Entrepreneurs come to San Marcos because of the town’s diverse housing stock, parks and trails, and easy access to outdoor and entertainment opportunities. If you are an entrepreneur, you already know that working with a commercial architect is an important stage in building your business. The commercial architects listed here possess a deep understanding of the opportunities and constraints present in a diverse range of industries and markets.
To help you in your search, our editorial team has put together this list of the best commercial architects in San Marcos, California. These firms have worked in a number of different industries, designing for start-up companies as well as well-established brands. These design firms have delivered award-winning designs through the collaboration of their multitalented staff and the forward-thinking leadership of their principals and founders.
Safdie Rabines Architects
925 Fort Stockton Drive, San Diego, CA 92103
Safdie Rabines Architects designed the Extended Learning Building (ELB) project, a 135,000-square-foot building that includes a pedestrian bridge and a 709-stall parking structure. The double-loaded, concrete structure holds ground-floor, street-facing retail spaces with a massive walkway, accommodating gatherings and encouraging connection. In the rear, a shared green space connects two laboratories equipped with bi-fold garage doors. Providing ventilation and enhancing the porosity are the large breezeways and decks surrounding the building.
Wisely planned projects like this are a result of the creative direction of co-founders Ricardo Rabines and Taal Safdie. Both are experts in many disciplines and have expanded their portfolio with various projects that include academic, public, residences, bridge, and infrastructure projects, as well as large, urban master plans. They use their experience to guide the firm on creating sustainable, site-specific, and sensible solutions that are highly responsive to the users’ needs. Their design portfolio consists of projects ranging from large, civic buildings to educational facilities, multifamily housing, and custom, single-family residences.
Studio E Architects
2258 1st Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101
Studio E Architects is a San Diego-based firm led by principals Eric Naslund, John Sheehan, Mathilda Bialk, and Maxine Ward. It focuses on private residences, affordable housing, mixed-use, civic, and urban planning projects as it serves clients throughout the southwestern United States. Their projects synergistically complement the site while exhibiting authenticity and inventive optimism. Thanks to a list of impressive projects, the firm was named one of California’s Emerging Talents by the California Council of the American Institute of Architects, and it has received numerous design awards, including three National American Institute of Architects Honor Awards.
Studio E Architects also received the American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum, and the Merit Award and Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects, California Council, and San Diego for the Saxon Suites. The firm’s design included stripping the existing three-story building to the studs and rebuilding it with new finishes, windows, sun-shading devices, and upgraded mechanical and electrical systems. The project’s reconfigured site provides new community spaces that create opportunities for social gatherings and thus promote a vibrant student culture.
Westberg White Architecture
1775 Hancock Street Suite 120, San Diego, CA 92110
Since founding Westberg White Architecture in 1987, Paul Westberg has led the firm’s strategic growth and legacy of nourishing client relationships. He has managed firm-wide initiatives and has served public and private clients in the civic, commercial, office, mixed-use, higher education, and K-12 fields. As he leads the design process for projects in various markets, Westberg begins by uncovering the needs and goals of the business through understanding the complexities of the client’s working environment.
This discovery serves as the foundation for every decision in the design process. The Courtyard Terraces, a four-story, affordable senior-living complex built over one level of partial subterranean parking, is an example. The sloping site faces two streets, with entrances at the high end on 52nd Street and the parking garage access from Dawson Avenue at the lower end. The wood frame over a concrete parking structure provides 72 one-bedroom apartments and 16 two-bedroom apartments. The building also features an exterior patio roof deck, an on-site office, laundry facilities on every floor, and a central, internal open-air courtyard.
