Thomas Dolan Architecture is a pioneer designer of live/work residences. With seventeen years of practice in the Bay Area, we have designed over twenty live/work projects, including the first new-construction live/work community built in the United States. This depth of experience gives the firm a unique understanding of the needs of live/work as a hybrid land use and has led to the invention of a new building type: the New Construction Urban Infill Live/Work Courtyard Community. Our projects have received numerous design awards and have been visited by developers and public officials from across the country.
Our firm offers a wide range of services at a variety of scales. We are an interdisciplinary team of designers and architects with experience in:
Architecture
Urban Design and Planning
Landscape Architecture
Real Estate and Development
Construction and Construction Administration
Building and Planning Code Writing
To date, we have completed more than 100 Zero Commute Housing live/work, both new construction and renovation, directing construction valued at approximately $25 million. As architects and urban designers, we are currently involved in placing 560 units on the Northern California real estate market for the years 2001 and 2002.
In addition, we offer our experience to city planning and building departments wanting to implement a pro-active stance in bringing this vitalizing land-use to their cities. We wrote and continue to provide interpretation of Oakland's Live/Work Building Code and we played an active role changing The City of Vancouver, B.C.'s planning and building code to allow live/work projects, co-authoring Work/Live in Vancouver.
The heart of our work embraces architectural design not only for live/work buildings, but commercial and medium to high-density residential projects as well. We provide full architectural services from initial design schematics and proformas to full construction documents and administration. We also provide landscape design services.
Our experience in mixed-use environments and buildings designed to promote a sense of community informs our urban design work. We are currently working with development teams on New Urbanist Transit Villages in Northern California. One project provides 48,000 s.f. of prime floor plate space that can convert easily from live/work to retail as demand grows over a ten year period. Another project helps to revitalize an economically depressed area by providing live/work units partnered with business incubator support systems, job training and child care.
