Mark Warren, 35

A unique pathway into architecture — he was hired out of grad school by his firm’s founder to work on a book project — has led Mark Warren into an interesting niche working on projects with social impact. 

Warren has led design teams on a number of interim housing projects meant to help rehabilitate and reintroduce the formerly homeless into more permanent homes. But don’t dismissively call it just temporary housing. The Office of Charles Bloszies’ nontraditional architectural approach — utilizing modular building techniques to cut costs and adding gracious design and outdoor landscaping — helps create inviting spaces, an elevated version of transitional living.

For projects like Home Key Mountain View — an adaptive reuse development done during the height of COVID in 2020 — the care and creativity applied to the design process paid off, resulting in a clean, Modernist layout and housing that helped improve long-term occupancy.

Or take the San Jose Navigation Center, designed to fit a teardrop-shaped parcel adjacent to the roadway, formerly the site of a homeless encampment and the definition of overlooked space. The firm’s modular approach meant the project for 260 clients was opened in less than a year, on a nonprofit-friendly budget. Housing elements could be configured like a puzzle to work for the site, and modules were sited back-to-back to create family units. Generous communal spaces, and a commercial kitchen that also served as a classroom to teach job skills, help the formerly homeless feel part of a community, not pushed aside. 

Anecdotal evidence shows that the work Warren and his colleagues have done is increasing the success rate organizations have at placing the unhoused into permanent housing. He’s currently working with other nonprofits to configure new housing solutions that offer more sustainability, better functionality, and a clearer path to the finish line. 

“One of the more striking testimonials is just hearing from somebody who’d been unsheltered and homeless for a while,” said Warren. “How important it was to be able to wake up in a locked room and have it be silent, to have all his possessions, and not be worried or wake up on edge.”