Architecture for the Common Good

Clarence D. Mamuyac, Jr., FAIA, is Chairman of ELS Architecture and Urban Design. For decades, as leader of the firm’s civic and higher-education portfolio, he has created projects whose earliest design stages are grounded in a highly inclusive process of engagement. This effort supports a design philosophy in which each project, as driven by its stakeholders, becomes a gathering point for the common good. The ELS projects here look at Mamuyac’s past 25 years of creating venues that use sports, recreation, and wellness programming to celebrate personal achievements and our collective potential. These are forward-looking places that honor their context – from culture and place to economics and politics – and create lasting benefits to users and the environment. Essays from collaborators, clients, and colleagues offer insight into the firm’s collaborative practice.

Clarence D. Mamuyac, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, is President and CEO of ELS, which he joined in 1983. As a leading voice on design practices for community-focused projects in wellness, recreation and education, Clarence is known for working closely with clients on the development of outreach and consensus-building efforts that lead to robust design solutions. Clarence has spoken at conferences and in the media on topics in campus and sports design. A Fellow of the AIA and a past president of AIA East Bay, he is also a past board member of AIA California. He chaired the Dean's Advisory Council at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, from which he received a Master’s in Architecture with distinction and an undergraduate degree with majors in Architecture and Landscape Architecture.