Our Projects

Move your mouse over the categories to see information about our philosophy toward these projects. Click to veiw the projects.

Retail and Commercial Architecture

Whether the problem is to establish the prototype of an environmentally sensitive outdoor shopping center, or to create a one-off statement such as a restaurant created to showcase a star chef, we work to create architecture that is relevant, logical and vibrant. We take particular care to match the expression of our projects to their surroundings, and to consider cultural and geographical context.

At the scale of a regional center, particularly the current open air centers with which we are involved, we stay mindful of shoppers' needs for comfort, convenience, and entertainment. Our depth of experience gives us the ability to solve the most fundamental and intricately layered problems, in terms of architecture, adherence to budget and pro forma, and a business' sustained ability to draw customers and to thrive.

Civic Architecture

Buildings speak volumes about the time and place in which they were created, and become an expression of the community to which they belong. The special challenge of designing new civic and institutional buildings and lies in sensitive yet original response to context.

Buildings for Institutions

This is especially evident in the collaboration we have had with artisans employed for our civic projects. Metalsmiths, stone masons, lighting designers, and tile makers provide rich palettes of color, texture, and material that infuse public spaces with the warmth and vitality that endear them not only this generation, but to the many that will follow.

Educational Architecture

Alamo Architects’ work with public and private educational institutions includes designing new schools and community centers and updating historic structures with classroom buildings, residence halls and student centers—often with the challenge of harmonizing with an existing building and historical context and culture. We aim to create not only the essential components of an educational setting, but also to enliven the learning environment through inspiring design, lighting, color, pattern and flow.

Urban Infill

Our approach to urban infill development is to embrace the existing context surrounding the building or site, and draw from its particular fabric of history, commerce, and culture to inform architectural expression. To complete a successful integration with the neighborhood along the development’s edges, we also consider the space around the buildings; creating a public space. We work to engage the pedestrian ways adjacent to our structures, with shade, friendly night lighting, and lively retail storefronts, for example. As a result, even a building as functional as a parking garage can be a good neighbor.

Our depth of experience with adaptive re-use of historic buildings, coupled with first-hand knowledge of city government and regulatory offices, gives us a significant advantage in managing the complexities of urban redevelopment projects.    

Sustainable Architecture

For us and for many architects, “green” design, or sustainable architecture, is not a new idea. It is integral with traditional best practices when siting a building to best environmental advantage, deciding to adapt an existing structure, or opting to reuse materials.

What may be new is the expanded definition of “environmental impact.” In addition to well understood principals like incorporating sustainable materials, we now consider controlling the subtler impacts such as minor emissions released from materials and finishes, and negative factors like the carbon footprint of transporting materials over long distances.

Historic Architecture

Alamo Architects has been instrumental in the adaptive reuse of a number of historic structures including turning a dark movie theater into a welcoming bookstore, a 1940s library into a one-stop university center, adding an addition to a landmark hotel and transforming a 19th century carriage house into a 20th-century restaurant and garden center. When additions and modifications to the structure are involved, we take a referential approach, both with the overall composition and with the finish-out and fine details. In every case, the mission of Alamo Architects has been to blend pragmatism with imagination in ways that infuse these venerable structures with vibrant new life and purpose.

Interior Design

Interior design, more than any other area of architecture, is an opportunity to provide a high-touch level of responsiveness to clients’ needs. Interior finishes and furnishings allow clients to make a strong statement about who they are as a company. In retail and restaurant settings, the choices in specifying materials, finishes, furniture, lighting and other atmospheric elements are integral to the business – adding lasting value to the property by experientially communicating brand identity. Finally, the value of our experience in navigating the complexities of programming, systems furnishing and the technology of the modern workplace contributes to the state-of-the-art offices and educational facilities we have created for our clients.

Multi-Family Housing

Master Planning

Our unique advantage in approaching master planning projects emanates from our experience in creating inviting public spaces, or “people places.” While we consider the building architecture and the careful ordering of the project on the landscape, we are also shaping a sense of place from an experiential viewpoint. In other words, we examine both “bird’s eye view and bug’s eye view,” a duality that helps to visualize a physical sense of place.

Put another way, just as a sidewalk or porch is a naturally comfortable public area on a residential street, the expansion of that notion into the grander proportions of a campus of buildings creates a public realm. In the case of a school, it is that public space that becomes the protected inner sanctum of campus life.

We are able, through providing fundamental planning and cost projections, along with clear visualizations of the site plan and basic building types, to help clients and institutions to advance their goals through significant building programs.