MBH Architects
Encyclopedia
MBH Architects is an architecture
and interior design
firm founded in October 1989 by architects John McNulty and Dennis Heath. Headquartered in Alameda, California
, USA, the company specialises in retail, hospitality and high-density residential design. The firm's slogan is "it's our people who make great places."
Examples of its work include the design of several P.F. Chang's China Bistros, work for the Hilton Grand Vacations Company
, and the Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park
redevelopment.
. The company has specialized in retail, hospitality and high-density residential design, and its list of clients includes Adidas
, Estée Lauder
, Kmart
, Rite Aid
, Starbucks
and Walgreens
. Its first retail work was commissioned by Gap
and by 2001 the company had designed some 300 Gap's Old Navy stores.
One of MBH’s first sustainable projects was a 100,000+ square foot Target
store, built in 1995, Fullerton, CA. It was labeled the United States Environmental Protection Agency
Energy Star Showcase and Target's first "green" building for its use of skylights that cut the original energy consumption by 24% with a 5 year payback. Target was awarded a "Green Lights Partner/Ally of the Year Award" for this store.
In June 2000 the company paid a large fine to the Business Software Alliance
for using a quantity of unlicensed software. In 2005 the company won the Structural Ingenuity category at the annual Canstruction
event with a model of the Pantheon made from 3,648 tin cans. Members of staff have taken part in the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands
with their amateur pop group named "The 4-Inch Studs" coming second in 2008.
Like many other companies involved with construction, MBH suffered in the late-2000s recession: its revenue fell by half which forced it to lay off 160 of its 220 employees, and in December 2008 City National Bank
froze its line of credit
and threatened to call in a $3 million loan. Today MBH employs over 150 staff who provide architectural services on commercial, hospitality, retail, multi-family housing, and restaurant projects.
Since 1995, the company has received many awards, most recently winning "Best Retail Project" and "Best Multi Family Housing Project-4 to 6 Stories Rental" at the PCBC Gold Nugget Awards in 2010. From 2005 to 2008 it was listed as one of the San Francisco Business Times "100 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area", and between 2000 and 2004 it won several awards for its restaurant designs for P. F. Chang's China Bistro
.
In 2005, VM&SD Magazines listed MBH as number 9 in a list of the top 50 U.S. retail architectural firms. In March 2011, DDI Magazine included MBH at number 9 in a list of the top 20 North American retail design companies based on 2010 revenue for retail design services.
and JMA Ventures on two large waterfront restaurants, Epic Roasthouse and Waterbar, located near the Ferry Building
in San Francisco. Other San Francisco restaurants include Momo’s, Pedro's Cantina, 301, and Elroy’s. The company has designed several P.F. Chang's China Bistros, receiving several awards for their designs.
projects, including historical renovation
s, mixed-use, rowhouses, high rises, affordable housing and senior housing. MBH has built over 2,225 units and designed more than 9,000 units.
MBH’s rehabilitation projects include the Hathaway Warehouse in Rincon Hill, San Francisco. Built in the 1850s—perhaps as early as 1856—the Hathaway Warehouse is one of the oldest remaining warehouses in the city and is designated as a historically Significant Building. MBH's design kept most of the building’s brick exterior, masonry, heavy timber framing and granite foundations while juxtaposing them against modern material. The building is now known as Harbor Lofts and MBH received a Gold Nugget Award for Award of Merit, Adaptive Reuse in 1997 for the conversion.
The Coffin Reddington Building, also in Rincon Hill, was built in 1937 as an office building/warehouse. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. MBH received a Gold Nugget Award for converting the old building into 53 luxury lofts and two high-end restaurants on the ground floor.
In 2004, MBH won the Residential Architect Award and the 2003 Gold Nugget Award for the North Beach Malt House
, an early 20th century industrial concrete and steel building. MBH converted the inner structure to residential spaces but retained two of the original steel silos; the building's most prominent features. One silo is now used for a lobby/courtyard entry point and both are historical artifacts of the brewing process and preserve the building’s history.
