Architectural firm devoted to public, commercial projects: half its work is identifying defects with structures.

With a practice split between forensic architecture and design work, Salerno/Livingston Architects keep themselves both busy and fascinated with the diversity and range of projects.

"We share equally in the growth potential of the firm and call equally on the expertise of each individual," says Jon Luft, principal of the San Diego-based firm founded in 1965. "Between Stan Livingston, Pete diGirolamo and Bob Carroll, there's more than 100 years of continuous service and wisdom.

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"This is a legacy firm with a great and deep body of work," Luft says.

The stripped-down firm, reduced to about 20 employees from a peak five years ago of nearly 60, continues to grow and prosper in the turbulent real estate climate, with sales of $4.8 million in 2007.

"We've done reasonably well during recessions," says Robert Carroll, who has been with the firm since 1979. "We're in a very cyclical business and I'm confident we'll do well in the near term."

Carroll doesn't miss the days of being a big firm.

"It was a somewhat conscious decision to become smaller," he says. "Some principals retired or moved on and we saw an opportunity for the firm to become younger and smarter. It's more intimate now and the pace is better, it's not driven by the need to keep everyone busy and paid."

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Much of the firm's design work involves commercial and public buildings, including FlorExpo and Denso in Cadsbad, and the Metro Career Center in City Heights. The firm's projects have a distinct style, defined as modern, with an emphasis on the strength, durability and

sustainability of the materials. But they are marked even more by the collaboration with clients to arrive at affordable, practical and effective designs that suit the clients' needs.

"We want to win awards and we have, but the biggest award is when the building is still there, still handsome and useful 25 years after we built it," Carroll says.

In 2006, the Jacobs Family Foundation retained the firm to work on the heart of its Village at Market Creek--a 100,000square-foot building that will be home to a mixed-use center and the foundation ofrices at Market Street and Euclid Avenue. It's a challenging project, made exciting by the commitment to the community in the 4th District, Luft says.

This project requires intense and wide communication, since the goal is to have the community take ownership--figuratively and literally--through use of local contractors and subcontractors and through a novel program that will sell the land beneath the center to the community.

"We work with the client's theme teams and community organizations to decide the ultimate aesthetic of the project," Luft says. "It's chaotic sometimes, so we've adapted to an open-ended, community-based project.

"We really respect the Jacobs foundation's approach," he adds. "And they have plenty of resources committed to making this project appropriate to the community."

Lenette Hewitt, director of marketing for Carlsbad-based Barratt American home builders, was part of the team that worked on the Metrome project, an eight-story, 180-unit condominium building at 11th Avenue and J Street that was completed in 2005. A sister building, Echelon, planned for 11th Avenue and Island Street next door, was shelved last year because of market conditions.

"Salerno/Livingston was a pleasure to work with," Hewitt says. "They organized all of our consultants and engineers really well. We had weekly meetings and they got all the city approvals done on our timeline."

The firm's range of knowledge was most useful, she adds.

"They worked with everything from the special materials we wanted to use to planning, scheduling and permits," she says. "They kept a lot of headaches away."

Identifying Deficiencies

Forensic architecture--which involves identifying a building's problems as well as how its systems can operate most efficiently--is about half of the firm's earning power, Carroll says. Livingston led the firm into forensic work in the early 1980s, when his own condominium developed problems. As he talked with people in other associations, he said he realized construction defects were endemic in the condos built quickly and rushed to market.

"We found things contrary to anyone paying attention to what was being done --flashings made of beer cans, for example," Carroll says. "We got good at this work and it developed into an understanding of quality control that gave us both plaintiffs and defendants as clients--as well as insurance companies."

Sometimes forensic work is tedious, Luft says.

"It involves the exacting collection of data and you'd better get it right," he says. "You've got to explore existing conditions, the documentation, industry standards and building codes to see if things were done in accordance."

Good forensic work means the design side learns a great deal.

"We found that one practice informs the other," Carroll says. "A lot of mistakes that people make we've learned from and we apply that understanding to the architecture practice."

Carroll and Luft are very involved in the movement toward sustainable design and building, but with some concerns--most stemming from their forensic experience.

"The whole movement towards sustainability means an emergence of products with the goal of introducing more air into the buildings," Luft says. "That means introducing more moisture to a lot of products that haven't been fully tested in the market."

The firm is also moving towards design for the aging population, who have begun to think differently about how they want to live their lives. And the firm has begun to think about who can afford to build and buy to suit these new ideas.

"We're looking forward to creating a dialogue about people and space," says Luft. "It's far more than assisted living, though that's certainly a part of it. It's about how active adults want to live now."

Marty Graham is a freelance writer based in San Diego.