People

Berkeley, California

Daniel Parolek, Founding Principal

Karen Parolek, Principal

Stefan Pellegrini, Principal

Stefan Pellegrini, Principal

Stefan has actively contributed to a wide variety of planning and urban design projects, including the design of new towns, extensive master planning and revitalization endeavors for existing communities, and campus plans. He possesses a masterful knowledge of both building types and vernacular architectural styles, has contributed to several architectural codes and design guidelines, and has worked both nationally and abroad. A proven collaborator and diligent manager, he joined Opticos Design in 2002 and has since played a central and positive role in the successful completion of many projects, including the Isla Vista Master Plan for Santa Barbara County, and the Loma Rica Ranch Specific Plan in Grass Valley, California.

Prior to joining Opticos Design, Stefan gained valuable design experience at Urban Design Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a senior designer and project manager for over fifty urban design and architecture projects, including new traditional neighborhood developments in Charlotte, North Carolina and Huntsville, Alabama, HOPE VI projects in five states, revitalization plans for a variety of municipalities and non-profit organizations, and several architectural pattern books. His extended contribution to the design and implementation of the Park DuValle neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky was honored with an AIA National Honor Award for Urban Design. Despite his young age, he quickly became a leader and role model in the firm, and in 1999, he became the premier recipient of the UDA Traveling Fellowship honoring his high caliber of professional accomplishment.

Stefan has a Bachelor of Architecture magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley his research study on the morphological development of Oakland, California, “Rebuilding the Structure of the Inner City: A Strategy for the Repair of Downtown Oakland,” co-authored by Peter Bosselmann, was honored with an Urban Design Research award from the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism. His graduate work received further national honors in 2002 when the Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill Foundation named him recipient of the prestigious Urban Design Traveling Fellowship. The report (on his resulting six-month travels through nine countries in the Mediterranean Basin), “Changes, Reflections of Mediterranean Cities in Past and Present,” was published in 2003 by the Foundation.

He has retained an active relationship with many Bay Area design schools, has taught urban design and architecture studios, and often sits on design juries. Most recently, Stefan took a contingent of Berkeley graduate students to Oaxaca, Mexico, for an international design studio in June of 2005.

Stefan has lived in South Bend, Indiana; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Rome and Florence, Italy, and is fluent in French and Italian.