Our Favorite Examples of Architecture & Great Building Designs

Appropriateness is about how the design is created within the constraints of limiting factors, such as budget and timeline.

For example, while an architectural design of a five-story industrial complex may be more comprehensive and visually impressive than a small library, is it really a better building design if it had a budget of 20 times the library and took five years longer to build?

Great building design is possible at any budget and with any timeline—that is where our expertise comes in! It is making small decisions along the way that are the best possible, given all of the factors like cost, quality and schedule impacts. It is not reserved for large, complex projects with huge budgets.

The Hall of Records building in Downtown Fresno.

It was designed by Allied Architects in 1935 and has been remodeled many times over the years. To us, it’s one of the most fantastic examples of Art Deco and Neoclassical architecture in Fresno.

As an immaculately preserved Art Deco/Neoclassical building in Downtown Fresno, it has a bevy of remarkable building details, inside and out:

• Notched corners at the exterior
• Aluminum spandrel glass
• Terrazzo floors
• Black, marble baseboards
• Light fixtures, drinking fountains and guard rails incorporated into the Art Deco Style

Another one of our favorite local projects is the Robert E. Coyle United States Courthouse located in Downtown Fresno, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell.

Despite being a high-rise building with a simple material palette, a closer look reveals that no two facades are alike, and the composition provides a lot of visual interest as you move around the building. The sculptural precast panels are beautiful and multifunctional—they

• Provide blast resistance
• Ensure durability and longevity of the structure
• Mediate the building scale with their texture and patterns
• Highlight daily and seasonal variation of sunlight

Unlike traditional American courthouse architecture, the building design prioritizes a strong connection to the outdoors. The lobby is dominated by views of the large public garden, circulation is placed along the exterior like porches with vast views of the city skyline, and the building is capped with a roof terrace with views of the Sierras.

The interior keeps a reverence for traditional civic materials, such as stones and woods, but they’re detailed together in a clearly modern style.

Despite not being traditional for its use, this building still exudes a strong civic presence.

Besides being famous for being featured in the backdrop of the sci-fi movie “Back To the Future” as the house of central character Doc Brown, the Gamble House in Pasadena is a terrific example of a Craftsman-style personal residence, designed by brothers Charles and Henry Greene in 1908.

The home was designed for David and Mary Gamble (of Proctor & Gamble), and features the impeccable attention to detail that characterizes that era’s Craftsman style.

Some of the remarkable external features of the home include large overhangs, and deep, rich wood and colors. Inside the home, the exquisite woodwork, fireplace nooks, and the second- and third-floor sleeping porches are things to look for on your next tour of the house.

The Chicken Point Cabin, designed by Tom Kundig, is strikingly beautiful because it perfectly balances simplicity in form and complexity in detail.

Specifically, the only direction the client gave Kundig was to design a small house with a big view. That direction resulted in the development of a 20-foot by 30-foot, six-ton window that is operated with a counterbalanced gear system so simple that it can be hand-cranked open by a 6-year-old child. That gear system is, itself, a sculptural piece of artwork on the wall.

Another sculptural element in the house, the fireplace, functions as the “hearth at the center of the home,” provides warmth, is the main structural post for the home’s steel frame, and is constructed from a salvaged 4-foot diameter steel pipe left over from Alaskan Oil Pipeline project. The idea of one element doing several things well is a philosophy that PHA has adopted in developing our work and is one of the main reasons the Chicken Point Cabin is one of our favorite building designs.

Sometimes the idea or message behind a building—its experience—is so inspiring that it dwarfs the architectural elements of a design.

That’s the case with the Villa Verde public housing project in Chile, which Alejandro Aravena of Elemental designed in 2012 as part of rebuilding efforts following a large earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the city of Constitución.

The development was half-built, meaning only half of the housing was designed and fully built out to provide the immediate need of disaster relief housing. The other half was left unfinished for tenants to customize and build out in the future.

This innovative idea to let future residents decide how to finish their home—to function well for them—is such a strong message that it stands out as a uniquely special example of great architectural design.

The Barcelona Pavilion in Spain is a simple form with extravagant materials. Originally called the German Pavilion, Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich designed the space for the 1929 International Exposition in Spain to represent the new, progressive Germany following World War I.

While other pavilions at the exposition were designed to house exhibits, Mies decided to make the building itself the exhibit. The building was placed to block direct passage through the site, forcing visitors to meander through the building while observing framed views and an orchestrated experience.

The supporting structure for the building is also a marvel. A low-profile roof appears to float above the interior while being supported by eight slender cruciform columns—far ahead of its time for engineering in the 1920s.