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Christ Presbyterian Church, Carlsbad, CA

Christ Presbyterian Church

For nearly three decades, Christ Presbyterian Church worshiped in a Fellowship Hall with dreams of one day building a Sanctuary. Rather than building new, we teamed with the committee to remodel the existing Fellowship Hall into a beautiful worship space which still meets the needs of a multi-purpose space used for social events. The committee had approached domus on a simple interior remodel, but domus lead them to think past the interior walls and open up the space to the community, removing the traditional threshold which many new visitors find difficult to cross. A new social patio greets worshipers and provides a space for chance encounters and social ministries. The result is people hang out longer between and after services! Bi-fold doors removed the barrier separating the indoors from the outdoors and provides flex space for additional seating or simply for improved flow. Inside, an interior fused glass art panel and new central skylight created by renowned Judson Studios provides a focal point and hierarchy in the space. Wood was introduced throughout the space to make it warm and inviting and improved lighting and fresh paint colors brightened the space. The design has exceeded the churches expectations and motivated generous giving as well!

August 9, 2019

South Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower

In 1978, the city constructed a temporary wooden lifeguard tower at South Mission Beach. The replacement tower had been in the works for over 15 years and was completed in 2019. In addition to the 30’ observation tower, the new facility was designed to ensure public safety and quick response times from lifeguards to those in need. The narrow building design minimize view blockage to the ocean from the boardwalk and existing homes, but efficiently houses everything the lifeguards need to serve the public from first aid, to communication of dangerous rip currents and ocean dangers. Public art was incorporated into the design with cast in place “beach cottages” to cap the erosion control barrier which extends down 40’, mimicking the houses that line the boardwalk. The building is constructed out of cast-in-place concrete with a copper fascia in order to withstand the harsh ocean environment and blends in with the beach sand in order to minimize the public’s visual impact for a necessary structure that ideally would not be there.

April 10, 2019

Congregation shir ha-ma’alot

Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot

In 1994, Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’Alot moved into their existing two-story, 27,200 square-foot building, a remodeled 24 Hour Fitness facility. The structure included a 2,375 square-foot main sanctuary, social hall, classrooms, and administrative uses. In 2015, domusstudio architecture assisted them in a Master Plan to renovate and expand the existing building to meet the growing needs of its congregation. The overarching goal was to provide a ‘sanctuary for their congregation’ when they entered the campus. The site plan was completely reconfigured to create a layout more conducive to current operations. The newly constructed one-story 12,400 square feet building addition includes new administrative offices, approximately 2,800 square feet of worship space with 250 fixed seats, expandable into the adjacent 3,900 square feet social hall for larger events. The Sanctuary and Social Hall would open out to a new covered Gallery and beyond to a new outdoor courtyard, with operable glass walls, allowing for additional expansion of large events and providing an immediate relationship between indoor and outdoor space. The existing two-story building was renovated to house their educational programs and Hebrew School, to include Classrooms, Offices, and a new 935 square-foot Chapel (occupying a portion of their original Sanctuary space), to be used for specialized services (e.g., bar/bat mitzvahs, and small service events). Associated site improvements included open and secured parking with EV charging stations, youth play areas, and a future Biblical garden.

June 29, 2018

domusstudio architecture

In 1963, renowned San Diego Modernist Architect Homer Delawie, A.I.A. designed the Brandon-Beaver Building, located at 2800 Third Avenue in Bankers Hill. The medical office building was poised on the edge of Maple canyon with prominent views across the historic 1911 First Avenue Bridge, where it served the community for over 50 years. Over time, the building was infilled, overgrown with vegetation and became a visual blockage from the neighborhood to the canyon beyond. The building looked abandoned and the grounds became a hangout for drug dealers and the homeless community. After several failed attempts by developers to purchase, demolish, and develop the site, in 2017, the Partners of domusstudio purchased and renovated the building with the goal of maintaining the neighborhood scale.

While preserving the Mid-Century Modern Architecture, the new building achieves a sense of transparency. Interior walls were removed and windows were added to each side to provide clear views from the public street front through to the canyon. In addition to becoming the new home for domusstudio, the repurposed building has revitalized the neighborhood at the end of Third and Olive. From the bridge view, the structure has visually lightened its footprint by painting the base dark, giving the illusion that the building is floating over the canyon. It’s not often that a building project subtracts, rather than adds to the built environment.

On the building interior, the structural steel and wood framed building was creatively exposed, revealing the truthfulness of materials and establishing the building aesthetic. Minimal walls were added back in, along with glass partitions, to enclose conference spaces while not sacrificing any canyon views. A grid of work tables was added creating an open, collaborative, and inspiring space for domusstudio architecture to serve their clients. On the exterior, the former concrete front yard was returned to nature through the use of native grasses, extending the canyon up and enveloping the building within the canyon.

June 29, 2018

San Dieguito United Methodist Church

Provide Focus! That was our first response when asked by the church to design the remodel of their sanctuary interior. The existing 10-sided space had grown organically over its life, with organ pipes and chancel decorations added as donors stepped forward. Our goal was to bring hierarchy and simplicity, provide visual resolution and add verticality to an otherwise horizontal space.

The curved slotted wood ‘Flame’, a reference to the Methodist symbol, provides verticality and lifts the eye toward the skylight and heaven.

The existing organ pipes were haphazard, creating visual noise. The solution covered the pipes on the right with a permanent acoustic project screen and quiets the ones on the left with acoustic fabric and painted wood baffles that blend with the wall color, creating an asymmetrical yet balanced composition.

