History
Since 1976, The Arroyo Group has been designing urban communities and creating great places.
Formed by three young professionals in Pasadena, California, Larry Morrison (an urban designer), Ray Spano (an architect) and Jim Goodell (a planner and economic development specialist), The Arroyo Group sprung into action as the City prepared to demolish Old Pasadena. With a shared passion for preservation and innovation, they developed a revitalization plan for Pasadena Heritage. Over the years, this plan transformed Old Pasadena into one of Southern California's most beloved destinations. Since then, The Arroyo Group has continuously worked with cities, regional governments, and organizations to build places that inspire and endure.
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The Arroyo Group derives our name from the Arroyo Guild.
We derive our name from the Arroyo Guild, an assembly of turn-of-the-century California architects, planners, engineers, artists and craftsmen who lived along the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. Common to all their creative efforts was a careful consideration for the unique beauty and meaning of the environment in which they worked, and an overriding concern for quality, craftsmanship and detail. Their association was characterized by intense dialogue across traditional professional boundaries, leaving a legacy of work that is to this day functional and beautiful in itself and in its setting.
Our Values
Like the Arroyo Guild, we believe that sensitive and workable relationships between people and the environment can be achieved and integrated with the sound social and fiscal considerations so essential to successful design, planning and development. We reflect their spirit through a respect for quality and detail and by tapping the wisdom and experience of individuals of varying professional and experiential backgrounds. Our concern is for the lasting value of our plans to our clients and their communities. Plans do get built.
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Authenticity
We truly engage with a communities to create an authentic sense of place that honors its unique history, culture and character. We care more about solving the challenges faced by our clients than making things look flashy or filling out billable hours quotas.
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Proximity
Knowing that “where you stand depends on where you sit,” we seek to understand the communities we serve as deeply as possible. This understanding is not only “head knowledge,” but also spending time on the ground to get a real feel for the community and the issues they face. Further, our team is composed of people from diverse backgrounds. We ourselves experience the same issues that the communities we plan with are experiencing. And when we recommend solutions, they are solutions that we carry out in our own lives and accept in our own communities.
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Consensus Building
We work to bridge divides of professional discipline, political perspective, and self-interest to achieve plans and projects that succeed in the complex ecosystem of cities. We believe that high-quality conversations can be had with communities when a common knowledge can be established, and everyone can bring their perspectives to figure out how to best achieve project goals.
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Sustainability
We recognize our unique ability as planners and urban designers to influence how communities use the resources of the Earth, and we are strongly committed to planet- and human-centered community design, reducing the dependency upon automobiles and wasteful sprawl.
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Equity
Improving the opportunities and social outcomes of people who have been disadvantaged by social, political and economic structures (including urban planning practices) is a preeminent goal of our work. We work to expand access to stable and affordable housing, opportunities for advancement, and a good quality of life to all.
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Impact Over Profit
Above all, we are planners and urban designers because we know that our work can impact people, communities and the planet positively. Our responsibility to our clients and the communities we serve always comes first, over our own benefit.
Meet The Team
Managing Principal
Philip Burns
Philip Burns is Managing Principal and a project manager at The Arroyo Group. His specialties include consensus-building with communities and stakeholders, housing policy, zoning and active transportation. A former urban planning Peace Corps Volunteer and United Nations officer in Guatemala, he enjoys cross-cultural work and making abstract and counter-intuitive planning concepts understandable to the average citizen. Possessing a variety of technical skills, Philip often manages multidisciplinary teams and serves as primary client point of contact for complex planning projects. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Brown University and a Master of Planning with a Certificate in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California.
Senior Associate
Anton Anderson
Anton Anderson provides strategic planning services and related technology advice to a wide variety of professional services firms. He has worked in a variety of arrangements with The Arroyo Group for over fifteen years. Anton has developed and led the social media strategy for The Arroyo Group in Inglewood and Compton, while also facilitating discussions at public workshops over tough issues such as land use changes, revitalization and gentrification. Anton has worked with many companies, organizations and public agencies to develop a technology strategy, including a social media strategy, design or develop custom software, and provide hands-on IT support. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Visual Arts from Dartmouth College.
Senior Associate
Lance Lowrey
With 19 years of professional experience, Lance specializes in the fields of Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Planning. Throughout his career, Lance has worked to deliver award-winning quality projects across a broad range of scales, project types, budgets, geographies and climates, including in desert environments. Lance believes that the ability to craft unique and transformative design solutions aren’t simply imagined but rather result directly from a process of working with clients and the project team to identify the fundamental issues, goals and desired outcomes that the project’s design must address. These core outcomes become the framework to begin crafting targeted and therefore meaningful design solutions; Lance believes strongly in design with purpose. As a member of The Arroyo Group, Lance has supported the firm’s planning and streetscape projects in a wide variety of contexts. Particularly salient has been his work in developing pedestrian-priority streetscapes and complete streets plans and designs for public open spaces.
Office Manager
Jose Manuel Marquez
Jose Manuel Marquez serves as The Arroyo Group’s office manager and aids in the everyday tasks around the office. He also specializes in graphic design content, assisting with touch-ups and document preparation. Jose is a lifelong California native and enjoys learning about the ongoing development of communities he lives in and has been surrounded by his entire life. He is also currently a student at California State University Los Angeles, where he is studying biology in hopes of providing medical care and assistance to communities like the ones served by The Arroyo Group.
Associate
Margaret Munoz
Margaret’s work with the Arroyo Group involves writing housing elements, writing specific plans, and working on affordable housing initiatives such as congregational land overlay zones.
Margaret studied Urban Studies at Haverford College, including a semester studying in Berlin. At the University of Southern California, she concentrated in housing and real estate development, through which she developed a strong background in policy that incentivizes affordable housing development. Margaret has experience organizing in communities across Los Angeles County to help address Southern California’s housing crisis.
Associate
William Bowser
William’s role at the Arroyo Group involves site planning and design, graphic representation through drafting and 3D modelling as well as supporting community meetings and presentations. He has worked on a variety of project scales from parklets to district scale planning.
William possesses a bachelor’s degree in architectural design from Academy of Art University in San Francisco. While studying he was also involved through the conceptual and development phases working towards securing planning approvals on several San Francisco housing projects and other land use projects in Northern California.
Allied Professional
Ian Dickenson
Living in Los Angeles since 2010, Ian has been an active member of the academic, arts, and design communities, having contributed to numerous exhibitions and events. He has worked with The ArroyoGroup on planning and urban design projects in Vernon, Norwalk and Inglewood, as well as conceptual design for religious congregation affordable housing projects around the region. With a long track record designing commercial and residential (market rate and affordable) projects in the Southern California region, Ian contributes his technical expertise, as well as his sensibilities based on the essence, culture and needs of a place, to urban design strategies, zoning and design standards, and similar efforts in the firm’s work.
In his previous role as Principal at Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA], Ian was responsible for heading a diverse variety of critical firm operations, including leading design teams, project/firm creative direction and strategy, and research agendas. Over his tenure at LOHA, Ian demonstrated his ability to lead the practice and project teams–delivering numerous complex, award-winning projects on time and budget.