LPA Earns Double Honors from AIA San Diego

The awards recognize an innovative supportive housing development and the historic preservation of an iconic UC San Diego facility.

LPA Design Studios recently received two Honor Awards at AIA San Diego’s 2025 Design Awards. Family Health Centers of San Diego’s El Cerrito Permanent Supportive Housing, an eight-story complex that creates a new model for a hybrid of housing and healthcare, was recognized in the multifamily residential category, and the seismic retrofit UC San Diego’s York Hall was honored for preservation of historic property.

The AIA San Diego’s annual design awards “shine a light on projects that are pushing innovation, growth, sustainability and renewal in San Diego and Tijuana.”

El Cerrito provides a facility that enhances the health, recovery and sense of community for formerly unhoused residents. The complex includes five stories of recycled shipping containers that have been transformed into fully finished housing units; lower floors include mental and physical healthcare services. Natural ventilation, daylighting, an electric heat pump boiler system, rooftop gardens and PVs reduce the project’s carbon footprint and improve the experience for residents.

El Cerrito “gloriously hits the missing middle of multi-family housing,” AIA San Diego said. “This project is interesting, innovative, high performance, and beautiful.”

El Cerrito MH Photo By Bruce Damonte 02

These awards are the result of a close collaboration with clients and communities… It’s been an honor to work on these transformative projects that will impact so many people.

LPA Design Director, Matthew Porreca, FAIA

The seismic rehabilitation of York Hall extended the life of a historically significant four-building laboratory and education complex designed by Neptune & Thomas Associates. LPA’s integrated design team developed an innovative approach to saving the minimalist mid-century complex’s iconic columns, reducing costs and preserving programming space. The approach helped the UC system set new technical standards for its seismic retrofit program.

AIA San Diego praised the retrofit as an impressive “columnectomy” that preserves the mid-century character of the original structure, “while seamlessly integrating the seismic retrofit elements—an artful magic trick.”

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In 2023, the York Hall retrofit earned an Excellence in Structural Engineering (EISE) award from the Structural Engineers Association of San Diego (SEAOSD). El Cerrito earned a Sustainable Marvel Award from the San Diego Green Building Council in the 2024 Sustainability Awards.

“These awards are the result of a close collaboration with clients and communities,” said LPA Design Director Matthew Porreca. “It’s been an honor to work on these transformative projects that will impact so many people.”

Read more about the design of El Cerrito Permanent Supportive Housing.

Read more about the retrofit and preservation of York Hall.