Ray Swartz’s responsibilities include being involved in all aspects of design operations and production activities for the firm’s complete range of electrical engineering/design services. Ray acts as the Principal in Charge, as well as the project’s Electrical Engineer of Record for all projects with which he is involved. His day-to-day involvement with each project ensures a coordinated quality design that will result in a highly successful product.
Ray also specializes in architectural lighting design/consulting and has been responsible for innovative and creative lighting designs that have enhanced the utility, comfort, and grace of numerous architectural and landscape projects.
University of California, Riverside
The brief for the new 16,000 square-foot Southern California headquarters of a healthcare architecture firm, Taylor Architects, was to embody their motto: Promoting wellness through architecture. tk1sc provided a full range of consulting services, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting design, technology design (including low voltage and structured cabling), and commissioning.
tk1sc provided engineering services for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and low voltage services on this 20,000 square foot addition to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Scientific Investigations Division. The project includes laboratory spaces and separate office spaces for controlled substance investigators. Crime scene investigations are provided with two-vehicle examination bays and evidence processing laboratory stations with a separate open office area. The project provided Firearms staff with workstations for evidence processing and documentation, in addition to the indoor firing range and projectile recovery tank rooms.
StudioK1 provided lighting design services for the new North Wing addition. This 30,000 square foot addition doubled the Bower's exhibition space and comprised a 300 seat state-of-the-art auditorium, two 5,000 square foot galleries, and a central atrium designed to host special events for up to 500 guests. The project also included designing the lighting for a new entry and garden, exterior courtyard, and parking lot.
Beacon Park is the first in a series of neighborhood parks within a large-scale residential development. It is an iconic destination for homeowners and starting point for visitors. Working with landscape architects Valley Crest Design Group and architects Ware Malcomb, StudioK1 has brought magical energy to the first of multiple parks under design and construction within Orange County’s Great Park for FivePoint Communities. StudioK1 has created a night-time family playground, including the Coolest. Treehouse. Ever. Taking advantage of the multiple heritage trees throughout the park. tk1sc provided Full-service mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and Low Voltage engineering design. Mechanical Solutions: We selected the mechanical systems on the project to achieve the project goal of no rooftop equipment. The Welcome Center utilizes a VRF Heat Recovery system with an outdoor VRF unit located on grade. The fan coils are thoughtfully arranged in a mezzanine to maximize the ceiling height in the Multipurpose Room. The Multipurpose Room also featured two gas fireplaces. We closely coordinated venting solution for the fireplaces to ensure it meets the desired aesthetics from both the interior and exterior of the building. Lighting Solutions: Beacon Park is entirely lit with LED sources, allowing the design team to exceed California’s strict Title-24 regulations. We used the lighting scheme to enhance the geometry of architecture and landscape. Creating an inviting presence with warm white downlights paired with decorative pendants creates an inviting mood in the lounge-style learning space. Two different color temperatures of string lights wrap the mature trees adding to the magic. Integrated downlights within the metal trellis allow for the kitchen space to function into the evening. We lit the giant heritage trees with mid-grades from below, accenting the trunks and branches, while tree-mounted bullets are used within to illuminate the canopy. Contemporary style poles illuminate the pathways. We used asymmetric uplighting to accent the colorful decorative metal shade structures while powerful floodlights evenly light the multi-function court. Incorporating step lights into the guardrails creates a seamless look while providing light for the skywalk to the treehouse. Heritage trees salvaged from the decommissioned Marine base are now major focal points around the entire park, particularly at night with accent lighting and sparkle. The treehouse is the most eye-catching beacon of the park. LEDs create sparkle within three ancient Jacaranda trees as the steel and wood structure is highlighted with color to give it life at night. Recessed ingrade lights with the ability to change color per season or holiday create a fun light source for kids while illuminating the inside of the treehouse, making the space exciting from within and a focal point across the park. The design focused on the significant features within the park to keep the project within budget.
This project was a first-generation full-floor office tenant space, including open ceiling concepts that reflected visible air condition ducting and lighting for the technology provider of e-commerce, marketing, and logistic solutions, Branded Online. This space combined two previously separate offices into one central hub. The headquarters office includes various work areas, including private offices, open huddle spaces, shared work areas, two conference rooms, and a breakroom.
The two ten-story Trammell Crow next-generation office space, one-million-square-foot LEED Gold high-rise buildings are interconnected with sky bridges, a central park with outdoor workspaces, retail, café, and a9-story parking structure. This project involved full mechanical, electrical, plumbing, low voltage, and audio-visual technology design with a full build-out of tenant improvements for separate clients. After the start of construction in February of 2016, the team archived the goal of substantial completion in September of 2017, on time and under budget.
