DES Celebrates Fifty Years of Design in Silicon Valley
Since its founding in 1973, DES has grown from a garage start-up between an architect and engineer into one of the largest design firms in Silicon Valley, offering a comprehensive range of design, engineering, and consulting services to clients in real estate, education, technology, life science, and healthcare.
As the firm has grown and evolved, DES has remained laser-focused on its clients.
CEO
As the region’s economy continues to shift and change, DES’s interdisciplinarian designers are working with property owners and tenants to rethink and adapt old properties to new uses.
The Sutter Blossom Hill Clinic Expansion took over an existing adjacent lighting retail space, adding 12,000-sf of pediatric and primary care spaces.
The firm is currently working on repositioning older office and industrial buildings, updating their amenities and developing flexible, market-ready suites; analyzing the real estate assets of a local educational institution as it considers whether to renovate or move; and partnering with healthcare providers to introduce specialized clinics into retail and other spaces that are more readily accessible and friendly for patients.
Life sciences continues to be a core market, with the firm designing state-of-the-art laboratories supported by offices and amenities that serve an on-site workforce. DES’s first mass timber structure—the amenities building for Southline, a 3 million square foot transit development in South San Francisco—is under construction.
The amenities building at Southline is the firm’s first mass timber building, delivering 19,000 sf of on-campus retail, dining, and fitness space.
Celebrating the firm’s 50th anniversary was also an opportunity to honor the people–the staff, collaborators, and clients–who have been instrumental in building the company. To honor the milestone, over 200 people attended an event at Skyline College’s Farallon Room, a flexible space with dramatic views in one of the firm’s signature buildings. A feature article in Construction in Focus captured some of the firm’s reflections on this milestone 50th anniversary year as DES looks ahead to the future.
CEO Steve Mincey addresses the crowd at the firm’s 50th anniversary celebration held at Skyline College’s Environmental Sciences Building, an award-winning project designed by DES.
About DES
DES is an interdisciplinary design firm known for its client responsiveness, integration of creative and technical thinking, and its ability to deliver speed-to-market. The firm designs workplaces, labs, educational facilities, and health and wellness environments at various scales, ranging from discrete spaces to stand-alone buildings and mixed-use campuses. DES’s integrated services includes architecture, civil engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, structural engineering, sustainability, and visual communications. With 115 professionals between its San Francisco and Redwood City offices, and its nascent presence in Austin, Texas, DES thrives working for forward-thinking companies, including some of Silicon Valley’s most pioneering enterprises in the technology and life science sectors.
