It’s good to see there are actual consequences to ignoring Builder’s Remedy applications. We just received word from the city attorney that Menlo Park is processing ours
CA builder's remedy news:
@California_HCD
has found La Canada-Flintridge in violation of HAA for refusing to process a builder's remedy project application.
I think this is first official statement by a state agency that a city has violated HAA with respect to a BR project.
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I “started” Baran Studio Architecture during the Great Recession in 2009. My mom had recently passed away and I was in the middle of an awful divorce. I lost my first house and I had *maybe* 500 dollars in the bank. I didn’t have a job, but my first development deal had just sold
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Sometimes, at bedtime, my daughter asks me, “dad, will you tell me another construction disaster story?”
I often fulfill this request with tales of our last design / build development project, our Triplex on 51st Street (Oakland). Here’s a story that you too can share with your
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Around the time I started my first ground up real estate development deal, I was finishing up a masters degree in architecture. I was 36 - pretty old to be back in school. I had been working for other firms for years but had a huge drive to find a way to be both architect and
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No real estate developer is going to put in the heavy risk of building for a potential 5% return. One thing that was starting to get development going again was mini-lot subdivisions. It brings down the basis and soft cost but preserves the return. And the city of Oakland just
In 2010, we built for around 250/ft so a 1500sf entry level home cost 375. Dirt in West Oakland was ~25k. Another 50k in soft, so all in ~450k, sale at ~750k.
Now we’re at ~150k basis, ~750k construction & ~100k soft. All in ~1M. Sale at ~1.1 on a good day.
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We have a 'Developer's Checklist' at that I use to help counter as many of the development mistakes I've seen that I can recall. They are mostly generalized recommendations, but I thought it might be useful to post some of the specific problems here.
The
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Revisiting this Baran Studio ADU in Berkeley that was recently published in the Mercury News. The article showed that 22k+ ADUs have been created in the last year, as compared to 8k in 2021 as the new state law was passed. Looking forward to even more next year!
About the
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It costs a city reviewer nothing to restrict you, and most will be conservative because it’s a CYA culture. But it could end up costing you a lot.
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This home in Venice CA by
@BaranStudioArch
was completed in 2020. We currently have a home that is based on this design breaking ground down the street, with the potential for another a few blocks away.
Since the original project was built, a neighborhood group has formed and
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This project on 43rd Street was built back in the early housing boom in Oakland. It was an amazing time to be here, optimism was in the air.
We were so busy we had to find a way to boost our production, and since Oakland has a few standard lot sizes we essentially redeployed
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I know outside links get no love from the X algo, but for those interested here is a link to an Apartment Therapy write up on ‘The Radish’ 👇🏼
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Yesterday in studio I was trying to explain to a group of first year students the importance of relationships. I’m not sure they were hearing it, but we’re all one good connection away from leveling up.
I tried to start my own business for years to no avail. Then I met a
Best way to grow your company: be someone people want to work with.
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I’ve done quite a few Victorian and Craftsman rehabs coupled with new units. Here’s a sketch of one of them.
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Adaptive reuse projects like this firehouse we converted to a single family home (2 BR / 2BA w/ Workshop, for sale) in West Oakland *can* save on costs, mitigate environmental impacts, and create spaces with amazing character.
However, there’s a lot that can go wrong along the
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I’ve recently heard there is ‘architecture Twitter’. Sounds like a total train wreck. Does anyone have a list of accounts? I want to watch.
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@antonia_mdprjct
Agreed. To realize it and be honest with yourself and to do it after putting in 5 years of school is hard. This is why I tell my students to go intern and learn what it’s like in a practice before they finish a degree.
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So I just crossed paths with this bit of wisdom on my trip to pick up a new sketchbook.
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MidJourney and I kicking around the idea of a self sustaining cabin on San Francisco Bay’s only private island (now for sale at 25MM)
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@sweatystartup
Elementary school isn’t only for book learning (just like work isn’t only for making money but…) If you aren’t careful you’re going to end up with kids that don’t know how to socialize.
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Baran Studio has been selected as part of the team to rebuild the 980 freeway in Oakland as an urban park! The project will be net zero, and will include housing for 5,000 new residents of all income levels. A range of amenities and supportive services will also be integrated.
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You’ve heard the rumors, and I can confirm: density is good for everyone.
This project, currently under construction in Emeryville is one of the tightest projects we’ve ever designed. We demolished the existing SFD (picture below) to make way for 2 units.
The new homes are
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Never forget the contingency budget!
This 40 unit project on Chapman in Jingletown was nearly complete when the gas lines started failing pressure testing. There were perforations found in the lines, and the sub started blaming the manufacturer and the manufacturer started
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Happy Mother’s Day to all you awesome moms out there, and just remember: you don’t need to be perfect. My mom used to leave me outside of Hussong’s in Mexico while she went in to drink, and look how I turned out!
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This is not something I would typically post here, but today I’m making an exception. I set a goal a few months ago to hit a 100 mile 8000 foot bike ride and I completed it yesterday.
I have to admit I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. That I would run out of energy, get
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Not every project requires an architect. But here’s why you might want one:
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
Experienced builders often have enough knowledge to know what they want and in some cases forgo an architect, just using an engineer to stamp drawings. If you’ve
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More from our portfolio of projects that represent potential case studies for SB-684. These examine a variety of configurations of multiple units on what might at first appear to be single family zoning. (Check out the Baran Studio Density Guide for more small-lot subdivisions
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Just like the myth that all developers are greedy profit seekers, the idea that an architect is going add cost to your project is false. A good architect will make better design that is cost effective and profitable.
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Baran Studio Oakland is located in a former pot club in a 1960s office building across from the Claremont DMV. It’s not your typical architect’s space.
The pot club was busted a few years back and after the pandemic hit the suite sat vacant.
Rents were way down, and that
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I’ll never forget my conversation with the owner of a design build company (that shall remain nameless) who decided to drop the ‘design’ part and go with just ‘build’. When I asked him why he said “we had no one to blame”. True story.
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Of the people that graduated in the top 10% (grades and quality of design work) in my class at USC In architecture, at least half of them left the profession. They were disappointed and disillusioned by practice. They went on to start businesses in other fields. One owns a pet
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Made it to Monterey today with the daughter, and we caught up with
@CarolWalshReal1
then on to the aquarium. Here’s a photo the kid took of the two of us, and one she took of two jellyfish. Who wore it better?
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