Awards: 2008 Pasadena AIA Merit Award + Jury Comments
959 East Walnut is an example of how a modest contemporary insertion — if eye-catching and practical enough — can revivify and reorganize a tired office building, and indeed bring new energy to an entire city block.
CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE, LOS ANGELES TIMES ARCHITECTURE CRITIC

959 East Walnut is an exciting update of a prosaic late ’70s building. The project demonstrates how a few creative gestures can revive the public appearance and enhance the occupant experience of vintage buildings with little character.
FRED FISHER

Thoughtful rehab of common nondescript ubiquitous building type.
MABEL O. WILSON

We admired the intelligent intervention that transforms and updates a dated office building while presenting a new identity. We especially appreciated the sensitively designed new materiality of the entrances and garden and the new connection to the community. This project does a lot with a little.
MARGARET GRIFFIN

building redesign

Located one block off of Pasadena’s Lake Avenue’s commercial corridor, 959 East Walnut was originally constructed in 1979. Conceived as a suburban office building, the original design of 959 East Walnut Street did not address what is now an increasingly urbanized context, nor did it anticipate the building’s shift from a single tenant to multi-tenant occupancy.

To address these issues, our design approach employed strategic architectural interventions that would transform the building and react to its original design, in an effort to realize its inherent potential and respond to its changed context and program. Given a modest budget for this full building renovation, calculated choices were made for architectural modifications that delivered the best effect.

Photography by Josh Perin