Nearly 50 Years Designing San Diego: The AVRP Story

TL;DR

In 1976, a young architect named Douglas H. Austin started a practice out of his condominium in Solana Beach. Fifty years later, AVRP Studios has designed billions of dollars of projects across the United States and internationally, earned more than 135 design awards, and shaped the skyline, the schools, the hospitals, and the housing of one of America’s most dynamic cities. This is what nearly five decades of practice in San Diego teaches you about design, community, and what it means to build something that lasts.

How It Began

Doug Austin did not start AVRP in a corner office. He started it in a condo in Solana Beach, working on custom homes and early residential projects that would form the core of his design philosophy: that every project, regardless of scale or budget, deserves to be designed with rigor, care, and a genuine understanding of the people who will inhabit it.

“I started my career designing custom homes, so it’s fun to get back to my roots,” Austin has said — a comment made in 2025 as AVRP was actively designing more than a dozen high-end custom residences across San Diego. The continuity is not accidental. Austin has always believed that the discipline required to design a single home well — the spatial thinking, the material honesty, the client listening — is the same discipline that makes a 170,000 SF hospital tower succeed.

The Practice Today: Leadership and Structure

AVRP Studios is led today by three principals whose combined tenure at the firm spans decades:

• Douglas H. Austin, FAIA, LEED AP, MAIBC — Founder, Chairman, and CEO. Austin has been a member of the San Diego Planning Commission, Chair of the YIGBY Advisory Board and Steering Committee, and a consistent voice for design quality and social responsibility in San Diego’s built environment.
• Christopher T. Veum, AAIA, IIDA — President. Veum has led landmark projects including The Wedge in Victoria, B.C., the Conrad Prebys Foundation offices, and major healthcare work at Sharp. He is recognized in San Diego’s design community for his emphasis on wellness and material quality.
• Randy Robbins, AIA — Principal Emeritus. Robbins has led AVRP’s education practice for decades, overseeing the transformation of some of San Diego’s most storied school campuses.

In September 2025, AVRP promoted four Senior Associates to Associate Principal: Zane Ely, AIA, DBIA (28+ years at the firm); Pablo Collin, AIA, LEED AP (25+ years); Catharine Hughes, NCIDQ, CID (40+ years of experience, leading AVRP’s interior design program); and Paul Davis, AIA, LEED AP (leading AVRP’s largest current project, the new SDUSD headquarters in Kearny Mesa). “You’re only as good as your people,” Austin said at the time. “And right now, our team is about as cohesive as I’ve seen it — and that’s a blessing.”

The Four Design Values That Have Guided Five Decades

What has kept AVRP relevant, competitive, and award-winning across five decades is not a visual style. It’s a set of convictions about what design is for — codified in four values that guide every project the firm takes on:

1. Ask the Right Questions. Before a line is drawn, AVRP interrogates context, program, client vision, site constraints, code, and community. The best design emerges from rigorous inquiry, not from preconceived form.
2. Design and Sustainability Are Intertwined. Maximum value from minimum resources. Environmental, economic, and social benefit that lasts. Sustainability at AVRP is not a certification — it’s a mindset embedded in every material choice and massing decision.
3. Design Tells a Story. Every site has a history. Every community has a narrative. AVRP’s work at Hoover High School — which restored a demolished tower and reconnected a campus to its 1930s identity — is one expression of this principle. The Wedge’s preservation of a historic chapel in a contemporary tower is another.
4. Constant Innovation. AVRP was an early adopter of BIM, an early user of VR and AR in client presentations, and one of the first design firms to deploy Apple Vision Pro in design review. Innovation is not about technology for its own sake — it’s about finding better ways to solve problems for clients.

A Portfolio That Spans San Diego’s Built Environment

AVRP’s nearly 50-year portfolio is a cross-section of San Diego’s growth — from the downtown high-rises that changed the city’s skyline in the 2000s to the affordable housing projects now reshaping underserved neighborhoods. A sampling:

Looking Ahead: Year 50 and Beyond

As AVRP approaches its 50th anniversary in 2026, the firm’s active project list is as diverse and ambitious as at any point in its history: a 1,500-unit waterfront community at Amara Bay in Chula Vista; the new SDUSD Kearny Mesa headquarters; ongoing work with Community HousingWorks; the continuing transformation of faith-owned land through YIGBY; custom homes across San Diego County.

“We’re not just honoring our past but building a strong foundation for the next fifty years,” Randy Robbins said at the Associate Principal announcement. That forward orientation — the refusal to coast on reputation — is perhaps the most enduring quality of AVRP’s half-century practice.

Key Takeaways

• AVRP Studios was founded in 1976 by Douglas H. Austin out of a Solana Beach condo and has grown into one of San Diego’s most award-winning design practices, with 135+ design awards.
• The firm’s leadership team combines decades of institutional knowledge with four newly promoted Associate Principals who represent the next generation of AVRP leadership.
• Four core design values — rigorous inquiry, sustainability, storytelling, and constant innovation — have guided AVRP’s practice for nearly 50 years and will define its next 50.
• AVRP’s portfolio spans every major sector of San Diego’s built environment: housing, education, healthcare, workplace, community, and custom homes.

To learn more about AVRP Studios or to discuss a project, connect with the team or visit our culture page.

Sources

• AVRP Studios. Year in Review 2024. avrpstudios.com
• AVRP Studios. Four Key Leaders Promoted to Associate Principal. September 2025. avrpstudios.com
• AVRP Studios. Culture — About the Firm. avrpstudios.com