Ideas
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DBA’s leadership team keeps getting stronger. Get to know our newest Technical Director and five amazing new Associates.
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Principal Katie Ackerly reflects on this year’s AIA 2030 reporting and shares her optimism for DBA’s continued commitment to sustainable design.
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Inclusive Design Lead Anne Riggs, AIA, explores the importance of accessibility in architecture [Design Museum Everywhere].
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We are thrilled to welcome Chelsea Johnson, AIA, LEED AP, to the DBA Principal team.
How-To
We are committed to resilience planning as a common-sense way to establish the user-centered program requirements critical to a successful building.
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As our firm grows, we’re developing new tools to connect our staff and studios, keep a broad view of our portfolio, and deepen DBA’s design ethos.
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In 2021, DBA released a new Sustainability Action Plan that reoriented our goals around an authentic, home-grown approach to sustainable design for our practice.
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DBA Associate Bryan Alcorn, AIA explains social housing and why Architects have a responsibility to the public to visualize the potential of social housing in America [Common Edge].
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According to the EPA, Americans spend 90% of their lives indoors. For architects, this means that every product or material that we select to go into any interior space directly impacts the health, well-being, and quality of life for occupants.
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Reimagining Affordable Mixed-Use Development in a Carbon-Constrained Future.
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Edwina Benner Plaza was one of four pilots demonstrating low-carbon heat pump hot water solutions for housing, funded by the California Energy Commission in 2018.
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As part the ILFI Affordable Housing Pilot, Coliseum Place seeks to bring high resilience to affordable multi-family housing.
Video
Available from ORO Editions, our new book crystallizes DBA’s design framework for urban housing that uplifts residents and neighborhoods alike.
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DBA’s Sustainability Lead, Katie Ackerly, shares her thoughts on addressing the AIA’s comprehensive performance initiative.
Video
An equitable, replicable solution for grid-responsive urban housing.
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Hop on your bicycles, scooters, or BayWheels to tour some DBA high-density, mixed-income, mixed-use developments!
How-To
Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) involves the systematic evaluation of buildings in use, often and ideally from the perspective of the people who use them.
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DBA is working with partners RMI, Association for Energy Affordability and RDH Building Sciences to demonstrate industrialized and rapidly deployable retrofit solutions for low-rise existing affordable housing in the State of California.
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DBA is now a certified B Corp, joining a community of companies balancing people, planet, and profit.
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DBA Sustainable Design Director Katie Ackerly, AIA, CHPC, shares encouragement and practical tips for advocating for building sustainable housing [AIA California].
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DBA takes a proactive, visionary, and data-informed approach to sustainable community and housing design.
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Small-scale urban farming makes a big impact in affordable housing communities.
Video
Timothy Isaiah moved into Tahanan Supportive Housing in San Francisco. This housing development was launched by Tipping Point and was built faster and more affordably than other projects of its kind.
How-To
Download Resilience Resources for Multifamily Climate-Responsive Housing.
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Principal and Sustainable Design Lead, Katie Ackerly walks through finding the right resilience strategy, regardless of ZNE goals.
Video
Tahanan Supportive Housing is a creative collaboration between Tipping Point Community, SFHAF, and Mercy Housing seeking to speed production of housing for San Francisco's unhoused residents.
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David Baker, FAIA, and Associate Taylor Dearinger share a close look at how the A2 Apartments fill a gap in Baltimore's housing market.
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Associate Taylor Dearinger, Assoc. AIA, LEED GA, walks through how we continue to grow toward a more equitable organization.
Video
Go behind the scenes with DBA, Cervantes Design Associates, Mission Housing Development Corporation, and BRIDGE Housing for a look at the design process for La Fénix at 1950, new affordable family housing in the Mission.
How-To
How construction type influences building form under the IBC in the Bay Area
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We’re excited to announce our new all-women class of associates.
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Amanda talks about starting DBA_BHM, “Small but Mighty Acts of Urbanism,” and designing for people.
How-To
Strategies for sustainable design at and beyond the edge
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A Guide to Immediate Actions and Long-term Goals for Housing Providers in Response to Smoke and Heat Wave Events.
Video
222 Taylor is a featured player in this wonderful TNDC video about their commitment bringing homes, health, and voice to underserved communities in San Francisco.
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We're taking two affordable housing developments through the Living Building Challenge's comprehensive, philosophical program.
How-To
A guide to relating common metric scales to English counterparts