The 20-story 200 Spectrum Center Drive, Orange County, California’s tallest building, is a modern, flexible work environment with direct connections to the Irvine Spectrum shopping and entertainment center.The office tower is approximately 450,000 square feet and includes a six-level parking garage with 1,466 spaces. LPA worked with architect Pei Cobb Freed & Partners of New York to create a tower clad in a linen-finish stainless steel curtain wall with high-performance floor-to-ceiling glass.
Brown Jordan, the creators of high-end exterior furnishings since 1945, turned to StudioK1 to design the lighting in its West Coast flagship showroom at SOCO in Costa Mesa, California. The lighting scheme mimics the quality of exterior light, simulating how their customers would typically see the furnishings. Large, internally illuminated drums provide the cool ambient quality of daylight, while high output LED accents provide intensity and color temperature to represent sunlight. The entire installation is LED, providing a crisp, bright showroom with a fraction of the energy consumption of conventional fixtures.
Park Place Apartments is a 980 unit luxury apartment community adjacent to mixed-use development and part of an overall master-planned community by The Irvine Company. The community features an array of amenities that includes three saltwater pools, a cardio theatre fitness center, and outdoor courtyards with barbecue areas and fireplaces. The Architecture was done by MVE+Partners, with landscape architecture by EPT Design and lighting design by tk1sc's StudioK1.
tk1sc’s boutique lighting design team, studioK1, provided architectural lighting design services on this new, mixed-use project. This development is comprised of 332 apartments, amenity spaces, and 10,000 square feet of retail. The apartments are geared towards the student population at SDSU. The complex consists of a 4-story contemporary building arranged in courtyard configurations. Connections from the pedestrian spine to the internal courtyard spaces link the community gathering spaces with the more passive courtyard spaces. Internally, the project provides a variety of amenities and spaces that enhance the user’s experience. Amenities include a clubhouse, pools, a social lounge, a chill zone, and plenty of outdoor recreation areas for residents to gather for a game of sand volleyball, bocce, or picnicking.
The latest addition to the sequence of parks and trails throughout Orange County’s Great Park Neighborhoods, this park provides aquatic and playground fun for the whole family. Playful shade structures and palm colonnades are accentuated, while the walkways through the park meet Irvine’s demanding Security Code. Developed by FivePoints, with architecture by LPA, Inc., and landscape architecture by BrightView. Full MEP/Low Voltage/A/V services provided by tk1sc.
tk1sc provided engineering services for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and low voltage services on this 20,000 square foot addition to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Scientific Investigations Division. The project includes laboratory spaces and separate office spaces for controlled substance investigators. Crime scene investigations are provided with two-vehicle examination bays and evidence processing laboratory stations with a separate open office area. The project provided Firearms staff with workstations for evidence processing and documentation, in addition to the indoor firing range and projectile recovery tank rooms.
tk1sc provided complete engineering consulting for Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Energy, and LEED Services on this 91,200 square foot Science and Technology building. The Alton and Lydia Lim Center for Science, Technology, and Health is the newest and most prominent academic building on Biola University's campus, tripling the amount of space devoted to science education. This expansive teaching and research facility is home to the next generation of innovative science, engineering, and healthcare leaders. The project consists of 27 laboratories, including a dedicated SEM (scanning and electron microscope) lab and a TEM (transmission electron microscope) lab, six classrooms, a greenhouse, anatomy suite, research spaces, faculty offices, and a rooftop observatory. The facility provides cutting-edge equipment and research opportunities to students and faculty for years to come.
After 40 years, this Flagship airport hotel received an extensive renovation of the registration, restaurant and lobby areas, and the 16th floor lounge. The existing building has limited ceiling clearances, antiquated lighting controls and an electrical system that was near capacity. There was a lot to overcome, and this operational hotel never closed its doors during renovation. Working with the hotel brand’s design team, a sleek, modern interior design with rectilinear forms and tightly integrated lighting and mechanical details emerged. Square and rectangular fixtures were selected to reinforce this design vocabulary. While a variety of LED fixture styles were used, a common fixture family was selected for ease of maintenance, and the reduced loads did not require upgrades to the existing electrical service. Architectural, structural, mechanical, food service and even art elements were carefully coordinated with lighting placement to minimize fixture views and potential glare, ensuring the best fixture placement and integration. Architecture by TCA.
Nestled on the shore of Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada, this rustic modern destination resort sits six thousand feet above sea level with the snow clad Sierra Nevada Range and Jeffrey pine trees as a backdrop. The 169,000 SF luxury lodge compliments an existing Clubhouse and offers 154 guest rooms and suites, and well-appointed amenities - all surrounded by the world famous 18 hole Edgewood Golf Course. Architecture by CCY Architects and Interior Design by Hirsch Bedner Associates.
