Curriculum Vitae
Robert I. Schwartz AIA, has been President of Schwartz/Robert & Associates, Inc. and its predecessor company, Schwartz, Romano & Associates, Inc. (“SRA”) since the incorporation of the latter company in 1991. A licensed California Architect (No. C-14545) and General Contractor, (Class B-1, No. 417412), Mr. Schwartz was first admitted as a member of the American Institute of Architects (“AIA”) in 1984.
Mr. Schwartz completed his undergraduate education in only three years, graduating (with both Academic Major and Special College Honors) from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1972. Mr. Schwartz then began his professional education at the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA in 1973. In 1974 he was elected President of UCLA Graduate Fine Arts Council and later served as an elected Senator to the Graduate Student's Association. In 1976 Mr. Schwartz received a National Academy of Sciences Research Fellowship for studies in seismic engineering conducted under the direction of Professor Samuel Aroni, S.E., Ph.D.
Mr. Schwartz completed his professional studies in 1977 and began his architectural working career as a draftsman for a succession of firms including Van Tilburg Associates, Ebbe Viedricksen Associates AIA, and Robbins & Bown, Inc. (where he was the job captain for many large Type V residential condominium projects). Later joining the firm of Martin Stern & Associates, Inc., he became a supervisory job captain responsible for coordinating the preparation of construction documents for numerous large Type I high-rise office buildings and major casino hotels (including the Playboy Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the MGM (now Sierra) Grand Hotel in Reno, Nevada). Mr. Schwartz subsequently returned to UCLA to complete his graduate thesis and was awarded a professional Master of Architecture degree in 1980.
In 1981 Mr. Schwartz was hired as Construction Administrator (department chief) for the Los Angeles headquarters office of the 3,500-man internationally-known design firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (“DMJM”). In this capacity Mr. Schwartz was directly responsible for overseeing the successful construction administration of many large, notable, and highly complex institutional, medical, research, industrial, commercial and classified defense projects having a total aggregate value of several billion dollars. These projects included, but were not limited to, the Rockwell International Science Center II Building in thousand Oaks CA, the main Hertz car rental facility at LAX, the Bullocks Central Office Facility in downtown Los Angeles, the Encino Terrace Office Building, the American Presidents Line (“APL”) Intermodal Transportation Complex in the Port of Los Angeles, the Veterans Administration 'Center Core Building' in Palo Alto CA and the American Bell MUX Main Switching Center in downtown Los Angeles. In 1983 Mr. Schwartz received a personal commendation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for critical support work performed at Vandenberg AFB on behalf of the U.S. Air Force Space Shuttle program. Also in 1983, Mr. Schwartz was promoted internally to the position of Corporate Contracts Administrator, and he received supplementary legal training as a Certified Government Contracts Administrator. During his tenure at DMJM Mr. Schwartz authored a standard manual on the proper application of “fast-track” project scheduling techniques.
In 1984 Mr. Schwartz became Vice President of Gross Enterprises, a privately held Los Angeles real estate development company. In addition to other new residential and hotel redevelopment projects, Mr. Schwartz was the executive-in-charge of the successful design and construction of the award-winning six-story granite clad 375,000 SF Encino Executive Plaza office complex located at Ventura Blvd. and Hayvenhurst Avenue.
In 1985 Mr. Schwartz became a Senior Project Development Manager for Tishman West Management Corporation. In this capacity, Mr. Schwartz was the executive-in-charge of the successful development of the 135,000 SF “Westwood Terrace” Office Building and the design and construction of the UCLA Hospital Main Computer Center, the Zenith Insurance Corporation headquarters in Warner Center CA and the Calfarm Insurance Company headquarters in Sacramento CA, among other notable projects. Mr. Schwartz was also the author of major feasibility and site selection studies conducted on behalf of Texaco Corporation, Twentieth Century Insurance Co., Transamerica Corporation and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
In 1987 Mr. Schwartz was retained by Breslow Development Corporation, (a subsidiary of Goldrich & Kest, Inc.) to serve as the developer-builder's onsite Project Construction Manager / Owner's Representative for the construction of the landmark 128 unit / 29 story ultra-luxury “Blair House” condominium project located on Wilshire Boulevard at Warner Avenue in West Los Angeles.
