Higher Education
Creating Extraordinary Outcomes for the Colleges and Universities of the Future
Today’s colleges and universities are faced with many challenges: student retention, faculty recruitment, and the integration of new technologies. At Ratcliff, we collaborate with our clients to reframe these challenges in new and inspiring ways. From the 1921 master plan for Mills College to today’s design of the first California community college campus constructed on an urban infill site, Ratcliff continues its legacy of enduring, distinguished architecture. Our architects interact with higher education institutions at critical junctures in their histories, helping them in their quests to create the whole citizen.
Ratcliff crafts the links between buildings that foster creative scholastic environments. Our flexible learning environments are relevant to a diverse student population today and for generations to come. We design teaching and research laboratories, lecture halls and classrooms, specialized academic libraries, recital halls and rehearsal rooms, gymnasiums and recreational facilities, and student residential communities.
Leaders
Joseph A. Nicola
Director - Business Development, Academic Practice Area
B. Architecture, University of Minnesota, 1980
B. Environmental Design, University of Minnesota, 1980
Licensed Architect, California, #C-21418, 1990
Licensed Architect, Massachusetts, #6288, 1984
(510) 899-6461
Crodd Chin
Principal – Design, Academic Practice Area
B. Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 1966
Licensed Architect, California, #C-11392, 1980
(510) 899-6471
Mike Matson, LEEDŽ
Senior Associate – Technical, Academic Practice Area
B. Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
Licensed Architect, California #C25627, 1995
(510) 899-6431
William J. Blessing, LEEDŽ
Associate Principal – Project Designer, Academic Practice Area
Graduate Studies in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 1983
B.S. Architecture, magna cum laude, Lawrence Institute of Technology, 1978
Registered Architect, California, #C-16988, 1986
(510) 899-6440
Services
Programming
Master Planning & Design
Architecture
Interiors
Client List
California State University, Humboldt
Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Golden Gate University
Hartnell Community College
Holy Names College
Mills College
Monterey Peninsula College
Naval Post Graduate School
Pacific School of Religion
Peralta Community College District: Berkeley City College
Peralta Community College District: Laney College
Saint Mary’s College of California
Saint Patrick’s Seminary
Santa Clara University
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Francisco
University of Oregon
University of the Pacific, Stockton Campus
University of the Pacific Dental School, San Francisco Campus
University of Texas, Houston