StudioK1 provided lighting design services for the new North Wing addition. This 30,000 square foot addition doubled the Bower's exhibition space and comprised a 300 seat state-of-the-art auditorium, two 5,000 square foot galleries, and a central atrium designed to host special events for up to 500 guests. The project also included designing the lighting for a new entry and garden, exterior courtyard, and parking lot.
The new, state-of-the-art, 30,000 square foot Old Town Newhall Library offers more than 135,000 literary items, 68 public use computers, private study spaces, and meeting rooms. Additional highlights of the Library include a children’s library, teen study area, a fireplace reading room, community meeting areas, an outdoor courtyard, art and photographic displays, an artistic replication of Beale’s Cut, and original works of art. Tk1sc provided electrical engineering services with studioK1 providing lighting design. StudioK1 has received recognition for lighting excellence for this project from the IES.
This project is a pedestrian/cycling bridge that spans Irvine Boulevard in Irvine, CA, uniting two family-oriented neighborhoods with an extensive park and trail system. While the City of Irvine created the bridge for safe pedestrian and bicycle passage from point to point, it is also a destination. The bridge provides a glowing beacon for its travelers at night, with strategically located lighting to illuminate the grand vertical gateways and guide walkers, runners, and bikers along the pathway. With Irvine priding itself as the safest city in the country, the bridge has as much functional purpose as aesthetics. The challenges were to provide an exciting new walkway between the neighborhoods more unique than former bridges while still meeting the strict security requirements of the city. With a simple, elegant – and fun - lighting scheme, the new neighborhoods have an iconic element that promotes walking and cycling, encouraging healthy, active families. The architecture was done by Ware Malcomb, with Electrical Engineering by tk1sc and lighting design by StudioK1.
The new Costa Mesa High School Performing Arts Center consists of a 25,000 square feet, 360 seat theater, black box, and performing arts classroom building. An iconic curvilinear screen wraps the front elevation and provides sun shading for a three-story glass lobby that opens toward the west. The new building also contains an orchestra pit, catwalks, student performance prep spaces, restrooms, support areas, theatrical rigging, theater lighting, and sound support systems. The new Costa Mesa High School Performing Arts Center serves as the School District’s main venue and accommodates various theater and drama productions. This project meets the LEED Silver rating.
This project consisted of retrofitting an existing 336,000 square foot four story office building into a DSA approved high school campus. The now 220,00 square foot hyper adaptable learning facility can service approximately 1,200 students and is home to three independently run public charter schools. The building was designed to support a flexible integration of project-base STEM curriculum. In order to support this, at the heart of each school are large common areas that can be programmed to accommodate everything from student project work and presentations, to group activities. A four-story atrium interconnects the three separate schools opening it up to a shared community space on the ground floor. tk1sc provided full-service MEP engineering design on this project.
The Multidisciplinary Research Building 1 (MRB1) is a new laboratory integrated into the University’s strategy for strengthening both research and teaching capabilities. The building includes wet labs and research space, a vivarium, offices, classrooms, assembly areas, exterior terraces, and a 4-story atrium. tk1sc used Pyrosim/FDS as well as pathfinder in order to design the mechanical smoke exhaust system for the atrium. The 141,000 square foot facility was designed to achieve LEED Platinum, and meet UCR’s goals to expand their interdisciplinary academic research capabilities. Working with the design-build team of Hensel Phelps with SmithGroupJJR, we are providing code consulting services for UC Riverside’s new Multidisciplinary Research Building 1. Once complete MRB1 will provide bio-safety level 2 (BSL2) wet research labs, dry labs, core lab support facilities, vivarium, faculty and academic support. The 141,000 sq ft facility is designed to achieve LEED Platinum, and meet UCR’s goals to expand their interdisciplinary academic research capabilities
This design-build project is a 38,900 SF two-story law enforcement training center. The building design was certified by the California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training. The facility includes classrooms, training simulation labs, a fitness lab, locker room, an armory and mat room for physical combat training.
UC Irvine’s Gavin Herbert Eye Institute is Orange County’s premier eye-care provider, providing state-of-the-art ophthalmic services, ranging from routine ophthalmic evaluations to complex medical management and surgical care.tk1sc provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing services for this 70,000 square foot, three-story ground-up design-build project. Key features of this project include:
90,000 SF Office building housing the Indio branch of the Riverside County Law Library and offices of the offices for the district attorney, public defender and county counsel. The project earned a LEED Platinum rating in 2015.The project was a Public-Private Partnership (P3) endeavor. This three-story, approximately 90,000-square-foot facility provides offices for the district attorney, public defender, county counsel and the Indio branch of the Riverside County Law Library.
