PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

EDUCATION, TRAINING AND LICENSURE:

BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE – UC BERKELEY 1968 – CUM LAUDE
MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURE – UC BERKELEY 1971
STATE OF CALIFORNIA – LICENSED GENERAL CONTRACTOR –  CLASS B-1 02.17.76 #315960 – INACTIVE
STATE OF CALIFORNIA – LICENSED ARCHITECT – 05.15.78 #C9614 – ACTIVE

200 COMPLETED PROJECTS:

115 DESIGN-BUILD FOR MY OWN FIRM DOVETAIL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION, EL CERRITO ’71 – ‘88
60 HANDS-ON CONSTRUCTION AS ARCHITECT, GENERAL CONTRACTOR AND JOURNEYMAN CARPENTER
45 AS ARCHITECT AND GENERAL CONTRACTOR
37 RESIDENTIAL REMODELS
8 COMPLETE NEW HOUSES
15 COMMERCIAL PROJECTS
60 PROJECTS AS LEAD DESIGNER AT POLSKY ARCHITECTS, LARKSPUR ’88 – ‘04
16 COMPLETE NEW HOUSES
54 RESIDENTIAL REMODELS
10 COMMERCIAL INSTITUTIONAL
25 DESIGN-ONLY FOR MY OWN FIRM LUDWIG DESIGN, MARIN ’04 – CURRENT
4 COMPLETE NEW RESIDENCES
21 RESIDENTIAL REMODELS

1958-64 Trained by father as a journeyman carpenter.
1964-71 Worked during school on small apartment remodel projects
1969 Graduated from CAL with a Bachelors of Architecture
1970 Associate Professor of Architecture, design studio on educational facilities, project: College 7 at UC Santa Cruz.
1971 Graduated from CAL with a Masters of Architecture
1972-6 Apprenticed with local architecture firms: MacKinlay/Winnacker, Elbasani, Logan and Severin, Dan Solomon. John Carl Warnecke
1976 Acquired State of California Architects and Contractor’s licenses.
1976-87 Opened my own design-build firm in Berkeley – Dovetail Design and Construction, grew to 20 employees – completed 115 projects
1987 Closed Dovetail and went to work for Jared Polsky in Larkspur, Marin County
1987- 2005 Polsky Architects, completed 60 projects
2005 Left Polsky and opened my own practice called Ludwig Design in San Anselmo
2005 – current Completed 20 more projects as sole proprietor.

TAKING “FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION” TO THE NEXT LEVEL

My design strength centers on my aptitude for space planning. Following the “form-follows-function” philosophy of Louis Sullivan, I “furnish” my plans as I draw them, and having been a builder, I resolve structural requirements by “building” my projects in my head. Applying these skills, I can arrive at uniquely efficient and elegant design solutions for challenging projects with physical, financial, and political limitations.

ACCURATELY VISUALIZED AND COMMUNICATED SPACES

I have a special aptitude for creative visualization. Being an artist first, I mastered my hand-drawing technique and was able to produce a wide variety of images from thumb-nail sketches to presentation drawings with exceptional speed and ease.  More recently, I have augmented my drawing experience with the 3D power of ArchiCad, which has added a high degree of flexibility and accuracy to my spatial visualization. My drawings have always clearly communicated to clients, contractors, and public agencies a combination of well thought-out design solutions, sensitive to proportion including carefully resolved details.