ARCHITECT-LED DESIGN-BUILD

In the tradition of the Master Builder, we control the process to deliver warm modern architecture. Our team of architects and builders collaborate from a project's inception through move-in, allowing for thoughtful design and real-time cost estimating. This integration gives us the foresight to anticipate project constraints and the agility to adapt to new challenges. A single-source project delivery eliminates conflicts between an architect’s vision and a builder’s execution from studio to shop to site. This approach places a design at the center, where decisions are considered holistically and informed by iterative fabrication and research.

CRAFT AND STORYTELLING

We develop our projects around a client's story, woven into the physical and cultural context of their site through our process-driven approach. We believe this produces exceptional and enduring architecture imbued with handcrafted moments that enliven spaces and enrich the lives within. An intimate connection to craft and process animates each project, marrying time-tested craftsmanship with modern techniques.

SEE MORE OF OUR HANDCRAFTED MOMENTS

CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Our holistic approach integrates passive environmental design principles with efficient resource management systems, ensuring that each project not only enhances the built environment but also nurtures the natural one. We balance project goals with a commitment to the environmental and social contexts in which our projects are situated. This produces designs that respond to the local landscape, climate, and community to become agents of well-being and sustainability.

MEET THE TEAM

Principal Architect / CEO
Tyler Kobick is a Bay-area CA Licensed Architect and General Contractor with a focus on housing, public-interest design, custom fabrication, and ecological design. He is the founder and President of a 21-person firm, Design Draw Build, where the firm specializes in adaptive reuse, custom residences, multifamily housing and architect-led design-build methods of project delivery. He believes strongly in warm-modern, critically regionalist architecture.
Tyler began his career as a stone mason in Northeast Ohio where he apprenticed under a master mason and soon enough started his own construction company. After hiking a large section of the Appalachian Trail, he fell in love with the Mad River Valley of central Vermont where he trained and built for 12 years with many different architects and artisans on custom residential and commercial projects predominantly under the architect Dave Sellers, whose methods catalyzed the contemporary design/build field. In 2010 Tyler founded Design Draw Build and traveled to build unusual commissions in different areas of the US until setting up a more permanent location with his business partner Jo Marcy in the Bay area in late 2014.
An educator and community-builder, Tyler seeks to revitalize and preserve town and urban centers by embracing the material culture of a place with sustainable locally-applied building technologies.. From 2005-2008, Tyler built rural medical clinics in the mountainous region of south-east El Salvador, and founded a model school for land-place based education, called Amun Shea that still teaches a couple hundred students a year. In 2009 he helped found the Ecological Design Co-laboratory Studio–a sustainable design-lab and think tank at the University of Vermont where he taught design-build classes and donated student-built structures to local school programs to promote local food and outdoor skills. Today, Tyler teaches architecture at the University of San Francisco in a variety of studio and skill classes. He is also a co-chair of the Regional and Urban Design Committee for the AIA EastBay, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the AIAEastbay.
Passionate about live cultural production, playing and seeing live music, he has served as a lead designer for temporary festival structures at The Square Roots Festival, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, and for Superfly Productions.
Tyler holds two degrees in architecture, a B.S Arch from the University of Cincinnati, and a MArch from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

Annabelle has been a business professional in the Bay Area for over 15 years. During that time Annabelle has held positions in operations and project management in Foreign Affairs and Geotechnical industries.
Annabelle grew up in sunny San Diego, she moved to San Francisco to pursue her education in Business and resided in the Bay Area for 16+ years. She enjoys international travel and can be found taking her dogs on hikes at Sibley Volcanic Reserve on the weekends.

Justin is a Construction Project Manager at Design Draw Build and also a licensed real estate broker in the state of California. He combines his background in design, construction, and real estate into a holistic approach towards enhancing our built and natural spaces.
He has spent over 20 years shaping our communities while working in urban-regional redevelopment, landscape architecture, high-end residential, and commercial buildout projects. As a builder in the Bay Area, Justin has gained an appreciation for the challenges and rewards of navigating complex local planning processes while creating bespoke spaces and long-lasting relationships with clients. As a broker Justin specialized in analyzing investment opportunities, building real estate portfolios, and representing his clients in buying/selling high-profile properties. In his current role as Project Manager at DDB, Justin is focused on overseeing active construction projects and works closely with the architecture team to ensure design integrates with build.
Justin grew up in Wisconsin, completing degrees in Landscape Architecture and Natural Resources at UW - Madison. He eventually settled in California where he enjoys exploring the mountains with his wife and dog.

Jackie grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where she developed a love of nature and the environment. Ready for a new adventure after spending her formative years in the deep south, she moved across the country to study at the University of California, Berkeley completing a Bachelors in biology and Master of Public Health in environmental health science.
She spent a decade honing her project management skills in the heavily regulated healthcare environment managing projects and programs in environmental health and sustainable construction. As her interest in responsible land use grew, she transitioned to infill residential and commercial development. At Design Draw Build she is excited to use her project management skills to support sustainable construction and help build more livable communities.
Jackie has spent the past 20 years living in either Oakland or Berkeley and has made the East Bay her home. She can frequently be spotted on one of her bikes making her way through the city. On the weekends she enjoys hiking, camping and backpacking with her husband and two children.