Projects
Architecture
Urban Design
Land and Master Planning
A R C H I T E C T U R E
Beach
Architecture
California
Beach House Sustainable and Modular
California
Beach House
This Malibu beach seaside cliff home was designed for a
design professional that wanted to be close to the ocean,
yet have a quiet work studio. This cliff ‘perch’ has
sweeping views up the beaches, and has a front row seat to
some of the best sunsets in the world. The primary design
parti was inspired by the Arts & Architecture Case Study
Houses that were being built in southern California in the
late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
This house expresses a desire for a bold style and prominent
design while also being a fabulous place to live, work and
entertain. Blending the practical and the aesthetic with a
‘fun’ element, this home is designed to be a bold
architectural statement while also embracing its site and
all that this unique place has to offer. The home’s sweeping
forms and three dimensional spatial construct reaches out to
and draws in the bold natural space of this dramatic
location. The ‘sail’ on top of the four story tower room
echoes the forms of sailboats cruising on the Pacific Ocean
off of Malibu, but is also very functional as a zero energy
breeze catcher that can ventilate the whole house. The house
incorporates many other sustainability design features as
well.
Modular Production -
Sustainability Consulting
Sustainable Modular Office
MGI works closely with our
sister manufacturing company in Indiana. The plant has been
extremely aggressive in finding ways to promote energy
conservation and sustainability in its day to day operations
for the past several years. MGI has provided general
guidance on implementation strategies at the plant. More
recently, the plant decided to explore implementing green
building practices in its product line of mobile and modular
structures. These efforts have been invaluable at informing
the design to build process in terms of strategies to employee
that actually attain green goals in a cost effective manner.
To date several projects have been
completed including The Cube, a highly sustainable modular building
prototype, and the HPMO™, or High Performance Mobile
Office™.
MGI provided design,
sustainability analysis, production recommendations and
engineering services for
these projects.
Disaster
Recovery
Centers
One of the business lessons of
the post-911and post-Katrina world is that the only hope a
business has of maintaining continuity through and past a
disaster is by planning ahead and preparing for the worst.
Working with an office leasing company, MGI designed a full
suite of disaster recovery centers. These facilities can be
utilized as hot or cold sites, and can be used at fixed
locations or mobile/relocatable locations. Because they are
modular and mobile, they can be reconfigured based on
particular corporate needs. They are complete offices in
that they are fully prepared buildings. They are
pre-plumbed, pre-wired for power and IT/high speed
networking, and they are even fully furnished and equipped.
Should disaster strike, they are designed to be occupied and
fully operational with the flip of a switch.
MGI provided design and
engineering services to Jobsite Leasing Company for this
project.
Campus Architecture
Career
Services
Center
University of California,
San Diego
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
project design architect for the UCSD Career Services Center.
Urban
Infrastructure
Pedestrian
Bridge
Del Mar
Heights Road,
San Diego,
California
MGI understands that
architecture exists within a larger community. This concept
translates into the design integration of structures and
forms that may not be seen as traditional architecture, but
do provide a comprehensive function within the community.
The Del Mar Heights Road Pedestrian
Bridge is just such a work. This bridge is first engaged as
a large neighborhood gateway or monument. It is also
designed to tie the aesthetic scale and texture of a
residential neighborhood with a neighborhood commercial
shopping district. This bridge has a very practical aspect
as its basic purpose is to allow pedestrians to safely navigate a high traffic
arterial street and to readily access daily shopping and other
community services. Because the design of this bridge is
beyond common utilitarian bridges, cost saving measures were
included in the design of the pedestrian cage by utilizing
modular design and assembly techniques.
The bridge was designed and
built for the special neighborhood of Del Mar Heights, a
coastal community of San Diego County, California.
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
project architect for the Del Mar Heights pedestrian bridge.
Urban
Housing
Condominium Projects
Various
Locations
San Diego,
California
Urban housing, grey field,
redevelopment and urban densification projects all
contribute to a city's health and the ability to provide for
population growth without extending costly infrastructure
out of the city and disturbing green field sites. A new
generation of urbanites has emerged in the last decade that
makes urban growth possible, and for the urban developer,
successful.
From urban infill to
neighborhood preservation and enhancement, MGI can bring its
experience and design skills to bear on solving a variety of
urban housing issues.
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
project architect for the these urban housing projects.
Planned
Unit
Developments
La
Jolla
Colony
San Diego,
California
The La Jolla
Colony project included planning,
architectural design, and construction
documents. The complex included 514
condominium units plus open space
integrated into a regional trails plan
as well as multiple shared amenities
areas. The total project site of
16-arces consists of residential units built
above post-tensioned concrete parking
structures. Originally designed as
apartments, the project has since been
converted to condominium units and
remains popular in the market place
demanding premium prices.
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
project planner and project architect for LJC.
Senior
Housing and
Senior
Care
Emeritus
Senior
Center
Oceanside,
California
As the general population ages
in every community, the need for assisted living and
assisted care grows. The Emeritus Senior Center in
Oceanside, California provides high quality transitional
living for seniors with a wide range of care needs from
basic retirement to assisted support to full support for seniors
dealing with Alzheimer's.