Metreon
Entertainment Complex in San Francisco, CA was conceived and designed as both a retail outlet for the PlayStation
consoles and games and as an arcade with video kiosks and a circular bar of monitors open for all customers to play. The store design won MBH and its collaborator, New York
design firm, Thinc Design several awards in 1999 and 2000.
and Page & Turnbull at One Powell, an eight story historical building at the intersection of Powell and Market Street in San Francisco. Originally built in 1921 by the Bank of Italy, the building had been solely occupied by that bank and its successor, Bank of America. The renovation, which was completed in 2005, included conversion of the upper floors into multi family house consisting of studio, one and two bedroom units, for which MBH's Interior group led the design.
MBH planned the interior office space for the 7500 square feet (696.8 m²) headquarters of MetroRisk in South Beach, San Francisco. MBH also completed several space plans for the Union Bank of California and the redesign of the corporate headquarters of Bi-Rite Food Distributors. Most recently, MBH completed the tenant improvement for EPIC’s new office in San Francisco.
For Hilton, MBH created the hotel construction documents for the Paris Las Vegas
casino/hotel in Las Vegas, and was one of the architects for two Las Vegas Hilton Grand Vacations Clubs
: Las Vegas Hilton and Strip. Currently MBH is working on the seismic upgrade of the San Francisco Hilton in Union Square along with the renovation of the Grand Ballroom and Tower 3 guestrooms.
in 2003, now home to Kaiser Permanente
. MBH has also completed the Corporate Headquarters for Tucker Marks, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, The Good Tidings Foundation, Metro/Risk, Sitzman – Morris – Lavis and Motorola
Companies. In 2007 the company was a consultant for commercial architecture for the Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park
redevelopment.
, resort communities in Mont-Tremblant, Canada
, and the Tustin
Legacy Town Center in California
. MBH designed transit-oriented developments in Fullerton, Dublin, and Solano, California, and the downtown and neighborhood revitalizations for Yucca Valley
, CA. Completed planning projects include Levis Commons and the Dunes on Monterey Bay.
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
firm founded in October 1989 by architects John McNulty and Dennis Heath. Headquartered in Alameda, California
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
, USA, the company specialises in retail, hospitality and high-density residential design. The firm's slogan is "it's our people who make great places."
Examples of its work include the design of several P.F. Chang's China Bistros, work for the Hilton Grand Vacations Company
Hilton Grand Vacations Company
Hilton Grand Vacations Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide, is based in Orlando, Florida. In addition, there are regional offices in Marco Island, Florida and Sanibel Island, Florida....
, and the Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park
Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park
Sonoma Mountain Village is a $1 billion, mixed-use redevelopment of a former Agilent campus in Rohnert Park, California proposed by Codding Enterprises....
redevelopment.
Overview
The company was founded in 1989 by architects John McNulty and Dennis Heath after they left GenslerGensler
Gensler is an American design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded in 1965 by Art Gensler, Drue Gensler, and James Follett, and originally focused on corporate interiors...
. The company has specialized in retail, hospitality and high-density residential design, and its list of clients includes Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
, Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder Companies
Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. is a manufacturer and marketer of prestige skincare, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The company has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.-History:...
, Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
, Rite Aid
Rite Aid
Rite Aid is a drugstore chain in the United States and a Fortune 500 company headquartered in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania, near Camp Hill. Rite Aid is the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast and the third largest drugstore chain in the U.S....
, Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
and Walgreens
Walgreens
Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...
. Its first retail work was commissioned by Gap
Gap (clothing retailer)
The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...
and by 2001 the company had designed some 300 Gap's Old Navy stores.
One of MBH’s first sustainable projects was a 100,000+ square foot Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
store, built in 1995, Fullerton, CA. It was labeled the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
Energy Star Showcase and Target's first "green" building for its use of skylights that cut the original energy consumption by 24% with a 5 year payback. Target was awarded a "Green Lights Partner/Ally of the Year Award" for this store.
In June 2000 the company paid a large fine to the Business Software Alliance
Business Software Alliance
The Business Software Alliance is a trade group established in 1988 and representing a number of the world's largest software makers and is a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance...
for using a quantity of unlicensed software. In 2005 the company won the Structural Ingenuity category at the annual Canstruction
Canstruction
Canstruction is a United States 501 nonprofit organization providing canned food to local food banks in cities holding Canstruction competitions. Canstruction is an international charity competition where architects, engineers, contractors and students they mentor, compete to design and build giant...
event with a model of the Pantheon made from 3,648 tin cans. Members of staff have taken part in the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands
Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands
The FORTUNE Battle of the Corporate Bands is an annual music competition for amateur company-sponsored bands in the United States, Europe and Australia. Created in 2001, the contest's proceeds benefit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, which also serves as the location for the final...
with their amateur pop group named "The 4-Inch Studs" coming second in 2008.
