Award Winning Danielian Associates join teamMADE!
by Matthew Ramon
teamMADE Monthly Newsletter – May 2023
Have you ever wondered who might have designed the apartments you drive by while traveling through SoCal? Maybe you’ve spared the designer a passing thought while touring new homes at Open House events. There’s a chance that they may have been built by one of our project’s most important partners, Danielian Associates.
But first, a little history. Danielian Associates was founded in 1968 by Arthur Danielian. In the company’s early years, Arthur had already started to leave a lasting impact on the residential architecture world. But the impact was perhaps most strongly felt here in Orange County, as Arthur pioneered or improved upon design techniques that have come to define the character of many of the county’s master-planned communities. He even assisted in the creation of the Charter for the City of Irvine, the city that would become the site of the company’s corporate headquarters. And to ensure that his impact lasted, Danielian diverted from his contemporaries by taking a market-driven approach to design, working closely with clients to ensure that their projects were financially sound and would leave them happy. Now in business for over 50 years, today Danielian is led by Arthur’s son, John, and is licensed in 42 states with work in 14 countries.
Today, Danielian Associates has an extensive portfolio of work, ranging from studios to community master plans. As Daniel Gehman, a Principal Architect at the firm, put it, “We [put] heads on beds”. The firm also continues their legacy of innovation through their iDA Lab, where Danielian develops conceptual projects with the goal of higher density in mind. Combined with their hefty experience and an explicit goal to house as many people as possible, some of the company’s most exciting projects have been those that make housing attainable.
In fact, some of these projects were on full display at Los Angeles’s Low Rise Design Challenge. At the event, Danielian won third place for their “Tia Rosa” concept, where they converted a single-family home into a duplex by making efficient use of the backyard space. As a result, Tia Rosa’s (the aunt of one of Danielian’s architects) home could serve multiple generations of the family. Even more avant-garde was their “Make My Day” concept. Inspired by the idea of the “Persian housemother”, Danielian developed a project meant to be owned by a land-trust of residents. Here, residents would rent “airspace” rather than land, which would allow renters to build equity when they move out. By leasing space to people close to the moving resident, generational wealth could be built, potentially leading to a reality where home-ownership is not the only way for families to build wealth.
Beyond the conceptual, some of the biggest winners of Danielian’s practical projects have been veterans. The largest and most significant of these is the March Veterans Village at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside. The complex provides transitional housing and support programs for homeless veterans and their families who are in need of assistance for transitioning back to civilian life. In this campus-like environment, residents can access job training programs, counseling services, meal assistance programs, and many more in an environment that fosters rehabilitation. As can be seen in the image below, just because housing is meant to be affordable for the homeless does not mean that it has to be undignified. According to residents, it’s “like they’ve won the lottery”. At a smaller, but no less impressive, scale, Danielian Associates partnered with Habitat for Humanity to design a sustainable home for a veteran in Fullerton, California. At the ABC Home 3.0, high insulation walls, smart landscaping, energy efficient appliances and more all come together to create an affordable, net-zero energy home that is both sustainable and affordable.
But what does sustainability mean to Danielian? TeamMADE had the opportunity to speak with Cassie Cherry and Victor Alvarez-Duran (both of whom are directly assisting TeamMADE) to ask them how Danielian tackles the challenge of making sustainable living attainable. In their eyes, it all comes down to a holistic approach to design. As Casey puts it, sustainability is not just about design but also about income, usage, and educating the client/resident on how to maintain the sustainable features. Or more simply put by Victor, sustainability is “what’s good for the environment and what’s good for you. [It’s] a balance of what you can do and what you can afford”. In fact, if Victor could have it, “every home should have a guidance book on how to maintain it”.
As TeamMADE has come to learn more about Danielian Associates and their work, we’ve come to fully appreciate how well their values mesh with ours. The team is excited to utilize Danielian’s experience in affordable living, sustainable philosophy, and history of innovation to put forward an ADU that makes our client happy, but would also leave a greater impact on Orange County.
Want to see more of Danielian’s work or learn more about their research? Visit them at https://danielian.com/