Los Angeles 213.357.2664 San Francisco 415.578.6220 San Diego 619.821.0363
We're a professional architecture firm based in California
Meet The Team
We're a multidisciplinary team with a passion for creating innovative architecture. We work with people and businesses to create solutions which are inspirational, bring positive social impact, and flexibly adapt to an ever-changing world. Through decades of experience and a recent focus on modular building fabrication and zero carbon buildings our team will help you to create buildings and places that are affordable, sustainable, and resilient.
John Dale has been involved in the master planning, programming and design of public and private education projects throughout his 30+year career. His diverse experience includes district wide master plans, small learning communities and sustainable / high-performance schools. His designs for educational facilities have been honored with numerous awards and his leadership in the practice of school design earned him his AIA Fellowship in January 2008. John Dale is an experienved Pre K-12 Studio Leader and is recognized nationally as a thought leader in the field of school design.
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master of Science in Architecture Studies
University of Toronto, Bachelor of Architecture
Selected Awards
2023 Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH)-Merit award, Discovery Building
2022 World Architectural Festival 2022- Shortlisted for Best School of the Year-Presented in Lisbon, Portugal, Discovery Building
2022 The Plan- Shortlisted Best Educational Building of the Year. Discovery Building
2022 Southern California Development Forum (SCDF) Design & Philanthropy Honor Award, Discovery Building
2022 Los Angeles Business Council 52nd Annual Architectural Awards, Discovery Building
2022 Honorable Mention, Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Awards, Discovery Building
2022 Honor Award Westside Urban Forum, Discovery Building
2022 A4LE Planning & Design Award, Juror’s Choice Award, Discovery Building
2022 ENR Southern California Region Best K-12 Education Project, Discovery Building
2021 Green California Schools Summit Leadership Award, Discovery Building
2020 Southern California Development Forum Design Awards (unbuilt category), Discovery Building
2019 San Fernando AIA Design Awards Citation, Discovery Building
Learn by Design Concept Winner, SXSW, Citti Academy
Grand Prize, Learning by Design, Solana Ranch Elementary School
Award of Excellence, American School and University, Mira Costa High School Math Science Building
Special Citation, American School & University Architectural Portfolio, Santa Ana College Early Childhood Education Center
Project of Distinction Award, Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), Saperstein Middle School
The Green Apple Award, An Industry Award given to an outstanding professional in the service of sustainable design, Green Technology, Green Schools Summit
Learning By Design Citation of Excellence Award, Mothers’ Club, Family Learning Center
Honor Award, Religious Architecture New Facilities Grace Chapel and Cleaver Hall Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel, California
Honorable Mention Citation, American Association of School Administrators Architectural Awards: South Anchorage High School
Citation of Merit, AIA Pasadena / Foothill Chapter Design Award: Grace Chapel, Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel
Los Angeles Business Council Urban Beautification Design Awards: UCLA Northwest Campus Housing + Commons
City of Toronto Urban Design Awards, Award of Excellence, Large Place Category: Trinity Square Park
AIA California Council, Award of Honor: Art Gallery of Ontario
Teaching
USC School of Architecture 1997-2006; Adjunct Instructor
Visiting Critic: MIT, UCLA, USC, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Woodbury University, Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, the University of Hong Kong, Clemson University, SCI-arc, and Auckland University.
Published Work
John Dale’s articles and projects have appeared in ILAUD, Spazio e Società/ Space and Society Magazine, Architectural Record, Green Technology Magazine, Learning by Design, Evo Magazine, Contract Magazine, CEFPI Educational Facility Planner and LA Forum (online) Newsletter and others. He recently co-edited “The Short Works of John Habraken: Ways of Seeing /Ways of doing (Routledge, 2023)
Speaking
Co-Presenter – Prototyping Innovative Learning Settings; Designing Educational Facilities for Change, RE-Activate, LE Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, May, 2023
Co-Organizer and Presenter, Beyond Single Use: Open Building, Architecture and Urban Design, Council on Open Building, Boston, April 2023
Chair for upcoming International Conference “Open Buildings for Resilient Cities”, Los Angeles -December 2018
Panelist for upcoming ANFA Conference, LA Jolla on Perceptions about Secure School Environments, September, 2018
Panelist for upcoming California Green Schools Summit, Pasadena, Sept. 2018
Invited speaker, Great Minds lecture series, Miyamoto International – Discussion about Open Building and Educational Design
Workshop facilitator at NSTA, Philadelphia, Summer 2018
Presenter at A4LE Regional Conferences in Baltimore and Denver, Spring 2018
Presenter / Workshop at ABX / Greenbuild, Boston, November 2017
Presenter, Architecture Strand Chair, World Environmental Education Conference (WEEC), Vancouver, September 2017
Albert Sawano has applied experience from over three decades working on major building projects to converge upon a design approach that sets aside traditional polarities such as functional vs. aesthetic, or architectural vs. structural, in favor of design that is holistically-approached, integrative, and synchronistic. In 2022, he also founded the factory production startup Inhabio, to offer a more affordable alternative to traditional construction methods.
Prior to founding Synchronis, Albert’s work experience includes serving as a Principal and Co-Leader of Architecture + Design at Harley Ellis Devereaux, Senior Associate, Project Manager and Studio Leader at Gensler and Senior Associate and Project Manager at Johnson Fain. He has held a Principal Architect or senior leadership role on such milestone Los Angeles projects as USC Village, Circa Towers, The Vermont Towers, Metropolis Phase 2 Towers, Constellation Place/MGM Tower, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, the West Berkeley Library, the nation’s first Zero Net Energy public library. Of these, 13 have been high-rise residential mixed-use or office towers of up to 56 stories.
Albert is the signatory Architect of Record on over $2 Billion in projects recently constructed or currently in construction.
