Featured Projects

1100 La Avenida 1100 La Avenida will bring 100 affordable supportive rental homes near the Google Campus, Shoreline Amphitheater, and NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.

1101 Sutter A 14 story high-rise, Sutter Park will offer 221 new homes, including 44 on-site affordable units and an adjacent 3,500 square foot child care center in San Francisco.

1500 Park Avenue Lofts 1500 Park Avenue lofts combines a renovated warehouse with new construction to create 142 residences with street-front parking in Emeryville.

1567 California In nine stories, 1567 California will bring a dense mixed-use gateway to the corner of Polk and California Streets in San Francisco.

2118 Sacramento Street Factory-Built Homeless Housing With 75 units, 2118 Sacramento Street will bring modular affordable housing for the formerly homeless to Vallejo, California.

222 Taylor Street 222 Taylor is an affordable housing project with a ground-level grocery for low-income individuals and families of the Tenderloin District.

300 Ivy The LEED Platinum mixed-used design of 300 Ivy brings apartments, townhouses, and shops within steps of Hayes Valley's main drag.

310 Waverly Residence An urban insertion in the suburban grid, the steel and stone home at 310 Waverly in Palo Alto becomes progressively private as the rooms move toward the west.

34th and San Pablo Affordable Family Housing 34th and San Pablo Affordable Family Housing rounds out a West Oakland site with the California Hotel and the People's Garden.

355 Sango Court 355 Sango Court locate 100 affordable family homes near the BART station in Milpitas, California.

388 Fulton These 69 affordable-by-design smart urban micro-units in Hayes Valley were designed in conjunction with a new Boys and Girls Clubhouse and recognized by the SF Chronicle and AIA SF Design Awards.

420 Mendocino 420 Mendocino is an all-electric, mixed-use modular community that will add much needed housing to downtown Santa Rosa.

555 Larkin Affordable 108 new affordable family homes are under construction at 555 Larkin in the San Francisco Tenderloin neighborhood.

600 McAllister 600 McAllister rises 14 stories from a previous parking lot in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley, bringing 196 mixed-income homes to the neighborhood.

789 Minnesota Located in the Dogpatch Historic District of San Francisco, 789 Minnesota is a mixed-use market-rate 110-apartment community that faces onto Esprit Park.

847-848 Fairfax Avenue David Baker Architects teamed up with Paulett Taggart Architects to design 847-848 Fairfax Avenue, 107 affordable public homes for two steeply sloped blocks in Hunters View.

855 Brannan 855 Brannan is a mixed-use housing development—with retail, mid-block passages, and public open spaces—that transforms a full city block into a small neighborhood at the meeting of SOMA and Potrero Hill in San Francisco's Design District.

901 Fairfax Avenue Part of the Hunters View redevelopment in San Francisco, 901 Fairfax was designed by DBA in tandem with Paulett Taggart Architects, offers 72 new affordable homes, community hub, and a child-care center.

921 O'Farrell 922 O’Farrell rises 14 stories from a tiny 40-foot-wide lot in San Francisco’s Polk Gulch neighborhood. The slender tower provides 50 mixed-income micro-units near the Van Ness corridor.

A2 The younger sister of Anthem apartments, A2 is affordable-by-design market-rate housing in Baltimore's Fort Point neighborhood.

Armstrong Place Senior Winner of a 2012 ULI Global Excellence Award, Armstrong Place Senior created 116 affordable homes for seniors in San Francisco's Bayview District.

Bayview Hill Gardens With a community garden at its heart, Bayview Hill Gardens provides 73 stable new homes for at-risk families and youth in San Francisco.

Bini's Kitchen Bini's Kitchen is a pro bono restaurant design for food entrepreneur and La Cocina Incubator graduate Bini Pradhan in San Francisco.

Blue Star Corner Blue Star Corner's New Urban Homes are the latest evolution in modern design, comfort, and urban access through 20 townhomes in Emeryville, California.

Blueprint Building This adaptive reuse of a mid-century printing company brings a contemporary space for a new restaurant and offices to Birmingham's dynamic and developing Pepper Place.

