The College of Marin New Academic Center (designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates and TLCD Architecture) received DSA approval last week, and will start construction in the early fall. This informational video was prepared by the College as part of their outreach to the local community.

On Saturday, June 1st, 300+ supporters of Mendocino College gathered for Gala on the Green, a fundraiser for the Mendocino College Foundation. A huge tent and colorfully decorated tables filled the new plaza between the Library and Learning Resource Center and the new Lowery Student Center, both designed by TLCD Architecture. It was a spectacular setting overlooking a sweeping view of the Ukiah Valley to the south.

Auction items and a wine tasting were hosted in the Lowery Student Center, opened to public viewing for the first time on Saturday. The building will house campus food service, the bookstore and student activities spaces. Students from the Culinary program prepared a great meal served by a corps of MESA program students in white shirts all marching in procession with some of the best crab cakes to be had. Live music was provided by Van and the Swells and added to the wonderful ambiance of the evening.

Having been closely involved in work at the campus, TLCD found it richly rewarding to see the new “town square” for the campus used so effectively and appreciated by the community.

The DeTurk Round Barn is back in the press, this time in a article in the May/June issue of Retrofit Magazine. Under the category of transformation, the article entitled “Barn Raising” looks at the meticulous renovation of this historic round barn by TLCD Architecture for the City of Santa Rosa.

Read the full article in the online version of Retrofit…

For the past two school years TLCD Architecture has partnered with the ROP program at Chico High School in an evolving collaboration between students and design professionals. The “iTech” program teaches students about design and construction, and in particular how to use Revit, a Building Information Modeling (BIM) program that TLCD helped pioneer beginning in 2000.

When TLCD was selected to design the new 10-acre Butte Regional Transit Operations Center in Chico, we were given this unique opportunity to involve iTech students in the project in a meaningful way. Since that time the students have been actively involved in the project including participation in design workshops, developing solar shading studies, producing models with their 3-D printers, creating a Revit model, and video “fly throughs” of the project.

The link below takes you to one of these fly throughs, as well as the students’ final 3D model. TLCD Architecture used the iTech model when it presented the project to the Chico Architectural Review Board last week. Way to go students!

Chico High School Fly Through

For the 4th consecutive year, TLCD Architecture has participated in the fun of Sonoma County’s Human Race as a Water Station sponsor. This is highly technical work and requires the expertise of only the best Hydrating Engineers. From pouring water into small cups, to carefully balancing them on the end of fingertips, the technique must successfully deliver water to quickly moving objects… aka runners and the slower moving walkers!

Bill McNearney, Alan Butler, Marina Starkey, Don Tomasi, his son Jeffrey were all on hand to demonstrate their technique and to cheer everyone towards the finish line of the 10k race. TLCD also had several participants in the race including Gwin Stumbaugh, John Dybczak, Sandy Petersen and her family. This is an event TLCD looks forward to each year and a great chance to give back to the community.

TLCD Architecture Rendering of 5-story Museum on the Square

Museum on the Square, a 10-story building designed by TLCD Architecture has been redesigned as a 5-story building. As reported in the Press Democrat, the Santa Rosa City Council on a 7-0 vote approved the revised design last evening. The 10-story building proved too difficult to finance, in part due to the current lending climate.

The project is an adaptive reuse of a 5-story telephone switching building. A dramatic north-facing curtain wall will reveal the concrete frame of the original building, and is unchanged from the original project. TLCD Architecture will call the 3^rd floor home when the building opens in mid-2014. The ground floor will house the Sonoma County Museum and a restaurant. The remaining floors will be office space.

By Alan Butler AIA
Senior Principal, TLCD Architecture

Nearly a decade ago, I typed up a one-page list of things to look for in the libraries we were visiting with a stakeholder group from Napa Valley College. That list morphed into a workbook called Touring Libraries, first printed in 2005. Thirty thousand photographs later, and after touring libraries throughout the United States and Europe, a new book called Experiencing Libraries has been born. This edition was published through the online service Blurb and will soon be available in hard bound, soft cover, and e-book versions.

