EXPERIENCE

Roger Sherman Architecture’s (RSAUD’s) institutional commissions are a cornerstone of its design work and reputation. In fact, the firm was founded as a result of having won an international design competition to design the West Hollywood (CA) Civic Center (1987), which included a City Hall and Council Chambers, Civic Auditorium, County Library and Health Facility, and Fire Station. Principal Roger Sherman has over 20 years of experience working on both public and private institutional projects across the country, from a center for media arts for Hawaii Loa College on Oahu to a communal dining facility and religious sanctuary at a camp in Wisconsin to an elementary school in Trenton, NJ. While at Rafael Vinoly Architects in New York, he was a project designer for the 300,000 SF John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Manhattan’s Westside, and the adaptive reuse of the Snug Harbor Music Hall on Staten Island, NY. His firm has extensive expertise working with complex and multi-faceted client groups and in addressing the often competing agendas associated with them, especially with projects facing a challenging neighborhood context. Through consensus-building techniques such as the charrette (design workshop) and neighborhood storefront project offices, we excel in community outreach, and in our ability to develop building programs and design solutions which are extrapolated from the unique socioeconomic circumstances surrounding each project. Rather than imposing a preconceived “look” or appearance upon a project, RSAUD attempts to both recognize and reflect the hidden potential of a site and program, including searching for emergent social and economic trends that enable our clients to anticipate future conditions instead of basing their assumptions on present ones.

RSAUD has a wealth of experience with the public permitting and approvals process, especially locally, where we have worked on several occasions with the following government agencies: LACMTA, Los Angeles Building/Safety and Planning/Zoning, County of Los Angeles, CRA, DWP, and DSA. We have, in addition, completed at least one project in each of the following other southern California cites: Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Pasadena, West Hollywood, Culver City, Signal Hill, Long Beach, Blythe and Coachella. On larger projects, RSAUD also has had experience working in the capacity of Design Consultants or Design Architects in association with a larger Architect-of-Record. Some of the firms with which we have worked successfully are: Gruen Associates (West Hollywood Civic Center); House Robertson Architects (Melrose Triangle Mixed-Use); Pugh+Scarpa (First Interstate South Central Affordable Housing); and Tomko Woll Architects (Avenue 26 Condominiums). Our clients enjoy working with us not simply for the fresh look and imagination that we bring to each design problem, but for the amount of personal attention they receive from our capable staff and in particular from the principals themselves. And secondly, they appreciate our sophisticated computer graphic capabilities, which enable us to make impressive public presentations at a fraction of the cost of a larger firm with the same or lesser capacity. The same applies to our ability to our staff, which on average has 8+ years more experience than comparable staff in larger offices, including in crucial areas such as programming and space planning, construction administration and project management. 33% of our professional staff are also LEED-certified.

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