The Grace on Spring consists of a 24-story tower that features 300 apartments, 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and numerous amenities. It follows it’s sister project across the street at 755 Spring Street, which houses 275 luxury apartments. The set of 24-story mixed-use development includes the following Luxury amenities for residents: observatory rooftop lounge, two-story fitness center, yoga studio, and business center conference rooms, resort-style swimming pool and an entertainment lounge. The project, which combines for 563,250 square feet. Tk1sc provided LEED consulting services and comprehensive energy modeling and analysis services and achieved The level of LEED Silver Certified.
This 12,514 square foot state-of-the-art library features a campus-like environment, with central public gathering spaces and outdoor learning courtyards. In addition, the facility includes adult, teen, and children’s reading areas, an early childhood/family area, a programming space, a homework center, two group study rooms that feature unique lighting fixtures to help delineate the different spaces. The project also includes a 100-seat community meeting room with an audio/visual system, express-service checkout machines at the lobby, information services pods, public access computers, Wi-Fi, staff areas, and public restrooms.
Working with landscape architects RJM Design Group and architect James Mickartz, tk1sc has helped energize downtown Ontario, California, with its new Town Center Square. The development of Ontario Town Square is part of the City of Ontario's plan to invigorate downtown Ontario and transform the area into a model of sustainable living, for which tk1sc provided Electrical and Audio-Visual Engineering services. The project team designed this Town Center's exterior to use 34% less energy than stipulated by California's stringent Title 24 energy code. Meeting civic concerns for safe light levels, energy savings, and low maintenance, StudioK1 devised a simple but elegant lighting scheme, supporting the rhythms of the central spine and the nautilus-shaped pathways and highlighting the new civic icon, the clock tower.
This 160,000 square foot pedestrian mall includes three water features and The River of Light – a 600 foot long kinetic light sculpture representing the Santa Ana River, around which the City of Anaheim was founded. This project has received international recognition for its lighting design excellence and the control systems' sophistication, which integrate all lighting and water effects. tk1sc provided electrical engineering services, with Lighting design by studioK1.
The brief for the new 16,000 square-foot Southern California headquarters of a healthcare architecture firm, Taylor Architects, was to embody their motto: Promoting wellness through architecture. tk1sc provided a full range of consulting services, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting design, technology design (including low voltage and structured cabling), and commissioning.
tk1sc provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology engineering services, with studioK1 providing lighting design services on Henkel's new Culver City office location. The headquarters includes a multi-branded Academy of Hair learning center with full salon capabilities and a showroom stage lighting system where Henkel can host customers, social influencers, and professionals. Our work on this tenant improvement project included the renovation of two floors totaling roughly 42,000 square feet, a test salon with color-tunable lighting, six new conference rooms and a shower room on the second floor, a conference room, shower room, AV room, and telepresence room on the third floor. The project also included updating lighting throughout the building to LED luminaires and new lighting controls that met current Title 24 standards.
Global Foundries is a leading, full-service semiconductor design, development, fabrication, and innovation company. They were looking for a space conducive to innovation and collaboration to house their executive, R&D, administrative, and marketing staff in one building. This project combined Global Foundries' multiple bay area office locations into one high-rise office space in Santa Clara, California. tk1sc provided mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering and commissioning services on this 140,000 SF first-generation tenant improvement. The space spans five floors of a new commercial office building and is comprised of open and private offices, board rooms, training rooms, conference rooms, break rooms, and support areas.
This tenant improvement for Dowler Gruman Architects is located on 2550 Fifth Avenue in San Diego, California. The project is an 8,000 square foot office space that includes an open floor concept with multiple breakout and meeting rooms located on the office's left side. The exposed ductwork and decorative lighting can be seen throughout the building.
This 575,000 square foot project consisted of demolition and tenant improvements to two existing 6-story office buildings and two existing 3-storyoffice buildings. The project included open office space, technical lab space, café, fitness center, and conference centers. The mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology systems and equipment were replaced on the two 6-storybuildings and reused/reconditioned on the two 3-story buildings. The project included core and shell MEP upgrade plans, Tenant Improvement plans, and foodservice plans. We renovated the exterior skin facades of two buildings, and the project also features a new four-level, 810 stall parking garage and significant sitework for Broadcom's new campus in North San Jose. This project also added Modular central plants to each building, with new process chilled water loops, air-cooled chillers, air handlers, boilers, cooling towers, VAV boxes, fan coils, and in-row cooling inputs.
tk1sc provided full-service mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services for AutoGravity's new headquarters. This project consisted of a tenant improvement on the first and second floor of a four-story building at the Sand Canyon Business Center. The open ceiling concept allows for our design work to be seen throughout the building. The work scope included partial demolition, wall framing, flooring, glass walls, MEP, low voltage, and a slide between floors.