Brady Block Spanning a full block along Market Street in downtown San Francisco, Brady Block will contribute approximately 600 new units of housing, a new office building for the Local 38 Plumbers' Union, as well as ample new public realm and streetscape improvements.

Clock Tower Lofts Home of the DBA_SFO office in SOMA, thoughtful modern reevaluation brings this 1907 landmark into the 21st Century.

Coliseum Place Coliseum Place will bring 59 new affordable home to Oakland as part of the ILFI Living Building Challenge Affordable Housing Pilot Program.

Curran House The Curran House offers 67 families an affordable refuge from the rough-and-tumble Tenderloin with green spaces, vegetable gardens, private balconies, and spacious apartments in San Francisco.

DBA_BHM Our southeast flagship office, DBA_BHM is an adaptive reuse collaborative office space with Locke General Contractors.

DBA_OAK Home of our Oakland office and the DBA_Workshop, DBA_OAK is taking off with a net-zero remodel.

DBA_SFO The interior renovation of a 1907 industrial space transforms our San Francisco office with suspended art pieces and custom details.

DBA_Workshop: FRACTAL Table Fabricated by DBA_Workshop, the Fractal table combines a waterfall wood top and side with a light metal leg.

DBA_Workshop: SATELLITE Table DBA_Workshop designed the Satellite Table with wood and steel to be both coffee tables and end tables.

DBA_Workshop: SUMMIT Table Designed and fabricated by DBA_Workshop, the Summit Table embeds a light wood top in a steel frame.

Dr. George W. Davis Senior Building The Dr. George W. Davis Senior Building features 121 affordable homes for seniors as well as a neighborhood community center in San Francisco.

Edwina Benner Plaza A vibrant multifamily community bringing 66 affordable new homes to the City of Sunnyvale.

Ensley Mixed-Use Neighborhood This 10.38-acre plan sensitively reimagines the site of a closed, fire-damaged high school in Birmingham’s historic Ensley district as a vital community hub that offers much-needed affordable homes and neighborhood amenities.

Estuary Commons Developed by the All Bay Collective, Estuary Commons is a conceptual sustainable response to the Resilient by Design Challenge that welcomes changing tides into urban housing.

Five88 Facing the UCSF campus, this multifamily affordable building brings 200 homes and neighborhood retail to the developing Mission Bay area.

Folsom & Dore The first new building in San Francisco to be LEED Silver Certified, Folsom + Dore brought 98 healthy, sustainable homes to low-income tenants with special needs.

Foundry Commons Foundry Commons is new market-rate apartment community with 238 homes in the Martha Arts District of San Jose.

Gather Garden Gather Garden is DBA_Lab's pop-up community space for Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island.

Golden Age Wine Golden Age Wine is a 2,000-sf adaptive re-use wine bar and shop featuring touches from local artisans in the heart of Alabama.

h2hotel The sassy little sister to the Hotel Healdsburg, h2hotel is a LEED Gold eco-inn that caters to the active guest with straightforward luxury.

Harmon Guest House Harmon Guest House is an airy, modern 39-unit boutique hotel, DBA's the third in Healdsburg, CA.

Harvey West Studios With 121 new homes, this project will be the largest permanent supportive housing community in Santa Cruz County.

Healdsburg Rural House The Healdsburg Rural House was a very personal collaboration on a retirement home for a repeat client, whose first custom house we designed in 1983.

Hotel Healdsburg Stark with spark: Hotel Healdsburg takes on country quaintness with warm minimalism and rustic luxe. This polished urban inn puts a city spin on the classic Sonoma wine country retreat.

Hotel Sebastopol The boutique all-electric Hotel Sebastopol will offer 66 guest rooms as well as retail and restaurant space, artist studios, and a wellness center in the first zero-net energy hotel in California.

Housing Northwest Arkansas Initiative A collaboration with Fletcher Studio, the Housing Northwest Arkansas was a conceptual design for a mixed-use community with linear parks around a rehabilitated creek in Bentonville, Arkansas.

humanCITY humanCITY is a conceptual thought experiment that explores urban density in a nine-block grid.

