Joel Mendelson recently completed a five-year role as a Development Manager and Owner’s Representative for a YouTube Campus Expansion, located in San Bruno, California. This multi-building LEED Platinum project was opened in November of 2023.

Joel's team from Ellis Partners assisted Google and YouTube with the overall organization and staffing of a design-build team which included architects, engineers, and trade-partners. The Ellis team worked closely with Google stakeholders to supervise and evaluate design and construction of the Core and Shell project from concept design, through construction, and the award of certificates of occupancy.

The Ellis team managed a complex re-entitlement process, requiring close relationships with the City of San Bruno, the San Francisco Public Utility Commision, and Caltrans. Our team received approvals for the full revision of a design which was originally entitled in 1998, and which required the speedy substitution of new building, engineering, and ecological approaches appropriate for a project created in 2023. 

The completed project features: Two mass-timber office buildings; 445 new native trees planted in a biodiverse 6.5 acre site, and fully irrigated with captured rainwater;  a  subgrade garage featuring advanced parking control technology; and a battery microgrid system and solar generation capability in the range of 1.4 Megawatts.

Design Credits: William McDonough and EHDD Architects; CMG Landscape Architecture; Holmes, PEI, BKF and Engeo Engineering;  Pritchard Peck Lighting.

Contractor: McCarthy Builders.

Photo Credits: Jeremey Bittermann for exteriors, and Mariko Reed for interiors.

An existing 2,200 square foot ranch in Lafayette, CA was fully re-imagined into a light-filled five-bedroom, three-bath, modernist home.  700 square feet of new space was sewn into the existing foundation, adding two bedrooms and a new kitchen/dining wing.  

The interior layout features flowing, bright family spaces joined at the corners. Light in the house is dynamic, full-range, and shifting, through cedar roof monitors. The entry foyer doubles as a bright-green atrium for the front of the house.

The living room and kitchen facades feature fully retractable windows, allowing for a seamless indoor / outdoor flow across the rear courtyard on temperate days.

This project was completed in November, 2016.

PROJECT PUBLICATION: LAMORINDA WEEKLY, 02.07.2018

Projects designed with George Bevan in Sonoma and Napa included many classic house designs with a North Bay Sonoma barn-style, vernacular to the area. We were lucky to have some clients request a more abstract approach, allowing for some of the superlative and unique work featured below:

Images 1 - 4  Sonoma Hillside Residence -  Nestled into a steep hillside above Sonoma, this house features a cascading series of guest buildings, a signature cantilevered bedroom/study, and a sweeping arrival view.  Other project features included cast in place concrete retaining walls, deep thin eaves, covered walkways and burnt wood cladding.

Image 5-6:  Sonoma Pool House - This one-bedroom structure, with Its sweeping roof and retracting walls - was designed for full year indoor/outdoor use.

Waterfront City is a mixed-use project located In North Beirut, built by the Dubai-based developer Majid-al-Futaim.

SB Architects hired Joel as a Senior Design Architect, to help lead the design team through an international competition - whose participants Included Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. The project was designed for an area of North Beirut that was originally master-planned by Bofill’s office In 1995, with eight floors of apartments set above a two-story restaurant and retail level, arrayed along a landscaped promenade and marina facing the Mediterranean.

SB’s contribution Included a project master-plan, and the creation of four unique buildings whose designs were mirrored at the center of the development. Facades were carefully modulated to create a woven-stone aesthetic, and a widely varied indoor/outdoor massing. A standard set of design and massing details was established to create variety and consistency throughout the project.

SB worked with Erga Design in Beirut, in order to complete the project.

New England Library Complex

Palmer, Massachusetts

Dedicated in 2003, this 8,500 SF project features a library, classrooms, and a synagogue set into a pine forest within a New England summer camp. The buildings create a courtyard or cloister, connected by an open loggia for outdoor movement during inclement weather.

Maury’s is a popular bagel shop, located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake, opened in early 2019. The 1,200 square foot space was the site of a former bakery - a charming 1920’s era brick structure with white painted brick trim - transformed into a thriving, ADA accessible community fixture.

Most of the space is dedicated to production and baking, but the small and welcoming customer area- finished by M/AP with warm wood inlay, bakery windows, Heath tile, stainless shelving, and painted grey cases - work beautifully with the height and light of the space. The new facade treatment for Maury’s was adapted as a unified look for the neighboring retail, as well.

A simple concrete plinth, stair and railing system was designed by M/AP to work with the existing sidewalk grade. This adaptation allowed for critical wheelchair accessibility at an awkward sidewalk condition, and was easily approved by the Los Angeles Building Department.

The bagels, fish and baked goods are phenomenal, and the owner isn’t bad either.

Arnhem Musiskwartier, Mixed Use Infilll in Arnhem, Netherlands. Received the Charter Award of Excellence from the Congress for New Urbanism in 2006.

Black Mountain Ranch, San Diego. Master Town Plan.

Silo Ridge Resort, Amenia, NY. Master Resort Plan.