In late 1989 Mr. Schwartz was recruited by Raleigh Enterprises, a privately held Los Angeles holding company with extensive real estate interests, to become its Vice President for Real Property Development. Among other corporate assignments Mr. Schwartz was executive-in-charge of the pre-development of the 32-unit / 22-story “Club View” ultra-luxury condominium project expected to have been constructed upon a Wilshire Boulevard site overlooking the Los Angeles Country Club and for major renovations at the historic Raleigh Studios movie production facility in Hollywood, CA.
In 1991 Mr. Schwartz founded Schwartz, Romano & Associates, Inc. Upon the 2004 retirement of his co-principal partner Mr. Schwartz continued in business under a new corporation, Schwartz/Robert & Associates, Inc. Since 1991 Mr. Schwartz has maintained an active and varied professional practice as an executive Architect, Development Consultant and Construction Manager. He has also been the key expert in over 250 investigative assignments concerning a variety of real-property issues: design errors & omissions, construction defects, code conformance, contract compliance, capital improvement budgeting , cost estimating, scheduling, major insurance claims settlements, pre-acquisition due-diligence and the 'turnaround' of distressed assets. These professional activities often involve the provision of litigation technical support services to attorneys and occasional expert sworn testimony during deposition or trial. Mr. Schwartz is also highly skilled in the preparation and presentation of effective trial exhibits, both financial and graphic.
During the 1990's Mr. Schwartz was a volunteer COES Structural Safety Assessor for post-seismic event damage evaluation of both low-rise and high-rise structures. Immediately following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Mr. Schwartz represented the AIA at public informational hearings called by the Los Angeles City Council and appeared as a guest speaker on the cable TV “Recovery Channel”. In addition to conducting over twenty major building post-earthquake structural damage assessments, Mr. Schwartz provided orientation briefings for the California Office of Emergency Services (“COES”) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
For over a decade Mr. Schwartz served as an active panelist-member of the National Board of Arbiters of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) and he was later designated as one of four “industry expert” members of the Los Angeles Regional AAA'a elite Large & Complex Case Panel, specializing in the arbitration & mediation of major property loss, design and construction disputes. He has also served as a contract Arbitrator on behalf of the California Contractor's State License Board. In 1996 Mr. Schwartz completed extensive service as one of three members of an Expert Panel established to investigate and resolve (by an alternative dispute resolution modality) all legal claims for physical damages caused to the landmark National Historic Register “Wiltern Theater” complex associated with adjacent Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority “METRORAIL” subway construction.
Mr. Schwartz is the author of several published articles concerning construction and property management and he has served as a guest lecturer at both the University of Southern California's Lusk Graduate Center for Real Estate and Ventura Community College.
In 2006 Mr. Schwartz completed 18 months of professional service to Citadel Storage LLC as their on-site Executive Construction Manager for the $6.1MM new construction of a group of three large two-story concrete masonry commercial self-storage buildings totaling 78,000 SF; a major expansion of the original Hollywood Storage Center complex in Newbury Park, CA.
In November of 2007 Mr. Schwartz completed several years of professional service to Bellevue Ventures LLC as its Executive Project Manager for development of a new urban prototype supermarket for Whole Foods Markets in Pasadena CA; a complex and highly successful $27MM hard cost project that has received multiple awards for technical innovation. This project included the construction of a two-level 73,000 GSV steel frame market building on top of a three-level 123,000 SF long-span pre-stressed/precast concrete underground parking structure.
Mr. Schwartz is currently serving as Executive Project Manager for owner Cross Creek Ventures LLC as plans are underway for development of a new high-quality lifestyle retail center (including another Whole Foods Market) to be constructed in 2009 upon a 6.75 acre parcel in the commercial center of Malibu, California.
Mr. Schwartz devotes his non-working time to his wife (a credentialed mathematics teacher) and their three children (an accomplished flutist, oboist and pianist/double-bassist respectively). He is an ardent advocate for early musical education and is a past Board President of the New West Youth Symphony Orchestra.