Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Wellesley College

Cathy Simon FAIA Architecture and Urbanism

San Francisco, California, United States

Cathy Simon's 48-year career has focused on transformative design at all scales. Her award-winning work comprises design for higher and secondary education, civic and commercial buildings, reinvention of historic structures, waterfront projects and urban design of numerous postindustrial Bay Area waterfront sites. In 2015, she was the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome, and has taught architecture at both Stanford and UC Berkeley where in 1996 she was the Howard Friedman Distinguished Professor of Architecture in Practice.

Cathy Simon's focus on transformative design is evident at all scales. Major recent architectural commissions are exemplified by the reinvention of San Francisco's Ferry Building and Pier 1, an historic finger pier; Genentech B35, a new 250,000 sf headquarters building on Genentech's South San Francisco Campus; the Lathrop Library at Stanford; renovation of San Francisco's 1926 Curran Theater; LEED Platinum Connie & Kevin Chou Hall at the Haas School of Business at UC, Berkeley; the Bay Area Metro Center, the repurposing of a 500,000 sf existing building as headquarters for the MTC, the Air District, BCDC and ABAG; 140 New Montgomery, the rehabilitation of Timothy Pfleuger's landmark 1925 Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building. Local waterfront urban design projects include Mission Rock, the SF Giants' proposed 21-acre mixed-use waterfront development south of AT&T Park and Treasure Island, a new waterfront community for 15,000 new residents, parklands, an organic farm, maker space and more in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. She is currently an urban design and architecture consultant to a multi-firm engineering team studying San Francisco's 100-year-old seawall. Academic master plans include Harvard Futures, a study of Harvard in Allston, Brown in the Jewelry District, and 2008 and 2017 Master Plans for Bard College, where she has also designed four buildings.

Owner

Cathy Simon was a Senior Design Principal at Perkins and Will, and a member of the firm's Design Leadership Council. Her recent projects include a new Master Plan for Bard College and vision for the reinvention of Kline Commons, the College's student center and dining facility;  the new 72,000 sf Connie and Kevin Chou Hall the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley;  Mission Rock, the SF Giant's 21-acre proposed development south of AT&T Park; the Bay Area Metro Center, the repurposing of a 500,000 sf existing building as headquarters for the MTC, the Air District, BCDC and ABAG, plus associated tenants;  140 New Montgomery, the reinvention of Timothy Pfleuger's landmark 1925 Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building as San Francisco's most sought after office address; The Presidio Landmark, the repurposing of the old Public Health Services Building in the Presidio; the Genentech B35 Office Building, a ground-up 250,000 sf new headquarters building and campus heart on Genentech's South San Francisco Campus; the Lathrop Library at Stanford University and the master plan for the University's Redwood City Campus.

Perkins + Will

Design Principal

SMWM was a vibrant local and national architecture, planning and urban design firm with offices in San Francisco and New York.  Our award-winning portfolio included buildings in the public realm such as the San Francisco Ferry Building, the San Francisco Main Library and Pier 1, both higher education projects for the University of California Berkeley, Davis and Santa Cruz and Bard College, and Bay Area K-12 independent schools, cultural projects such as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, campus master planning for Harvard, Stanford, Brown and NYU.  Our urban design work included plans for entire city districts such as Mission Bay and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, and such visionary projects as the Boston Central Artery. In 2008, my firm SMWM joined Perkins + Will.

cathy simon

cathy simon