Indiana Industrial Lofts Three stories of working lofts in Potrero Hill, the 18 homes at Indian Industrial Lofts comprise volumes broken into blocks to keep things interesting inside and out.

Inside Five88 The interior design of Five88 mixes textured concrete with a dropped wood ceiling and linear lighting.

Inside Foundry Commons With large wall graphics and suspended accents, the interior design of Foundry Commons is flush with light and texture.

Inside Lakeside Senior Apartments The interior design of this lakeside building brings light, air, and color to 92 homes for low-income and formerly homeless seniors.

Inside Potrero 1010 DBA_Inside designed the lobbies, leasing office, common space, and residential interiors for Potrero 1010, a 453-unit mixed-use community in Potrero Hill.

Inside Rivermark DBA_Inside provided interior architecture, art, and furnishings for the Rivermark, affordable family housing in West Sacramento.

Jazzie Collins Apartments Part of the Brady Block development, Jazzie Collins will add 96 new permanently supportive homes for formerly homeless individuals in San Francisco.

La Fénix at 1950 La Fénix at 1950 Mission is the first 100% affordable rental housing for San Francisco's Mission District in a decade.

La Valentina Station Adjacent to the La Valentina Light Rail Station in Sacramento, this high-density green project replaces an abandoned lot with 63 units of much-needed affordable housing.

Lakeside Senior Apartments LEED Platinum Certified and winner of the 2019 AIA COTE Top Ten Award, Lakeside Senior Housing brought 92 green affordable homes on Lake Merritt in Oakland.

Lee Walker Heights A reimagined Master Plan and increased affordable density for Asheville's original public-housing development, Lee Walker Heights will provide 400 homes.

Local Cache Local Cache is a branding system designed to insert the myriad disaster resources already available in San Francisco neighborhoods into the awareness of residents through repeat and extensive passive exposure.

Magnolia Row Magnolia Row townhouse lofts are 36 market-rate ownership sale homes located in West Oakland.

Mason on Mariposa Mason on Mariposa is a new mixed-use development that brings 300 market-rate and affordable homes, commercial space, and a publicly accessible greenway to the base of Potrero Hill.

Mayfield Place Part of the Stanford Research Park, Mayfield Place uses 70 affordable homes to activate the street with neighborhood-serving uses—a corner café and supportive services for the visually impaired in Palo Alto.

Midway Village Framework Plan Midway Village Framework Plan is a redevelopment and expansion of an existing San Mateo County Housing Authority property to create a balanced, sustainable community with new housing for residents, a revitalized 3.3-acre city park, child-development center, extensive community amenity spaces, and on-site resident services in Daly City.

Midway Village Phase 1 Midway Village Phase 1 is the first entitled phase of a five phase redevelopment in Daly City for a partnership between MidPen Housing and the County of San Mateo.

Modularean Eco House Both playful artpiece and artful playpiece, the Modularean Eco House is a sturdy, sustainable custom dollhouse designed by David Baker and built by woodworker Julianna Sassaman.

More-Plex: A Dynamic Kit for Collaborative Living Designed for the Lowrise LA competition with Fletcher Studio, More-Plex is a conceptual design to add incremental density to a single-family lot.

OME / 1178 Folsom OME at 1178 Folsom is a new mixed-use building with 42 micro units in San Francisco's SOMA district.

Onizuka Crossing Family Housing Onizuka Crossing brought 58 affordable family and veterans rental apartments to Sunnyvale.

Pacific Cannery Lofts Pacific Cannery Lofts is an adaptive reuse of a former cannery as a diverse collection of 163 studios, flats, and townhouses around courts, mews, and promenades in Oakland.

Pacific Pointe Apartments Sustainable housing for the people of Hunters Point, Pacific Pointe Apartments brought 60 affordable homes to San Francisco.

Page Street Studios Currently under construction, Page Street Studios will bring 82 affordable, sustainable studios to San Jose.

peepSHOW 2.0

DBA Lab's peepSHOW rocked the Market Street Prototyping Festival and is on track for an extended installation in San Francisco. Stay tuned!

