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David Baker Architects

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David Baker Architects

David Baker Architects: Sustainable architecture with a signature character and a social conscience

David Baker Architects (DBA) is a nationally recognized, locally oriented architecture and urban design firm with a focus on sustainable, mixed-use communities that support stability and connection. At the nexus of housing, climate, and community, DBA’s work seizes opportunities to enact meaningful change—forging strong partnerships to create livable density and resilient, human-centered places th

at uplift communities at all scales. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Birmingham, Alabama, DBA’s diverse, collaborative team is committed to designing and leading with expertise, curiosity, tenacity, pragmatism, and joy. We design thoughtful places that allow communities to thrive and that serve as a “multiplier of good”—that is, that enable and support engagement, connection, and other neighborhood benefits.

09/03/2026

New batch of mugs fresh from David Baker's home studio. 🍵

Our Principal-at-Large has always made thing by hand, and it extends well beyond drinkware. Many of our projects feature his one-off hand-fired tiles—no two are alike. And his Seed Bead Totem is now in residency at Harmon Guest House . Lately, all of our office kitchens are the lucky beneficiaries. Swipe for the lineup.

08/31/2026

Following wildfires that depleted Santa Rosa's housing, Felix responds with smart density, reimagining a surface parking lot one block from Old Courthouse Square with 168 homes and amenities tuned to modern living. This strategic pairing of design ambition and civic responsibility draws residents to reinvigorate the heart of the city.

The building doesn't present a single face, instead opening across three landscaped street frontages and a central paseo that threads between existing structures. Standing-seam steel at the corner volumes marks entry points and anchors the massing with material clarity. Offering a moment of transition from street to home, the lobby is reached through a wood-slat gate, past plantings and a glimpse into a double-height co-working space.
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The DBA-designed interiors reflect the agricultural character of the surrounding Sonoma landscape: custom redwood ceiling, hand-built seed-inspired sculpture, and earthy palettes drawn from the region's fertile terrain. Twenty-two unique unit layouts invite renters to find the right fit. Amenities—a wellness center with sauna and steam, a roof lounge with hill views, co-working spaces—reflect a post-pandemic attentiveness to how residents actually live and work.�

The all-electric LEED Gold mid-rise includes heat-pump hot water, rooftop solar, and bioretention rain gardens and native plantings that treat 100% of stormwater.

Felix was honored with a 2026 Gold Nugget Merit Award for Best Multi-Family Housing Community (100+ DUA) ✨. Thanks and congratulations to our developer partners Related California and Zach Berkowitz; teammates Carlile Macy and KPFF ; and the Pacific Coast Builders Conference.

📷: Steven J Magner

PCBC - The Art, Science & Business of Housing

08/28/2026

DBA's Birmingham-based team made the trip to Nashville yesterday to celebrate the grand opening of Park24, an affordable housing community and community resource developed in collaboration with the Urban League of Middle Tennessee for Holladay Ventures.

The community includes an Empowerment Center, operated on site by ULMT, offering workforce development, education, and enrichment for residents and neighbors, plus space for retail. Its spot on the Dickerson Pike transit corridor means residents can reach downtown jobs and the new East Bank car-free.

Park24 represents DBA’s deep affordable housing expertise thoughtfully translated through a southern lens with vernacular design, regional construction methods, and local materials.

Landscape by Hawkins Partners
Mural by Christian Green of C3 Art; Painting by Ja Carlos Tatu / Woke 3

08/21/2026

Page Street Studios has won the Gold Nugget Honor Award for Best Affordable Housing Community (over 60 DUA)! ✨

This compact, carefully crafted building consolidates three small lots to deliver high-density housing—81 studios for low-income households, including 27 reserved for chronically homeless residents. Tuck-under mechanized parking freed the building from a conventional podium, allowing daylit corridors, balconies, and a sequence of shared roof decks to animate the upper floors. A cascading wood trellis, open-air stair tower, graphic checkerboard facade, and custom front door lend a dynamic material street presence.

Part of San Jose’s evolving West San Carlos Urban Village, the project’s most civic gesture is the south paseo—a landscaped greenway that anticipates a larger planned pedestrian network. The common room opens directly onto the planted paseo, which functions as the building’s courtyard. Certified GreenPoint Platinum, Page Street Studios demonstrates that constrained sites, tight budgets, and high density are not obstacles to architecture that is generous, lasting, and genuinely connected to its community.

Thanks to Charities Housing for selecting DBA to envision and realize this project, to our landscape partner form/work Landscape Architecture, and to the Pacific Coast Builders Conference for the recognition.

PCBC - The Art, Science & Business of Housing
Lead 📷: Vantage Point Photography ; following 📷: Bruce Damonte Photography

08/11/2026

Join our talented and fun team! We're looking for creative, committed folks to fill two roles at DBA:

• An SF Bay Area-based Architectural Designer to support projects in their earliest phases—site planning; concept design; and the renderings, models, and graphics that help us realize and express our vision.

• An experienced Architectural Project Manager to work in our Birmingham, Alabama, office to design and manage multifamily projects from concept through construction, working closely with clients and our larger team in a collaborative design process.

https://davidbakerarchitects.teamtailor.com/jobs

08/10/2026

Our summer internship program runs on reciprocal teaching and learning.

Recently, our San Francisco architecture interns took the ferry to Treasure Island, where Associate Carley Leckie walked them through Isle House, our 250-home high-rise completed in 2024, and how DBA's 9 Ways—our suite of complementary design strategies—affect the building's details and choices.

Thanks to all of our 2026 summer interns for their wonderful work, enthusiasm, and curiosity!

Architecture, San Francisco: Madison Li, Winifred Nevis, Estee Teo
Architecture, Birmingham: Katalina Flores
Construction Industry Workforce Initiative (CIWI), Oakland: Scarlett Nguyen
Data and Research, Oakland: Surina Pugh

Developer: Wilson Meany
Landscape: GLS Landscape | Architecture

07/20/2026

From empty warehouse to inspiring workspace.

For Wyatt Builds’ Birmingham headquarters, David Baker Architects transformed a historic brick warehouse into a light-filled office that celebrates craftsmanship, materiality, and adaptive reuse.

Original brick walls, terra cotta flooring, exposed structure, skylights, and a new internal courtyard work together to create a space that feels both industrial and warm.

A workspace designed to reflect the people who use it.

07/16/2026

Sweet design details 🍦

Designed by DBA_Inside, Big Spoon Creamery in Huntsville brings thoughtful interior design to a small-batch artisan ice cream experience.

Proof that great design can make even the smallest spaces feel memorable.

07/13/2026

Realizing good design is always a team effort.

A great evening with the Woodland Park Master Plan team, our client partners, and the team at GLS. We are grateful for the robust collaboration that brings meaningful places to life.

07/09/2026

Good design is in the details!

At 555 Larkin, the David Baker Architects Workshop brought this custom lobby installation to life, turning a functional space into a design moment.

From concept to fabrication, we love creating details that make a space feel memorable.

Address

San Fransisco, CA
94107

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 6pm
Tuesday	9am - 6pm
Wednesday	9am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 6pm
Friday	9am - 6pm

Telephone

+14158966700

Website

http://www.dbarchitect.com/

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