Education
University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts, Master of Architecture
University of California, Berkeley, Bachelor of Arts, Architecture
Awards
West Berkeley Library, AIA Committee on the Environment National Top Ten
The Vermont, Los Angeles Business Council
USC Annenberg School, ENR Calfornia Best Project Queensway Bay Parking Structure, AIA|LA Citation
Teaching
Occasional Guest Critic, USC Master of Building Science Program, School of Architecture
Spring 2015 Guest Instructor
Published Work
Books: Tasty Soup; Design Energy Simulation for Architects; Johnson Fain Partners: Selected Works; Tectonics of Place, The Architecture of Johnson Fain; Johnson Fain, A Modern Classicism; Figure/Ground: A Design Conversation with Scott Johnson and Bill Fain; Articles: Los Angeles Daily News, “Think Big About Transportation;” Pratt Journal of Architecture, “The Energy of Abstraction.”
Speaking
2020 “Big Design, Little Ego,” USC Master of Building Science Program lecture
2016 AIA|LA Congress for Dignity, “The Vertical City Concept Applied to Housing the Homeless.”
Speaker and Advisory Committee Member, NotLY at USC
Ed Dean is a combination of building scientist, design coach and experienced project architect, who has specialized in low-energy building design throughout his professional career. In recognition of his leading work in this area, the American Institute of Architects elevated him to the AIA College of Fellows in 2012. As part of his first-hand experience, he led the design team for the first zero-net-energy library in the U.S. in Berkeley, California. His further research into verified zero-net-energy buildings for the utility-commissioned books, “Zero Net Energy Case Study Buildings, Vol. 1-3” and “Zero Net Energy Case Study Homes, Vol. 1-2”, has contributed to his broad expertise in this field of zero-net-energy and zero-carbon building design and construction. He has designed zero-carbon grid-connected and off-the-grid houses in addition to zero-net-energy non-residential buildings.
Prior to joining Synchronis, Ed’s experience includes serving as director of Harley Ellis Devereaux’s San Francisco Bay Area (Berkeley) office and project leadership roles at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, NBBJ Design Group, and Esherick Homsey Dodge and Davis. He is also carrying on work as Sustainable Building Consultant for his own firm, Berkeley-based Bernheim + Dean.
Education
University of California, Berkeley, Master of Architecture
University of Calfornia, Berkeley, PhD, Engineering Science-Nuclear
University of Notre Dame, Bachelor of Science, Engineering Science (Applied Physics)
Greg Blackburn has focused his career upon architecture in the campus setting, working with colleges and universities throughout California, North America and in England. He leads Synchronis in Northern California. Greg has led the planning and design of more than 60 architectural projects on 35 academic campuses, including 7 campuses of the University of California. His projects have included 30 life science/bio-medical buildings and 18 engineering/advanced technology buildings. Artfully fusing a building’s technical demands with the generous accommodation of human interaction, Greg has created new models for flexible teaching and research space. Greg’s innovative buildings, mostly for publicly funded institutions, not only spark innovation and progress inside academia, but are also widely recognized as benchmark projects, both for architects and facilities owners.
Prior to joining Synchronis, Greg’s experience includes serving as Higher Education Studio Leader at Harley Ellis Devereaux and Principal at Anshen & Allen. His project experience includes project leadership for the Samueli College of Health Sciences + Gross Nursing Hall at University of California, Irvine, the Viterbi School of Engineering Computer Science Building at the University of Southern California, the Career Technology Building at San Jose City College, the 3000 bed Student Housing West at University of California, Santa Cruz, The Phase I Chemistry Building Addition + Research Laboratory Renewal at University of California, Davis, and the Latitude Dining Commons & Market at University of California, Davis
Education
University of California, Berkeley, Bachelor of Arts, Architecture
Ying Neu brings over eight years of architectural experience in healthcare, corporate, and educational projects. Her projects are of all scales including master planning, new facilities, and renovation projects. She is very passionate about working with her clients to provide design solutions that exceed expectations.
Prior to joining Synchronis, Ying served as Project Architect at Perkins & Will and Designer at Harley Ellis Devereaux. Her project experience includes the 394 apartment unit Amli Old Pasadena mixed-use project, the 85,000 square foot renovation and addition of Children’s Hospital of Savannah, the 93,000 square foot Menorah Medical Bed Tower Expansion Project, the interior renovation of Mission Hospital in Asheville North Carolina, and space programming for a new Design & Leadership Center at Flintridge Preparatory School.
Education
Bachelor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University
Parme has been directly involved in the capital planning and construction of over one million square feet of institutional and commercial technical facilities including the Pfizer La Jolla Campus, the Cleveland Clinic’s – Lerner Research Institute, various laboratory projects for the University of California, the San Diego County Medical Examiner and Forensics Center, and the State of California’s Air Resources Board research and test center. Parme’s expertise in directing these higher technology projects affords any leadership team an individual who is experienced and committed to providing proactive design and management strategies which can better address the complex issues associated with bringing such facilities on line.
Prior to Synchronis, Parme served as Architecture + Design chief at HED San Diego.
Education
Post Graduate Studies in Urban
Design, UCLA
Bachelor of Architecture
University of Notre Dame
Amy Woolfolk has been working in general administration for over ten years. She enjoys working on projects and tasks for her clients and works hard to ensure that she gives them the best results in a timely manner. She is passionate about all things administrative and enjoys the work that she does for her clients.
Prior working with Synchronis, Amy has experience working as a Financial Support Worker with the State of Alabama for 5 1/2 years. She also has worked in the Educational field for 6 years. She has been working as an Administrative Assistant for the past 3 years in areas of legal assistance, podcast scheduling, and human resources assisting.
Education
The University of Alabama, Bachelor’s Degree, Business Management