Study Architecture 
ProPEL 2020 COTE Top Ten Winners
Winner: Romberg Center for Ecology and Resilience — High-Performance Historical Renovation
Pitchayut Kingkaew, Qihui Bao, & Shuang Yan
Romberg Center for Ecology and Resilience — High-Performance Historical Renovation
Students: Pitchayut Kingkaew, Qihui Bao, & Shuang Yan
Faculty: William Leddy, FAIA, Marsha Maytum, FAIA, & Hsin-Hsien Chiu
School: University of California, Berkeley
Juror Comments
Romberg Center for Ecology and Resilience is a highly-refined design encompassing both historic renovation and elegant sustainability. This project has a complex site with many existing buildings to consider, and the proposed solution skillfully reuses and weaves new to old, reduces rather than expands, with a brilliant design that connects parts and ties into a masterful landscape concept. It takes a disciplined, sensitive approach to merge new and old while aggressively meeting all COTE measures and keeping the design feeling simple and grounded.
Project Description
The investigation goal of the current situation of San Francisco State University, Romberg, Tiburon campus, is to use the analytical information as a base data to support the proposal of the site renovation. The investigation takes on multiple aspects that are considered to be most relevant to the site, ranging from the historical features within the area, the transit and access, daylight and shaded area, the bathymetry, water path/watershed, projected sea-level rise and the possible effected area, and vegetation type. Included in this part of the research is the initial proposal for a different option for the existing building between demolition, renovation, and retain. The result was considered base on the building element, such as its historical value, structural integrity, and its flexibility of transformation.