Pensione Esperanza A modern SRO, Pensione Esperanza gives San Jose's downtown a signature building and a 110-unit affordable housing edge.

People's Lane The People's Lane is a conceptual design for a commemorative project that celebrates the history of San Francisco's Octavia Boulevard.

Potrero 1010 Bringing 453 homes—including 90 permanently affordable units—art spaces, and a range of shops and services to the base of Potrero Hill, Potrero 1010 transforms an existing street into a public park, adding nearly an acre of open space to the neighborhood.

RESHAP Alameda Point A collaboration with MidPen Housing, Alameda Point Collaborative, Building Futures for Women and Children, and Operation Dignity, RESHAP is a redevelopment of former Navy site for 267 units of affordable housing in Alameda.

Richardson Apartments Richardson Apartments are 120 green, supportive studio apartments, medical clinic, and neighborhood-serving retail in Hayes Valley.

Rivermark A pioneer development in West Sacramento's new Bridge District, Rivermark consists of 70 green, affordable homes.

Rocky Hill Veterans Housing Designed in tandem with G7A, Rock Hill Veterans Housing brought 39 modular homes for veterans and their families in Vacaville.

Saint Frank Coffee Designed by DBA_Inside, Saint Frank Coffee is an airy artisan coffee bar and community space in Russian Hill.

Saint Frank Coffee at Facebook A Menlo Park custom outpost of the popular San Francisco roaster, Saint Frank Coffee is an employee- and guest-only café in Building 20 at the Gehry-designed Facebook HQ.

Saint Frank Roastery DBA_Inside designed a small industrial roastery and welcoming café space for SF favorite Saint Frank Coffee.

Shotwell Design Lab Shotwell Compound is a mixed-use urban contemporary approach to living and working. It combines the new Zero Cottage, a workshop, and an existing building that combines apartments with a gallery storefront.

SPARC-It-Place A tactical temporary urban intervention: SPARC-It-Place is a local market and community performance space that brightens a vacant lot in advance of a large affordable housing development in Oakland.

Station Center Family Housing The 157-units of LEED Platinum affordable housing at Station Center is part of the California effort to add high-density uses at transit stations in Union City.

Stone Hogan Framework Plan Stone Hogan is the 22.8 acre development of a greenfield site in Atlanta, GA. The three-project plan with include over 500 homes.

StoreFrontLab Part of the Shotwell Design Lab, Storefront Lab is a laboratory for the urban pedestrian storefront experience in San Francisco.

Tahanan Supportive Housing Tahanan Supportive Housing uses modular off-site construction technology to house 146 formerly homeless adults rapidly in San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood.

Tassafaronga Village Bridging an industrial-residential border, Tassafaronga Village in Oakland features a wide range of LEED Platinum Certified housing and repairs the deteriorated street grid.

TAXI 2 Light industrial, office, and 44 live+work loft spaces transform a former Yellow Cab dispatch office into TAXI 2 in the arts-and-industrial River North area of Denver.

The Union The Union provides 111 new modular homes coming soon to the West Oakland BART district.

Tidal House Tidal House, a 20-story residential tower on Treasure Island, will bring 248 market-rate homes to San Francisco.

Union Flats Union Flats consists of 243 market-rate apartments and live-work lofts built with modular construction for a new neighborhood convenient to the Union City BART station.

West Gateway West Gateway will bring 60 affordable homes to West Sacramento.

Williams Terrace The 41 senior homes for the Charleston Housing Authority at Williams Terrace take inspiration from Charleston's traditional passive-climate-adapted architecture.

Windflower II With 443 market-rate modular units and mixed-use space, Windflower II joins Station Center Family Housing and the Union Flats to round out a transit-oriented community in Union City.

Wishing Cloud A one-day installation, the Wishing Cloud offered the public a playful space to express a wish and add it to a collective expression of dreams and aspirations for the future.

XERO Project XERO Project is a proposal for a net-zero-energy district destined for Dallas. It won first place in the 2009 Urban Re:Vision competition.

Zero Cottage An addition to David Baker's Shotwell Compound, Zero Cottage is a LEED and Passive House certified investigation of compact, sustainable urban development.

​See all All Projects