We are delighted to share that Arion Press has been featured in The New York Times, highlighting their newest project: the Declaration of Independence.

Arion Press continues to create remarkable works, using centuries-old methods. This profile offers a look inside their transformed home at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture designed by Jensen Architects. 

Wallpaper* features the Mendocino House on their web platform by highlighting its resiliency.

“Set on a rolling hilltop at the northwest edge of the Russian River watershed, the 2,025 sq ft two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home – with its clean, geometric modernist lines – feels more like an extension of the land than a juxtaposition to it.”

We are deeply honored to see our Alamo Square Residence featured in Living Heritage: Modern Interiors in Old-Town Homes alongside an inspiring collection of historic projects from around the world. The book thoughtfully celebrates the balance between architectural heritage and contemporary living—a philosophy that guided our work on Alamo Square. We are immensely grateful to the editors for including our project in such exceptional company.

The Architect’s Newspaper announced their 2026 Best of Practice Awards, naming Jensen Architects the Editor’s Pick for the Firm Achievement Award.

Thank you to the editors, and the jury. And huge gratitude to our dedicated studio team, our brilliant collaborators, and our outstanding clients, whose vision, trust, and enthusiasm make our practice possible.

Jensen Architects was named the recipient of the 2026 Firm Achievement Award at the AIASF Design Awards Gala. This accolade celebrates a firm’s contributions to community, design excellence, mentorship, and the advancement of the profession. To be recognized by the design community feels especially meaningful as we reflect on over three decades of practice.

It was a proud night for our team’s cultural, education, and community-centered work across San Francisco. India Basin Waterfront Park and Arion Press each received AIASF Design Awards, and Children’s Day School Preschool was named a finalist.

Located along the Russian River at the base of Fitch Mountain, this compact home is built upon a steep and challenging site subject to flooding. Direct access to the river, and beautiful views up and down the watershed, are the rewards for the efforts demanded by the site. Geologically, the mountain here is a rock island around which the river meanders.

We’re delighted to share that the Stanford Residence has earned two awards this year: a Citation Award from AIA California and a Honor Award from AIA Silicon Valley. These honors affirm our commitment to designs that balance creativity with technical rigor, elevating both place and experience.

Our heartfelt thanks go to our clients and partners, whose vision and collaboration made this recognition possible. We share these wins with our design collaborator, Johanna Grawunder.

The Local Project has featured Set in a quiet pocket of the Stanford University campus, this is a home where architecture balances clarity with complexity. Reimagined by Jensen Architects in collaboration with Johanna Grawunder, the house unfolds as a seamless interplay between innovation, adaptability and personal narrative. Originally a compartmentalised California ranch-style dwelling, it has been redefined to reflect its occupant’s ever-evolving lifestyle while celebrating spatial openness and expressive restraint. The design began with a clear objective – to open the interiors into a single, loft-like plan. Walls were removed, thresholds softened and sliding partitions introduced, allowing the space to shift in scale and privacy. Through these interventions, the residence transforms from a traditional layout into a home where architecture supports fluidity and reinvention. The result is a living environment that feels grounded yet responsive, enabling the resident to curate the space as needs and moods change.

We’re honored that India Basin Waterfront Park, a project of craft, equity, and care, is featured in the July 2025 issue of Architectural Record. The 10-acre former industrial site was previously cut off from the nearby Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. Developed as part of a team led by landscape architecture firm GGN and in collaboration with the Trust for Public Lands, San Francisco Recreation and Parks, and A. Philip Randolf Institute, the first phase of India Basin Shoreline Park repairs the urban fabric, providing better access to the waterfront. “It’s not just about opening up,” JENSEN Principal Emily Gosack told the magazine, “but also finding ways to really connect people to this place and make it meaningful.”

Jensen Architects has a new home in Downtown San Francisco. We are excited to be part of the post-Covid reinvigoration of this important, historic neighborhood. You’ll find our new office at 180 Sansome Street, Suite 1500 on the corner of Sansome and Pine—just a few blocks from Montgomery Station. The 18-story, concrete-and-glass tower by Hertzka & Knowles Architects was originally the Hong Kong Bank Building. This modernist classic opened to the public in 1966.

