Golden State Architect

by Jonathan McGaha | December 31, 2013 12:00 am

California-based architect James Theimer thrives on metal’s sustainability and usability

Back in the 1990s, architect James Theimer, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, was working on a project with a very elaborate design. When the pricing came in, the client didn’t feel comfortable going forward with the project. To remedy this, Theimer made slight modifications to the design and created a series of interlocking metal buildings, then clad them in exotic materials. He gave it a series of interlocking metal roofs.

Theimer’s firm saved a substantial amount of money and kept the design along the lines with what the owner liked. Not only was the client pleased, but it was submitted to the AIA and won an award for its design. AIA judges thought it was “a clever use of what is typically seen as a warehouse type structure.”

“We used a lot of exposed steel, it was the nature of the building,” says Theimer. “Generally, metal building companies aren’t known for their high-end design buildings. They are known more for functional buildings. We took this idea and used it for several other projects like a YMCA and a community theater. In each case we have found that using steel allows large-span structures economically without compromising design. That’s something I haven’t seen a lot of architects take advantage of. My whole philosophy on using metal is it’s a very good, sustainable product. When used judiciously, it’s a perfect material to use.”

A perfect material

Since graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, he has received licensed architect registrations from seven states. Over the past 30 years, Theimer has gained experience in a broad range of architecture and urban design projects including sustainable technology buildings, schools, affordable housing, adaptive historic structures, water features, and urban parks and streetscapes. Metal has been an active component in many of these.

Theimer’s first experience with metal was at a summer internship working for a New Jersey-based architect designing steel-framed factories. “They were massive chemical and manufacturing plants,” he says. “My whole summer was spent almost entirely marking up Mylar sheets of drawings showing the factory steel catwalks and columns.” Since then, he has been involved in several projects utilizing manufactured metal building companies to provide non-standard structural components within award-winning design projects. “This has saved substantial costs in tight budget projects without compromising design,” he says. “Steel can be considered a truly sustainable building product moving into future design projects, including residential. I am currently working on a truly affordable, green modular ‘unfolding house’ design which uses metal building components together with wood to achieve structural strength within very tight budgets.”

Theimer says he also loves metal roofs because they are “bulletproof.” He claims they are the best roofing product you can use. “If you detail it correctly and with the right product, you have a 100-year building; we like that,” he says. “With the right colors, it becomes sustainable in terms of heat reflection.”

While he’s a proponent of wood and concrete, Theimer has found that metal does what these two materials can do with less material. Because of this, “It allows me to make more of a connection between the indoors and the outdoors, and I am a big believer in the connection of the two. Also, California is earthquake country. One of my earlier jobs was working for a firm that did an earthquake design and steel just does better. That’s one of the reasons skyscrapers are made out of steel, not concrete. It’s a great homefield advantage.”

A sustainable product

Theimer was a child of the 1970s, when the environmental movement hit high schools. He claims that he was “green before it was cool to be green.” Growing up, he even used to tell his mother that she had to start recycling and he has been following through with that ever since. When he started his firm in 1990-long before the word green was synonymous with environmental protection-he was going to name it Green Architecture. However, his wife dissuaded him from doing that because she was worried people thought it was going to be a landscape architecture firm.

“I think one of the biggest misnomers with steel is how sustainable it is,” he says. “People think metal is unsustainable because it is mined and it has a large impact on the Earth. But the truth is, because such a much larger percentage of it is recycled, it is really one of the best. It’s to your own advantage because it costs less to do that than to mine it. Metal becomes one of those things that just gets used over and over again. As an architect, you have to love that-to be able to do the design you want, knowing that if that building ever gets torn down, you are guaranteed that its metal is going to get sent someplace to be used in another building somewhere. Metal has a second life, and a third life and a fourth.”

Integrated design studio

Theimer is currently principal architect at Redding, Calif.-based Trilogy Architecture • Urban Design • Research. It’s a firm created with a single ideal: to function as an integrated design studio. Consisting of five individuals with very different ideas, the studio works together as a team with one design philosophy: to create art that works. The office’s chief morale officer is a golden retriever named Murdoch.

“We are not a mainstream architecture office,” Theimer says. “All of the professional staff works with the client. Everybody knows everybody. That helps because the client knows they are not just getting one person. This makes the client think they are getting the entire group, the entire family. It seems to have worked because we’ve been in business for 23 years.” By using this winning philosophy and producing award-winning projects, many reaping metal’s benefits, Theimer will successfully stay in business for many years to come.

 

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Arch Connect

What is the best advice you ever received as an architect?

During a tour of our local town with a well-known architect, I told him that I envied the opportunities he had to design exciting projects all over the country. He replied that while the projects were exciting, they were limited in their impact on any one place. He said that I was making a difference in my community. He told me to embrace the opportunity to continue to change my community instead of wishing to get outside of it.

What’s on your iPod while you work?

To say I am eclectic in my music taste would be an understatement, but it really divides into two radically different sounds. For intense concentration, classical and new age fit the mood. But when a late night is called for, movie soundtracks are my caffeine substitute of choice.

What do you do on weekends?

If I’m working, it’s because I have a design I can’t get out of my head, or I’m writing. For relaxation, walking the beach with my wife and playing with my golden retriever are great stress relievers.

What is your favorite book?

That’s a tough one. It has to be “World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse” by Lester Brown. I can’t count how many times I have given a copy to my clients. It’s a “one-stop shop” to answer all your questions on the environment without any political B.S. Honorable mention goes to “The Prefabricated Home” by Colin Davies.

Where is your favorite place to vacation?

Any place there is a beach and it’s warm … and there’s great food … and I’m with my wife. Not necessarily in that order.

What historical figure would you most like to have dinner with and why?

Mark Twain, if just to get a few great new quotes.

To future architects, what advice would you give?

At every point in a project, there comes a time when the fee is running out, and the client might be pushing for you to stop designing and just get finished. Don’t stop designing. That’s the difference between average design, and very good or even great design.

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/golden-state-architect/

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