With a little over three weeks since my forced retirement from politics, I am enjoying life. No more evening meetings, no emails or phone calls from irate residents, no suits and ties, and best of all, no City Council meetings.

Although I am retired from politics, I never really “retired.” I continue to work as an architect at Interactive Resources, the architecture-engineering firm I founded nearly 50 years ago. Take a look at our website.

Compared to serving on the City Council or mayor, working as an architect in the private sector has many advantages, including:

• I actually get paid well for my opinions and ideas.
• People respect me.
• No night meetings.
• No complaints and no social media trolls and tirades.
• It’s actually fun and rewarding.

Here are some of the projects I am working on or have recently completed. For all of the projects shown below, I am personally the project manager, assisted by a team of professionals in multiple disciplines.

This is what I do.

Figure 1 - A 445-page report for a $68 million project at Coalinga State Hospital that I have been working on since April of 2022.

Figure 2 - A report on options for reroofing the Interdisciplinary Sciences building at UC Santa Cruz, where the roof is covered with greenhouses and has serious leak problems.

Figure 3 - providing building envelope consultation and design for a $100 million rehabilitation of the historical Unruh Building across the street from the State Capitol. It is the office of the state treasurer. Just completed construction documents.

Figure 4 - A report evaluating $85 million of upgrades to the Dellums Federal Building and Courthouse in Oakland. Completed in November 2022.

Figure 5 - I am managing reroofing projects at six California Courthouses with a combined cost of over $6 million. This is an overview of the Wakefiled Taylor Courthouse in Martinez. All are under construction.

Figure 6 - This is a $1.2 million window replacement project at the Sisk Courthouse in Fresno

Figure 7 - $4 million repair of concrete channels at the Leviathan Mine in Alpine County, an abandoned sulfur mine and EPA superfund site

Figure 8 - Rehabilitation of planters at the Elihu Harris State Building in Oakland – under construction

Figure 9 - This project started as a $2.8 million replacement of mechanical equipment at the Rattigan State Building in Santa Rosa but has expanded to include reroofing, a new BMS and VAV box replacement. It is under construction.

Figure 10 - This is a historic preservation project for the 100-year-old Veterans Memorial Building in Crockett.