The beginning may have been inauspicious, if not impossible: a steep, bankside lot along the Russian River, a tumbledown cabin, and a tangle of weeks and bramble, but Mark Jensen and Johanna Grawunder fell in love with the view—and saw the potential for their dream home. In September, the New York Times  featured their under 1,000-square-foot, three-story house (with 80 steps from road to water) in a remarkable story of transformation and discovery.

Chronicling their design journey, Jensen shared a moment of delight—a bit of wonder that had been there all along, “We found all these beautiful terraces along the river, with handmade concrete work and embedded abalone shells and tiles. It was like excavating in Pompeii.”

We are delighted to announce the recent promotions of several rising leaders. Join us in recognizing our new Associates: Lauren Takeda, Yusheen Yang, Melissa DeLacy, LEED AP BD+C, and Keri Goodlad, LEED AP. Additionally, we are thrilled to introduce our new Senior Designers: Christina Kull, and Lauren Harrison, LEED AP BD+C. Their thoughtful project management and unwavering commitment to design excellence continue to drive our studio forward.

How can you design for an existing campus in a way that maintains the institutional identity while adapting to the emerging needs of its users and environment? How can designers support and achieve dynamic priorities of the client throughout the lifecycle of a project?

These important questions and more will be discussed at an upcoming AIA East Bay event featuring Principal Steven Huegli in conversation with Chuck Davis, FAIA, Wendy Hillis, AIA, UCB Campus Architect, and Monique DeVane, Head of School at the Preparatory School.

Join us on April 9th, 6-7:30pm at the AIA East Bay office location in Berkeley to hear what these industry experts have to say. Get your tickets here.

On view at the Museum of Craft and Design through February 4, 2024, “Designing Peace” is an exhibition organized by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum that explores the unique role design can play in pursuing peace. JENSEN’s design creates an environment that invites visitors to immerse themselves fully within the exhibition. The expansive scale of the iconic peace sign within the room provides a unique viewing experience from every angle. It’s a space where participation becomes a form of expression in direct alignment with the exhibit’s theme and the museum’s craft-centered mission.

We’re delighted that our College Preparatory School project has been honored with an AIA California Design for Well-Being Award. The jury commended the project’s “strong attention to the disposition of volumes on the site,” praising the introduction of terraces and decks at different elevations that underscore College Prep’s commitment to the well-being of students, faculty, and administrators.

Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground has received a Merit Award in the Urban Design category at this year’s ASLA Northern California Awards. We’re so thrilled to see this beloved neighborhood playground celebrated by our colleagues in the landscape architecture community! View all of the 2023 Design Award winners here.

In a report by the Urban Land Institute, India Basin Shoreline Park is featured among seven innovative waterfront parks designed to support environmental and community resilience. The report highlights the valuable insight these projects provide to those working to create similar spaces in their own communities. More

We are thrilled to announce that Mark Jensen, FAIA, has received the AIA California Distinguished Practice Award. One of the AIA CA’s highest honors,  the award recognizes individuals demonstrating career-long dedication to the built environment and innovations in architecture through design, education, mentorship, and collaboration.

In affirming the award, the AIA California Board of Directors cited Mark’s “exemplary” contributions to the field and achievements “consistently at a high level of design excellence and sensitivity toward landscape and human habitation—all executed with the utmost care. He’s taught, he’s mentored, he’s impacted [a multitude] of people throughout his career.” More

With our ultimate goal being to design projects that serve their communities, we are thrilled to have Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground recognized in this year’s AIA CA Urban Design Awards!  In their acknowledgment of the playground, the jury commented, “Land is very scarce in San Francisco, and for this design team to make an “oasis” for children in a concrete jungle is a game changer. It’s a complex urban project–how it handles the relationship between the sidewalk and the internal parts of the building and the building envelope is very clever.” More.

