WHO WE ARE

Backen & Backen ARCHITECTURE | LIFESTYLE | WELLBEING (formally Backen & Gillam Architects) is an award-winning architectural design firm with a focus on Regenerative Design for LAND | BODY | BUILDING. The firm has four offices located in Montecito, Los Angeles, Sausalito, and in Saint Helena. Owners Ann & Howard Backen, who work side by side, with the firm’s five Principals and 80 employees, bring a wide range of experience to Backen & Backen’s projects. Through collaborative experience and expertise, the firm provides its clients with the very best in design and project management. As a firm, we offer master planning, programming, and full architectural services for residential, commercial, hospitality, and retail with an emphasis on holistic design and stewardship of the land. In the twenty-six years since its opening, the firm has designed over 300 upscale homes, 60 wineries, seven major resorts, 40 restaurants, a new line of retail stores for RH (formerly Restoration Hardware), a private 2,000-acre hospitality venue with a sustainable organic farm and equestrian center, The Farmhouse at Ojai Valley Inn (a culinary events venue), and The Napa Valley Reserve (a private members-only vineyard and winery which has approximately 400 members). In addition to being featured in numerous publications, many of the firm’s projects have earned coveted design industry awards, including Hospitality Design Magazine’s Best “Green” Design, First Honor Awards from AIA/Housing Magazine, and the Presidential Award for Design Excellence. For over a decade, the firm has been featured as one of the top 100 Architects in Architectural Digest and one of the top 30 in the Robb Report. In 2013, Rizzoli Inc published the monograph From The Land, which has since become a bestselling architecture book.