The Emeritus Senior Center is a
comprehensive facility for seniors and includes 112 apartments, shared community and dining areas, a
commercial kitchen, fitness center, beauty salon, central
laundry, and secure outdoor activity areas. The facility is
designed to assure free movement for ambulatory residents,
and sensitive security measures for Alzheimer's residents.
The Shotgun
House Project is a post-Katrina urban infill project
for New Orleans, LA. After the devastating storm and
flooding in New Orleans, Prairies Edge LLC asked MGI to
develop a modular re-housing strategy for the older and
higher ground lands within the City of New Orleans. After a
full analysis of the area, potential community recovery
efforts and available properties, MGI developed The Shotgun
House Project program for urban infill of a NOLA traditional
housing type.
The Shotgun House Project is a
joint design-build-development project with MGI and Prairies
Edge LLC.
Modular
Urban
Infill
Prototypes
Following on the in-depth work
of The Shotgun House Project as urban infill for NOLA, MGI
has embarked on developing modular urban infill prototypes
for this and other cities as well. Most urban areas have vacant or
underutilized areas that could use new project options. One
of the advantages of working with off-site modular methods
of construction is the huge reduction in time spent on-site
during construction. In urban areas, site-built construction
projects have significant impacts on the communities they
are being built in. Modular solves that and many other problems
associated with quality building project delivery.
Art Gallery as
Neighborhood Infill
MGI is currently in development
of both single family and multi-family urban housing
prototypes
for Midwestern cities.
Community Planning, Redevelopment and Design
Guidelines
Carlsbad
Communities often have an
existing spirit that is evidenced in the way they have grown
up and matured. The evidence can be subtle and can easily be
overlooked by those that enter a community with
preconceptions of what an individual building or development
project should be.
This lack of sensitivity to a community can have huge
affects that are felt well beyond the project's property
lines and well into the future. For this reason, more and
more communities look to having their neighborhoods analyzed
and codified at their historic, community plan and architectural
levels so that new and future development can easily finds
its way to existing in harmony within these communities. James B. Guthrie, AIA has helped the following
communities by preparing their community plans, historic
surveys and design
guidelines:
Established and Historic
Cities in California:
Carlsbad, CA
Fallbrook, CA
Lakeside, CA
Ramona, CA
Historic Neighborhoods in
the City of San Diego:
South Park
Normal Heights
New Neighborhoods in the
City of San Diego:
Carmel Valley
(Neighborhood 8A)
Carmel Valley
(Neighborhood 10)
Del Mar
Highlands
Normal Heights
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
urban designer and project architect for these community projects.
L A N D
a n d M A S T E R P L A N N I N G
Master
Planning and
Planned Developments
Prairie
Prefab
Fulton County,
Indiana
Prairie Prefab is a 60 acre rural estate housing
development in north central Indiana. The project includes
site work as well as the design and building of highly sustainable custom modular estate homes designed to
be nestled into the prairie and wooded landscape. The
overall project strategy has its conceptual foundations in
the work Frank Lloyd Wright and his
Usonian
homes project.
MGI is providing a full range of
services from site planning, entitlement processing,
architectural design, modular design, and ultimately
building and construction management services.
Prairie Prefab is a
design-build-develop project for Prairies Edge LLC.
Pacific
Highlands
Ranch
San Diego,
California
Pacific Highlands Ranch was
previously agricultural land and a significant portion of
the land area set aside for long range growth for the City
of San Diego. It was designated as 'Future Urbanizing Area'
in the City's 1970's land planning documents. Unprecedented
population growth in southern California during the 1980's
led to the need accelerate the conversion of this land to a
priority development area. The conversion
process was extensive as a comprehensive planning effort was
required to provide detailed planning over this 2700 acre
area. The master planning effort included accommodating housing, schools,
retail and office commercial space, public and private
community facilities, local and regional circulation, utilities,
park and significant natural open space set asides, and,
ultimately, a public vote to complete the conversion from
Future to Current planning area. The original plan was one
of the first post-war applications of traditional town
planning ideas in southern California. The planning effort
and the subsequent and ongoing development activities have
won numerous planning and architectural awards.
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
land planner and urban designer for the original PHR/Future
Urbanizing Area master plan.
Temecula
Creek
Inn
Temecula,
California
Temecula Creek Inn was
originally developed in the 1970's as a remote top quality
resort on the edge of the rural inland community of Temecula. By
the mid-1990's Temecula had grown substantially as people
sought refuge from the Los Angeles and San Diego
metropolitan areas. Temecula Creek Inn was also affected by
this growth and the growing reputation of the adjacent
Temecula valley wineries. In response to the outward
pressures of the community's growth and the inward pressure
of the Inn's growing popularity, TCI sought significant long
range planning efforts to allow for expansion of the golf
course and the capacity of the facilities and
accommodations. The project included architectural design,
golf course design and master planning work, as well as
processing local planning approvals for both short and long
term expansion plans.
James B. Guthrie, AIA was the
land planner and project architect for TCI.
