Brereton Architects Opens Studio in Hacienda

New Facility Will Offer Architecture, Interior Design and Planning Services

There's a lot more to the architectural field than designing skyscrapers and housing developments. Architects can specialize in fields ranging from landscaping to planning industrial complexes - and everything in between. Brereton Architects, a 25-year-old San Francisco-based architecture, planning, and design firm, specializes in creating well-designed working environments for commercial offices, medical, and sports facilities. In March, the firm opened offices in Hacienda at 4309 Hacienda Drive to serve its clients in the East Bay and Tri-Valley.

"Corporate interiors have been the mainstay of our firm," says Nick Brereton, president and CEO of Brereton Architects. "We do both the shells of buildings and the interiors, but most of our work revolves around interiors. For the corporate user or tenant, we can handle everything from expansions, to changes, to reconfigurations, to mission changes. Some companies try certain ventures that don't succeed or are acquired by other companies, and we can help them reassess, reevaluate, and repurpose their real-estate portfolio. Landlords tend to move at a much quicker pace. For Equity Office Properties, for example, we've remodeled over 350,000 feet that has been vacated by tenants in the last three years.

"Though its office in Hacienda is new to the region, Brereton Architects has worked in Pleasanton since the late 1980s. The firm worked with Joe Callahan and Prudential developing over 300,000 square feet of office space in Hacienda. They have also done corporate work for ADP (28,000 square feet), Chase Manhattan (66,000 square feet), Hitachi (60,000 square feet), and a well-known local national financial institution (50,000 square feet). Currently, Brereton Architects is working on the 290,000 square foot Hacienda Terrace Complex for Equity Office Properties, updating and repositioning all three buildings in this complex, and providing design services for approximately 40 current tenants as well as Equity's 300,000 square foot complex, The Plaza at San Ramon. Brereton Architects staff has worked on several other projects in the Tri-Valley, including Documentum (120,000 square feet), Chevron (500,000 square feet), and SBC (75,000 square feet). In total, the firm has been responsible for design services for more than 5 million square feet of office space on the 580/680 corridor.

Overall, Brereton Architects has a staff of 25 people in its two offices, of which four are architects, four do administrative work, and the rest are architectural and interior designers. The firm's Hacienda location has one senior architect supported by a senior studio head, interior designers and a production staff. However, Brereton Architects is quick to point out that when a client works with the firm's satellite office in Hacienda, it enlists the resources of the entire firm.

The two offices make use of technologies such as T1 data communications and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) connections, allowing the firm to maintain quality, reduce overhead, and make its designers easily accessible to clients by allowing the offices to communicate at will. "We've seen a lot of architectural and design offices come and go and we believe that part of the reason for their lack of success is that the satellite offices operated independently," Brereton says. "We've decided that our technical staff should support our designers, who in turn work directly with our clients. The technological solutions we have in place help us to maintain quality while putting the talent where the rubber meets the road."

Photo: The staff of Brereton Architects is celebrating the firm's 25th anniversary this year.

Also in this issue...

Share this page!