The chancel and cross were brought forward in the space, providing a screen for ramp accessibility behind the short wall and additional height at the cross. Up-lighting the flame provides the highlighted backdrop to the cross. Subtle changes in material textures provide visual interest in lieu of distractions. Custom chancel furniture pieces were designed to reinforce the wood flame motif.

The ceiling was made darker and alcoves lighted to minimize contrasting shadows. These existing ceiling recesses also provided opportunities to help conceal and enhance the chancel lighting and sound system. Eliminating the large pendant light fixtures allows the eye to absorb the full volume of the space.

With a subtle transition from dark blue to a lighter blue, the carpet runner at the main aisle leads the eye to the communion table, cross and flame on its way upward. The curved chancel steps and curved pews radiate from the cross and flame, reinforcing the focal point while creating an intimate and unifying worship experience.

June 22, 2018

Summit Point Church

How do you support a contemporary worship team burdened with a traditional Sanctuary? At Summit Point Church, we removed the pews, leveled the sloped floor, rotated the seating 90 degrees, used chairs for flexibility, provided a new back drop, equipped the space with a great A/V system/acoustics and theatrical lighting and removed the barriers by adding roll up sectional glass doors. The new back drop is an abstracted cross that spreads its welcoming arms and envelops the community gathered around it. In addition, we reoriented the entrance/exit and created a covered exterior patio to encourage social ministries and chance encounters with each other, eliminating the direct exit to the parking lot.

May 21, 2018

Hope Chapel

Hope Chapel is located in Hermosa Beach and is about to undertake a total reimaging of their building. Since 1976, the church has occupied what was a former bowling alley which overlooks the Pacific Ocean on Pacific Coast Highway. God recycled that old derelict building and established a “light on the hill” in Hermosa Beach. Together we have reimagined the Chapel with an expandable Sanctuary, Roof Deck, Outdoor Terrace, World Class Children’s Church, an Ocean view Prayer Chapel, a three story welcome Lobby and a dedicated Youth Ministry area.

February 23, 2018

Imperial Beach Library

The new Imperial Beach Library includes spaces for children, teens, and adults; a marketplace area featuring popular books and media; a computer lab, homework center, and Wi-Fi; a Community room for flexible programming; and approximately 425 square feet of space for the Friends of Imperial Beach Library operated bookstore. domusstudio was the Design Architect on this project which won an Award of Merit from the ENR California – 2017 Regional Project and also a 2017 Energy Efficiency & Integration Award from the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Team: Project Architect of record: Jeff Katz Architecture. Interior Design: Delawie Architects.

November 9, 2016

Child Development Center Twentynine Palms

The Child Development Center (CDC) at the USMC base in Twentynine Palms aspires to demonstrate that design of the built environment can provide rich learning opportunities for young children’s actively developing minds as they discover, explore and develop their level of understanding of their world.

The CDC’s Child Activity Rooms are organized around a sheltering Courtyard plan, oriented to the cardinal North-South-East-West directions, creating a shared outdoor common space protected from the harsh desert environment with intentionally placed views out to the surrounding desert, mountains, and principal landmarks.

Within the Courtyard, a shared ‘Atelier’ children’s studio provides an open, light & airy place for children’s creative play and artwork with work-tables, benches, supplies, and exhibit spaces.

The architectural form of the Twentynine Palms Child Development Center responds to the Mojave Desert’s extreme climatic and environmental conditions, providing a variety of shaded and sheltered interior and outdoor spaces designed and constructed with the Owner’s stated intention to redefine what Marine Corps families can expect from a Marine Corps Child Care facility.

Design elements were incorporated to offer opportunities for engagement and stimulation of the children’s natural curiosity and capacity for learning both about Nature (things growing and responding to the energy of the sun and the rhythmic cycles of the earth) and Architecture (exposed structure, various materials, textures and colors, the varying qualities of sound produced by changing ceiling heights within connected interior spaces and the visual contrasting qualities of sunlight vs. shadow vs. filtered light vs. shade).

Among other accomplishments, this project was the Navy’s first Net–Zero facility; generating as much renewable electrical energy from its artfully-designed photovoltaic ‘tree structures’ as it consumes over the course of a year from both natural gas and electricity.

Photography by: Pablo Mason, Pablomasonphotography.com

November 6, 2015

Oceanside beach house

oceanside beach house

In order to construct this contemporary beach house, the family demolished their salt air eroded redwood clad home which was beyond repair. A summer camp on the beach, this unique home, communally shared by multiple families, sits on the beach in Oceanside. This contemporary vacation home’s program led to unique solutions with detached bedrooms that were separated by outdoor decks from the main living spaces and a transformable structure which unfolds to reveal indoor/outdoor rooms on multiple levels: active spaces for the children, private suites for the parents, as well as family style dining and kitchen spaces. The home removes the physical barriers to the beach through the multi-leveled series of terraces, decks, and patios that connect the interior spaces with the beachfront environment, providing ocean views from every room in the house and allowing one to reconnect to each other and our coastal environment. It is a home designed for wellness! The close proximity of homes along the beach prompted a design that would provide sunset views and views up and down the coast while maximizing family privacy. At the same time, the house is transparent from the easterly bluff allowing a neighborhood connection to the water along a street where almost every home does exactly the opposite.

The structure primarily consists of cast-in-place concrete walls used to retain the bluff behind and weather the harsh elements which caused the ultimate demise of the previous structure.

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