Zócalo
Coachella, California
Zócalo, which means town square, was designed to be the new town center for the city of Coachella. The project was to include government offices, as well as retail and residential components. The design consists of a main plaza, surrounded by 2 to 4 story buildings; the town square will be a place for the community to gather, a place for live music, and dancing on holidays, and for children to splash in the many water features on warm desert summers.
Credit: Zócalo was designed as a collaboration with Roy Asaro, for the architecture firm APDA.
View of office building from Harrison Street and 4th Avenue.
Typical courtyard
View from Harrison Street and 6th Avenue
Site Plan
The Plaza at Calle Tampico
La Quinta, California
The site presented a series of challenges from its inception. The Plaza at Calle Tampico is located in the heart of La Quinta and directly facing the city's Old Town. I drew inspiration from the city's California Mission Revival buildings heritage, such as the La Quinta Resort and gave it a modern and fresh twist that looks to the future of the city's downtown, while acknowledging its past. Fresh & Easy, the center's main tenant board of directors, expressed that this was the best looking location that their store was going into thus far.
Credit: Designed for Forward Architecture & Design, Inc. Palm Desert, California
View of Fresh & Easy along Calle Tampico
Boney's Bayside Market
Coronado, California
The Boney family has been providing San Diegans with high-end grocery products for decades. They decided to open their first store in Coronado and acquired a former auto dealership showroom, originally built circa 1920; the dealership had since undergone a few transformations and arrived to my desk as a steakhouse and donut shop. The first task was to peel away years of neglect and bad additions, to discover a pure shell of glass, masonry and wood trusses. The bones of the building so beautiful, that we decided to bring the old auto showroom to its former glory and fill it with grocery aisles' A watch-tower was added to the exterior, a symbolic gesture to Coronado's beach culture; the first floor provides an entry to the store and the second floor houses the management offices.
Credit: Designed for Ziebarth Associates, Inc. San Diego, California
Elevation along Orange Avenue
Shadow View
Coachella, California
Shadow View was introduced as the shopping and entertainment destination for the east-end of the Coachella Valley; situated between two major interstates, making it the most accessible property in the area; Shadow View sits directly across from Spotlight 29 Casino, one of the premier casinos in Souther California and within minutes of Fantasy Springs Casino, already a great desination for the over 18 population of the area. Shadow View plans to bridge the gap and introduce additional family-oriented entertainment, shopping and restaurants, making the east-end of the valley a true destination point for the entire area, from Palm Springs to Indio, California.
Conceptual Site Plan
Water feature and entertainment area
Pedestrian walkways by the restaurants
AireTecnico de Tijuana
Tijuana, Baja California, México - 1990
Headquarters and showroom for a large HVAC equipment manufacturer . Located in Tijuana, Mexico. The concept was to expose the structure and mimic duct-work running through the exterior of an AC unit.
Desert Ridge Marketplace
Phoenix Arizona
Desert Ridge Marketplace is a master-planned development located in Northern Phoenix, Arizona. Consisting of both commercial and residential areas. I collaborated on Desert Ridge Marketplace while at SGPA Architecture & Planning; working specifically on the entertainement district of the project, an area with more than one million square feet of small retail, mid-size box retail and entertainment, including dining and movie theaters.
Taking advantage of Arizona's weather, the project features lush gardens, shaded by mature palm trees and Palo Verdes, surrounding outdoor plazas, areas for lounging and relaxing in front of cozy outdoor fireplaces, as well as water features and trellised plazas, which provide much needed respite form the sun in the summer months.
