Design Approach
Every project is unique, and therefore requires a unique design approach and unique design solutions. There is definitely no particular style or template that we try to impose on a project. The client’s unique needs, budget, design taste, and site parameters inform and guide our design work. We listen closely to the client in order to understand their vision for the project. We provide our ideas and, ultimately, our design solutions, but it really starts with paying attention to the client and taking design cues from the site and its surroundings.
We are perfectionists to a fault and pay attention to the details. We are thoughtful and methodical in our design approach, and we tailor each project to the needs of our unique clients and to the project setting.
Our lives on this earth are very brief, but the impacts of our design work will last for generations, and we take this responsibility seriously. We are dedicated to providing high-quality design that has a lasting positive impact on both the local community and the world. The designs we create today will still be here long after we’re dead, and so we owe it to our friends, neighbors, and future generations to do high-quality design work that help to make this amazing planet a better place to spend our brief lives in.
Hi, I’m Wade Ellenberger, Principal Architect at Ellenberger Architecture.
I have been practicing in the architectural profession since 1994, beginning my career in San Francisco during my fourth year design internship. Following my fifth year design thesis (on mixed-use housing), and graduation from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, I worked at Colleen Architects as an architectural intern, providing design, modeling, and rendering services on large civic projects, custom residences, and restaurants in San Francisco. After a couple of years, I took an opportunity to complete my internship at Nichols Melburg & Rossetto at their main office in Redding. After completing my internship and passing the architectural exams, I obtained my architect license in 2003, and later became a senior associate architect with the firm. During my seventeen years of work experience with NMR, I helped design and/or manage large civic, commercial, healthcare, educational, and residential projects throughout California. A significant part of time was spent designing civic, commercial, and custom residential projects with Les Melburg, my mentor and a very talented architect, who instilled in me an appreciation of, and a dedication to, high quality architectural design work. When I moved back to the Bay Area in 2013, I opened my own architectural practice, where I have continued to design commercial, civic, healthcare, and custom residential projects. I take pride in creating designs that are well-proportioned and attractive; and in preparing construction documents that are well-coordinated, graphically strong, accurate, and detailed.