An intensive 2 year long effort to help a local Sonic franchisee locate on Beach Blvd. in HB was ultimately successful and the results speak for themselves.  It is a beautiful store, complete with the usual outdoor dining, roller-skating car hop service, as well as an air-conditioned dining room for those warmer days.  SoCal car culture and SONIC combine here to make a splash on the Huntington Beach fast food scene.  Project required Design Review, Planning Commission, City Council hearings and our scope included Building Permit processing as well.  Concept to Construction, we got it done.

 2015 - Model rendering

 2018 - Completed Project, opened Fall 2017

Assisted client with detailed parking analysis of site and developed regional comparisons of similar zoning requirements when City of Whittier had no specific requirement standards to apply to specific Land Use category.  Enlisted partner traffic engineering firm to verify studies and certify results to ultimately convince City.

Assisted shopping center owner with detailed parking analysis which included a shared off-site parking agreement and parking demand study.  The objective was to achieve approval from the City to allow a new restaurant to open in a very busy center near Cal Poly Pomona and large industrial office parks.  The City accepted our studies and analysis and granted the tenant occupancy in conjunction with his Conditional Use Permits for restaurant and alcohol sales.

A nearly vacant three-story office building with subterranean parking in the heart of Scottsdale, Arizona was stripped to its structural skeleton and reinvented to become a vibrant mixed-use residential loft and retail building with 21 residential condo units and just under 7000 sf of commercial ground-floor space. Perched on the northerly border of historic and somewhat kitschy Old Town Scottsdale, this site was under the microscope from the date of purchase through each and every public meeting and hearing. Outraged neighbors, obtuse NIMBYs, and subversive councilmembers were regular obstacles but a steady, good faith effort consisting of open and honest communications and context-sensitive responses to criticism allowed for creative solutions to extremely intense and hostile opposition to change. With the extraordinary talents of Architekton, we were able to combine highly desirable modern massing and loft concepts that the market demanded in concert with a veneer treatment of territorial masonry, timber, and a color palette that left even the harshest critics applauding the final results. 

This supreme effort ultimately lead to a unanimous City Council approval after multiple Design Review sessions and even a Mayoral appeal. Once again, despite the political and oppositional forces at play, Peter established and strengthened relationships with City staff, local leaders, and neighbors along the way to create a support structure that was critical when the project came to its final hearings and approval.

This 15 acre shopping center from the 1960's was well past its prime and had never realized its full potential even at the height of its prior success. Only 8 acres had been developed and the remainder had been a bi-annual site of a traveling carnival. Several previous attempts to develop the full site had been stymied by modern zoning regulations that placed stringent parking standards and strict landscape area requirements for the existing structures as well as any new buildings on the site. These standards had impacted the perceived viability of prior site designs and developers had walked away from several iterations of major site redevelopment.

Working in tandem with excellent engineers from Stantec and the attentive architects from Marks Architects, we successfully created a site plan that met all current standards, exceeded ownership team expectations, and allowed for a 90,000 SF new building to be approved under the City of Tucson Development Permit process. Additionally, Peter spearheaded political lobbying efforts and not only gained the support of the 5th Ward Councilman, Steve Leal, but also the good favor of City staff by bringing a win-win approach to every meeting where challenges were outlined and discussed, issues resolved, and friendships forged. A project that "could not" be accomplished was approved in less than 1 year by using each and every possible idea for solutions and constantly asking "why not" and "how can we make this happen?" This project is a positive memory for not only our firm and client, but also for those who worked with us from the governmental agencies that issued our approvals and at one time were our biggest obstacles.