Like many other companies involved with construction, MBH suffered in the late-2000s recession: its revenue fell by half which forced it to lay off 160 of its 220 employees, and in December 2008 City National Bank
City National Bank
City National Bank is an American financial institution headquartered in Los Angeles, California, owned by City National Corporation , with total assets of $21.8 billion . As of 2011, it is the 25th largest bank in USA...
froze its line of credit
Line of credit
A line of credit is any credit source extended to a government, business or individual by a bank or other financial institution. A line of credit may take several forms, such as overdraft protection, demand loan, special purpose, export packing credit, term loan, discounting, purchase of...
and threatened to call in a $3 million loan. Today MBH employs over 150 staff who provide architectural services on commercial, hospitality, retail, multi-family housing, and restaurant projects.
Since 1995, the company has received many awards, most recently winning "Best Retail Project" and "Best Multi Family Housing Project-4 to 6 Stories Rental" at the PCBC Gold Nugget Awards in 2010. From 2005 to 2008 it was listed as one of the San Francisco Business Times "100 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area", and between 2000 and 2004 it won several awards for its restaurant designs for P. F. Chang's China Bistro
P. F. Chang's China Bistro
'P. F. Chang's China Bistro, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.The chain was founded in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang. The restaurants serve American Chinese cuisine from a menu originally conceived and planned by chef...
.
In 2005, VM&SD Magazines listed MBH as number 9 in a list of the top 50 U.S. retail architectural firms. In March 2011, DDI Magazine included MBH at number 9 in a list of the top 20 North American retail design companies based on 2010 revenue for retail design services.
Restaurants
MBH has designed and built over 330 restaurants. This work has included collaboration with Engstrom Design Group, Pat KuletoPat Kuleto
Pat Kuleto is an American designer, restaurant impresario, builder, innkeeper, and winemaker, credited with being the first American to bring recognition to restaurant design as a distinct form of interior design...
and JMA Ventures on two large waterfront restaurants, Epic Roasthouse and Waterbar, located near the Ferry Building
Ferry Building
The San Francisco Ferry Building is a terminal for ferries that travel across the San Francisco Bay and a shopping center located on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. On top of the building is a large clock tower, which can be seen from Market Street, a main thoroughfare of the city...
in San Francisco. Other San Francisco restaurants include Momo’s, Pedro's Cantina, 301, and Elroy’s. The company has designed several P.F. Chang's China Bistros, receiving several awards for their designs.
Housing
MBH’s housing portfolio consists of multi-family residentialMulti-family residential
Multi-family residential is a classification of housing where multiple separate housing units for residential inhabitants are contained within one building or several buildings within one complex. A common form is an apartment building...
projects, including historical renovation
Renovation
Renovation is the process of improving a structure. Two prominent types of renovations are commercial and residential.-Process:The process of a renovation, however complex, can usually be broken down into several processes...
s, mixed-use, rowhouses, high rises, affordable housing and senior housing. MBH has built over 2,225 units and designed more than 9,000 units.
MBH’s rehabilitation projects include the Hathaway Warehouse in Rincon Hill, San Francisco. Built in the 1850s—perhaps as early as 1856—the Hathaway Warehouse is one of the oldest remaining warehouses in the city and is designated as a historically Significant Building. MBH's design kept most of the building’s brick exterior, masonry, heavy timber framing and granite foundations while juxtaposing them against modern material. The building is now known as Harbor Lofts and MBH received a Gold Nugget Award for Award of Merit, Adaptive Reuse in 1997 for the conversion.
The Coffin Reddington Building, also in Rincon Hill, was built in 1937 as an office building/warehouse. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. MBH received a Gold Nugget Award for converting the old building into 53 luxury lofts and two high-end restaurants on the ground floor.