When non-designers visit other libraries it is often difficult for them to understand and articulate the qualities and functions of the spaces they are visiting. This book guides them though the library from the site, to the front door and to all facets of the library. In addition to basic library space uses it includes sections on such topics as community rooms, way finding, loading docks and HVAC systems. The book is helpful both as a tour guide and as a tool for programming and plan evaluation. Written with library programmer Will Baty, whom  TLCD Architecture has worked with on 4 of our recent library projects, we hope to find an institutional publisher such as the American Library Association in order to share it with a wider audience.

You can preview or purchase a copy at the TLCD Bookstore:

http://www.blurb.com/user/store/Alan-TLCD

On May 1, 2013, several hundred people gathered on a warm and windy afternoon in Lakeport to officially celebrate the Grand Opening of the Mendocino College Lake County Center, designed by TLCD Architecture. Effusively described by several in attendance as the best building in Lake County, the new center provides 15,500 square feet of classrooms, labs and administrative space that replaced temporary facilities. Sited on a beautiful oak studded site at the western edge of Lakeport, this first phase has capacity for future growth. Somewhat unique to the Center is a combined learning resource center, administrative lobby and gathering space at the heart of the campus. Mount Konocti dominates the views and is the focus of the site layout and beautifully framed in an opening in the concrete wall of the cylindrical Community Room. The deep overhangs of the buildings are well adapted to the hot summers of Lake County and the overall scale inviting to the community. With an art classroom and science lab it will allow students to take classes that before required an hour-long trip over the daunting Hopland Grade to Ukiah. The appreciation for this facility was widely evident by those in attendance.

On Saturday the Redwood Empire chapter of the American Institute of Architects held its first annual Architectural Bike Tour in Santa Rosa. About 30 bicyclists, some attired in British tweed, made stops at 3 buildings of interest, the former Railroad Station in Railroad Square, the McDonald Mansion, and TLCD Architecture’s Luther Burbank Saving’s Headquarter Branch. Don Tomasi, a Principal of TLCD Architecture, discussed the history of the site and how the recently completed building for Luther Burbank Savings was designed and constructed. Don brought several exhibits including architectural study models and an early mock up of the building’s art glass windows by Ellen Blakeley. Luther Burbank Saving’s Headquarters Branch opened in December, 2012.

TLCD Architecture was one of four panelists at the 3^rd annual Workforce Wellness Symposium hosted by iWORKwell Sonoma County on March 27^th.  This event featured 4 companies of differing sizes who have implemented employee wellness programs and included insights on how to sustain a program year after year.

The TLCD ‘Fit Force’ was launched 4 years ago to promote fitness, healthy eating habits, team-building and community involvement. Julie Wycoff, a Project Captain in TLCD’s Health care studio, has been a core committee member for the last several years and shared her thoughts about the program during the panel discussion. “I found the experience to be very enlightening. It was fascinating to hear how the other three companies approach and promote a culture wellness for their employees given their various sizes and financial commitments to a program. Obviously, Clif Bar sets the standard for a broad and holistic approach to a wellness program but that fact that other, smaller companies like TLCD are able to show measureable improvements in their employees’ well-being without the “deep-pockets” approach was even more impressive,” said Julie. “As a panel speaker, I tried to emphasize that at TLCD the concept of personal wellness for our employees directly ties in to our work as Architects and Designers as we create and design healthy buildings for people and the environment. I also tried to stress that creating a wellness program doesn’t need to be costly – most of what we do as a group is to encourage healthy living through simple things like eating healthy, getting more exercise and giving back to our community.”

The Symposium attracted about 60 people representing a cross section of local businesses interested in implementing a workplace wellness program, or building on existing programs. TLCD Architecture was thrilled to be selected in the small firm category and shared the stage with workplace champions from Clif Bar, LEMO USA, and Santa Rosa Oral Surgery. TLCD has also been honored in the past as a North Bay Business Journal Best Places to Work and Healthiest Workplaces in the North Bay.