Ian Birchall, AIA, RIBA

Educated and trained in England, Ian has almost 40 years of experience as an architect in the United States and the United Kingdom. As ib+a's founding principal and owner, he continues to be a “hands on” principal leading the firm’s design team, directing the firm as a whole and providing oversight to the office’s project studio teams.

After leaving the UK in 1974, Ian worked for several design-build firms on the East Coast, developing a hand’s-on experience in interior renovations and small-scale new construction. In 1980 he joined Washington DC’s Devrouax and Purnell as Director of Design, winning several awards for his work.

In 1986, as consultant to The World Bank, Ian served as the Owner’s Representative on the construction of the Bank’s $100 million headquarters. Simultaneously, Ian’s private design-build practice, TBDG, designed and built Washington’s first “green” residence, along with several noted restaurants and night clubs, including “Cities”, “Opera”, and “Café Med”.

Recruited in 1993 by RockwellGroup to re-organize and re-structure the practice, Ian’s designs for the firm included work on numerous themed restaurants and clubs, a custom residence, the Mohegan Sun Casino and the very first ‘W’ hotel in NYC.

​In 1997, he was asked to join KMD in San Francisco, where he worked on several international projects, followed by a year at Field Paoli working on street-retail and hospitality projects.

In 1999, Ian founded Ian Birchall and Associates, using 3 hotel projects to get the firm off and running. Since that beginning the firm has moved into multi-family, and mixed-use urban in-fill projects, predominantly in the Bay Area. Other projects he has been responsible for designing include a concept design for a new Greek Orthodox Cathedral for the Diocese of San Francisco, a 42-story residential hi-rise in Oakland and bus-shelters and Muni entrances for the City of San Francisco.

Over the course of his distinguished career Ian’s design skills have been recognized through receipt of multiple design awards from professional peer groups and national associations. His work has been published both in the US and abroad. Ian is an active and proud member of the San Francisco Chapter of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the AIA and SPUR, and is a registered Architect in California, Nevada, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia and the United Kingdom.