In 2004, MBH won the Residential Architect Award and the 2003 Gold Nugget Award for the North Beach Malt House
North Beach Malt House
The North Beach Malt House is an historical landmark building, located at 445 Francisco Street in San Francisco, California. It originally served as a malting factory and brewery for 40 years. It was nearly destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake....
, an early 20th century industrial concrete and steel building. MBH converted the inner structure to residential spaces but retained two of the original steel silos; the building's most prominent features. One silo is now used for a lobby/courtyard entry point and both are historical artifacts of the brewing process and preserve the building’s history.
Retail
The Sony PlayStation store at the SonySony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Metreon
Metreon
The Metreon is a shopping center located in downtown San Francisco at the corner of 4th Street and Mission Street. It is a four-story 350,000 square foot building built over the corner of the underground Moscone Center convention center...
Entertainment Complex in San Francisco, CA was conceived and designed as both a retail outlet for the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
consoles and games and as an arcade with video kiosks and a circular bar of monitors open for all customers to play. The store design won MBH and its collaborator, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
design firm, Thinc Design several awards in 1999 and 2000.
Interiors
MBH worked with GenslerGensler
Gensler is an American design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded in 1965 by Art Gensler, Drue Gensler, and James Follett, and originally focused on corporate interiors...
and Page & Turnbull at One Powell, an eight story historical building at the intersection of Powell and Market Street in San Francisco. Originally built in 1921 by the Bank of Italy, the building had been solely occupied by that bank and its successor, Bank of America. The renovation, which was completed in 2005, included conversion of the upper floors into multi family house consisting of studio, one and two bedroom units, for which MBH's Interior group led the design.
MBH planned the interior office space for the 7500 square feet (696.8 m²) headquarters of MetroRisk in South Beach, San Francisco. MBH also completed several space plans for the Union Bank of California and the redesign of the corporate headquarters of Bi-Rite Food Distributors. Most recently, MBH completed the tenant improvement for EPIC’s new office in San Francisco.
Hospitality
MBH has been an executive architect and design architect for Hilton Worldwide and Marriot International. MBH has completed for Marriot: the Marriot Event Pavilion in Irvine, California; Newport Coast Villas in Newport Beach, California, which includes 600 timeshare units on 75 acres; and Marriott's Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert, California.For Hilton, MBH created the hotel construction documents for the Paris Las Vegas
Paris Las Vegas
Paris Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, USA, that is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....
casino/hotel in Las Vegas, and was one of the architects for two Las Vegas Hilton Grand Vacations Clubs
Hilton Grand Vacations Company
Hilton Grand Vacations Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide, is based in Orlando, Florida. In addition, there are regional offices in Marco Island, Florida and Sanibel Island, Florida....
: Las Vegas Hilton and Strip. Currently MBH is working on the seismic upgrade of the San Francisco Hilton in Union Square along with the renovation of the Grand Ballroom and Tower 3 guestrooms.
Commercial
MBH designed The San Francisco Fire Credit Union (SFFCU), which received a Gold Nugget award of merit in 2001 for Best Professional Building and completed Serramonte Corporate Center in Daly City, CaliforniaDaly City, California
Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 101,123. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman and landowner John Daly.-History:...
in 2003, now home to Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield...
. MBH has also completed the Corporate Headquarters for Tucker Marks, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, The Good Tidings Foundation, Metro/Risk, Sitzman – Morris – Lavis and Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
Companies. In 2007 the company was a consultant for commercial architecture for the Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park
Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park
Sonoma Mountain Village is a $1 billion, mixed-use redevelopment of a former Agilent campus in Rohnert Park, California proposed by Codding Enterprises....
redevelopment.
Master planning
Some of the largest MBH projects have revolved around community, city and public transit planning. These include a master planned community near ToledoToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, resort communities in Mont-Tremblant, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and the Tustin
Tustin, California
-Top employers:According to the City's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Tustin had a population of 75,540. The population density was 6,816.7 people per square mile...
Legacy Town Center in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. MBH designed transit-oriented developments in Fullerton, Dublin, and Solano, California, and the downtown and neighborhood revitalizations for Yucca Valley
Yucca Valley, California
Yucca Valley is an incorporated town located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 20,700 at the 2010 census, up from 16,865 at the 2000 census...
, CA. Completed planning projects include Levis Commons and the Dunes on Monterey Bay.