Firm Profile
Kaplan Chen Kaplan provides a full range of architecture and planning services, including site and facilities analysis, programming, master planning, community workshops, concept documents for planning approvals and fundraising, historic preservation consulting, architectural design and construction documents, as well as construction phase services.
We view design as a collaborative process in which client and user are integral components. Our projects stress the importance of place by providing for natural light and connection to the surrounding environment. We rely on clarity of plan as well as interest in its complexity to encourage exploration and discovery. We are interested in communities and neighborhoods, including issues of environment and conservation of resources through sustainable design. Our work acknowledges history and tradition, while embracing contemporary requirements.
Our Team
Along with new buildings and additions, David Kaplan has been involved in a number of award-winning projects that adapt and reuse existing facilities. He has designed projects for the historic CalTech campus, USC and UCLA. Long interested in cultural heritage, he works with numerous teams for seismic improvements and adaptive reuse of historical properties. In previous association with other firms, he has led design for laboratories, housing, high rise offices, theaters and mixed use projects. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Barbara Kaplan has designed a series of buildings and facilities notable for their relationship to site and surrounding environment. From her work on fountains and urban spaces at Biddy Mason Park to residences throughout Southern California and other regions of the country, her design is attuned to the particulars of location and climate, and utilizes materials indigenous to and compatible with their setting. In addition to her thirty years of practice, she is a graduate of Brown University and the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
