Team
James Albert
Designer
Jamey grew up in the heart of the Midwest near Kansas City, Kansas before making the leap to Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo for his Bachelor of Architecture degree. For his thesis project, he put his creative energies into studying large-scale residential design strategies that best cultivate health and wellbeing. As an athlete who is just as likely to pick up a basketball game as go mountain climbing, Jamey is always on the lookout in his new hometown of San Francisco for spots for a relaxing read and a good workout in the sun.
Camilla Blomqvist
Interiors Associate
A Swedish native, Camilla brings to Gast Architects a love of contemporary architecture and a great skill in honing the poetic language of color and materials. A globetrotter at heart, she spent 17 years in Hawaii before moving to San Francisco. When she’s not designing, she can be found foraging for mushrooms.
Dennis Budd
Principal
Dennis is a well-rounded designer and project architect at Gast Architects who holds Architecture and English degrees from Tulane. Before even having his New Jersey driver’s license, he worked summers learning the ropes of various construction trades, and subsequently as a building contractor prior to practice as an architect. He built a family house, a childhood dream and personal laboratory of contemporary expression, here in San Francisco.
Peter Diune
Senior Associate
Peter is inspired and influenced by the transformation of natural materials through thoughtful detailing and building technology processes. In addition to his role as a designer, Peter leads our team in ArchiCAD education and development. He is actively involved in the design and construction of parklets throughout San Francisco.
Matthew De Mott
Architect
Matthew was born and raised in Minnesota, where he started his career in finance before finding his true calling in architecture. While pursuing his M.Arch degree with a focus on sustainable design from the University of Oregon, he fell in love with the beauty and lifestyle of the west coast. He is passionate about modern design and shaping highly functional and intuitive spaces that have a positive emotional impact. In his free time, Matthew enjoys hiking nearby trails, visiting farmer’s markets, baking bread, making pottery, and spending time with his daughter.
David Gast
Founding Principal
David came out to California from the East Coast to attend college, moved to San Francisco after graduation, and has been trying to achieve native status ever since. After a decade of experience with the Community Design Center and local architectural firms, four years as a carpenter and general contractor, and an apprenticeship to a furniture maker, David launched Gast Architects in 1980. When not engaged in our work, David enjoys spending time with his partner, Elena; his three children and two grandkids; and kayaking, hiking, and exploring the City.
Eric Hartz
Principal
Inspired by the work of Eliel Saarinen at Cranbrook in Michigan, Eric studied architecture at U of M – Ann Arbor and Rice University. After ten years of public and academic library planning and design in Michigan, he changed gears, moved to Alameda, and joined Gast Architects as Director of Operations. Eric enjoys the practice of being mindful while balancing numerous activities. He spends time on weekends singing, doing car repairs, and tending his vegetable garden.
Lee Kempf
Office Manager
Lee thoroughly enjoys her role as Office Manager supporting both our clients and our team in an ongoing effort to keep the office and its projects running smoothly. In her free time she enjoys volunteer work, gardening, and traveling with her family.
Priscilla Ng
Architect
After growing up two blocks from Ocean Beach, Priscilla didn’t have to travel far to get her architecture degree at California College of the Arts. While interning at two small San Francisco design firms, she decided to concentrate on high-end, custom residential projects. Priscilla has a strong interest in the relationship between the scale of the human body and architectural spaces. When she’s not scouting out new territories in Science Fiction, Priscilla enjoys searching for new coffee and food locales in the city.
John Oliver
Principal
John has followed his passion for architectural design, fine detailing, technology, project management and pleasing clients for more than 40 years. Early on, he worked for several prominent architects and had his own San Francisco office for more than a decade. He joined Gast Architects in 1996 and serves as Principal, mentor, and technical backstop while subjecting colleagues to his special form of dry humor and quiet enthusiasm. He is an avid black and white large format photographer, backpacker, traveler and researcher with a keen interest in the architecture and culture of ancient civilizations. After living 40 years in San Francisco, he and his wife Ronnie now live in San Rafael.
Shireen Teheranian
Architect
Growing up in the Bay Area, Shireen has enjoyed designing and creating from a young age. As part of her Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo degree, she spent a year studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark where she was joyfully immersed in the rich environment of architecture and design in Scandinavia. A self-taught jeweler and explorer of media from metal-smithing and stained-glass to ceramics, Shireen enjoys bringing her love of craft into all of her design work.
Matt Williams
Principal
Matt joined the Gast senior design team in 2018. He has lived in all 4 corners of the US, first growing up in Miami and then getting an architecture degree from Cornell. The grunge years were spent managing construction in Seattle, followed by design/build in Montana, and design in New York. In SF since 1999, Matt has been designing and, importantly, getting custom modern residential projects built as the right-hand man in a well-regarded SF firm. He brings more than three decades of design and project management expertise to our team. Matt is also Chair of the Strawberry Design Review Board. He lives in Mill Valley raising three kids with his professional photographer / painter wife. Matt loves hiking and camping while his kids would say they do not.