Construction at India Basin Shoreline Park has commenced, marking a momentous next step for the community-driven project which will provide much needed open spaces for residents and visitors of San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. Mayor London Breed  praised the historic groundbreaking stating, “India Basin Waterfront Park will transform a neglected shoreline into a modern, world class park that reflects and benefits the people who live here now, and for generations to come.” More

In a “Studio Visit” for The Architect’s Newspaper, author Shane Reiner-Rothsat explores what makes our work uniquely JENSEN, stating, “The JENSEN trademark is subtly dispersed across the city, but it can be described as an attention to material detail, compositional clarity, and community input.” More

Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards. The playground is recognized alongside 15 others in the Best Urban Designs of 2022 category, which acknowledges designers who are solving the problems of today and tomorrow.  Congratulations to the project team led by CMG Landscape Architecture!

Each year, AIA San Francisco’s Design Awards program recognizes outstanding achievements in Bay Area architecture. We are thrilled to have two JENSEN projects among the 2022 winners. Congratulations to our collaborators on the Cole Valley Residence, a merit award recipient, and to the Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground project team, led by CMG Landscape Architecture, for its special Urban Design Commendation!

In a feature article for Abitare, author Pierluigi Serraino considers the deft transformation of the Stanford Residence by JENSEN and Johanna Grawunder. Serraino calls attention to the potent tension between the “unexpected transparency” of the remodeled home and the workshop’s “rare tectonic refinement.” Photos by Matthew Millman and Marion Brenner.

The 2022 AIA Regional & Urban Design Awards selected four projects that represent the best in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development. We are honored to have Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground recognized by the jury. Congratulations to our collaborators, CMG, who led the design of the playground.

We are delighted to announce the recent promotion of two rising JENSEN leaders. Join us in recognizing our new Associate, Jennifer Redel, LEED AP BD+C and new Senior Architect, Megan Freeman. Together their thoughtful project management and commitment to design excellence continues to drive our studio forward.

For this year’s AIA California Residential Design Awards the jury selected 7 winners that showcase the best in California custom and multifamily residential architecture. We are delighted to have our Stanford Residence recognized with an honor award in the single-family housing category.

Architect’s Newspaper has recognized Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground with an honorable mention in the Social Impact category of the 2021 A’N Best of Design Awards. The Playground was acknowledged for its community based design which celebrates Chinatown’s rich history and culture while also providing a safe space for neighbors and families to connect, play, and gather. Congratulations to our collaborators, CMG Landscape and San Francisco Recreation & Parks.

Congratulations to Minnesota Street Project Foundation and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco on the announcement of their new venture. Once again, Andy and Deborah Rappaport and the Minnesota Street Project are expanding the horizon of San Francisco’s contemporary arts community. It’s inspiring to be part of this exciting endeavor. Read more  here.

Writing for The New York Times, Pilar Viladas profiles the home and workshop of IDEO founder David Kelley – and the collaboration between Kelley, JENSEN and designer-artist Johanna Grawunder. Read the full story in The Times’ Design special report here.

San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic, John King, finds a hopeful message in the recently reopened Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground. He writes: “The fact is, these public spaces aren’t simply decoration. They’re part of the civic infrastructure that makes a place more or less livable — not as obviously essential as roads or power lines, but critical all the same. They also signal how decision-makers value ordinary people. A welcoming park or playground says that your presence and well-being are valued.” Read the full review here.

Jensen Architects’ design for a zero-net-energy (ZNE) community library for San Benito County was named the winner of the 2020 Architecture at Zero competition, presented by AIA California and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Since 2011, this annual program has invited architects and engineers worldwide to investigate new approaches to the design of buildings that generate more energy than they use. Jensen’s winning proposal goes beyond ZNE, reimagining the library as a civic space that builds community resiliency.

Curbed San Francisco has named Minnesota Street Project among  “The Bay Area’s 10 most important buildings of the past decade.” The list, recognizing provocative structures that have redefined our region, applauds MSP for its adaptive reuse accomplishments and as a model of cultural preservation.