42 WEST FACULTY STREET, THOUSAND OAKS  CA 91360               

CELLPHONE:  805/796-9092                                                                        E-MAIL: risoakpark@aol.com

CURRICULUM VITAE

Robert I. Schwartz AIA, has been President of Schwartz/Robert & Associates, Inc. and its predecessor, Schwartz, Romano & Associates, Inc. ("SRA") since the initial incorporation of the latter company in early 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.

In-between working summers as a shipyard welder and draftsman, Mr. Schwartz completed his undergraduate education in only three years, graduating (with both Academic Major Honors and Special College Honors) from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1972. Mr. Schwartz then began his professional education at the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Planning at UCLA in 1973. In 1974 he was elected President of the UCLA Graduate Fine Arts Council and later served as an elected Senator to the UCLA 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 design firms including Van Tilburg Associates, Ebbe Viedricksen Associates AIA, and Robbins & Bown, Inc. (where he was the lead design draftsman for many large Type V residential condominium projects). Later joining the firm of Martin Stern & Associates, Inc., he became a supervisory Job Captain coordinating the preparation of construction documentation for 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 appointed Construction Administrator (department chief) for the Los Angeles headquarters office of the 3,500-man international facilities design firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson and 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 in excess of two 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 (Container Freight) Transportation Complex in the Port of Los Angeles, the Orange County Transit District (OCTD) main vehicle service facility, the United States Postal Service (USPS) primary mail sorting center in Long Beach, 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 at DMJM 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 re-development projects, Mr. Schwartz was the executive-in-charge of the successful design and construction of the award-winning six-story granite-clad 175,000 sf Encino Executive Plaza office complex located at 16501 Ventura Blvd. at 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 at 1640 Sepulveda Boulevard and the design and construction of the UCLA Hospital Main Computer Center at 10880 Wilshire Boulevard, the Zenith Insurance Corporation headquarters on Califa Street in Warner Center and the Calfarm Insurance Company headquarters in Sacramento CA, among other significant projects. During that same period Mr. Schwartz was also the author of major project feasibility and site selection studies conducted on behalf of Texaco Corporation, Twentieth Century Insurance Company, 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 that developer-builder's onsite Project Construction Manager / Owner's Representative  in direct charge of the construction of the landmark $84MM, 128 unit / 29 story ultra-luxury "Blair House" condominium project located on Wilshire Boulevard at Warner Avenue in West Los Angeles.

In 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 design, public agency approval and pre-development of the 32-unit / 22-story "Club View" ultra-luxury condominium project at Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock Avenue, renovations to the Westwood Marquis Hotel and major additions to the historic Raleigh Studios movie production facility, among other projects.

Immediately following the 1994 Northridge California 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 of both low-rise and high-rise structures while acting as a registered Deputy Inspector for the State of California Office of Emergency Services, Mr. Schwartz also conducted orientation briefings for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Directors from all regions outside of Southern California.

While maintaining an active and varied professional practice as both an Architect and Construction Manager since the founding of SRA, Mr. Schwartz has also been heavily occupied with numerous investigative assignments concerning such real-property issues as design errors & omissions, construction defects, code conformance, capital improvement budgeting, major insurance claims settlement, pre-acquisition due-diligence and seismic rehabilitation. He has been the lead investigator in well over 200 different project assessments. These professional activities often involve the provision of litigation technical support services to attorneys and occasional expert sworn testimony during deposition or trial. He is a recognized legal and insurance expert in the associated areas of real estate development, architectural design, professional standards of performance, building codes, construction and facility operations.

For over a decade Mr. Schwartz was an active panelist-member of the National Board of Arbiters of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and he served as one of four industry expert members of the Los Angeles Regional AAA's elite Large & Complex Case Panel, specializing in the arbitration & mediation of major property loss, design and construction disputes. He has also served as an 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 subway station construction.

While acting as Executive Construction Manager for owner/builder Citadel Storage LLC; in September 2006 Mr. Schwartz completed construction of three (3) each two-story consumer self-storage buildings in Newbury Park CA totaling 73,000 SF plus extensive site-work improvements  and having a total hard cost of $6.1 MM.

In September 2007 Mr. Schwartz completed service as Owner's Representative / Executive Project Manager for developer Bellevue Ventures LLC for construction of their new landmark 5-level, 281,000 SF/$27.3 MM Whole Foods Market facility on Arroyo Parkway at Bellevue Avenue in the City of Pasadena.

Mr. Schwartz devotes his non-working time to his wife (a credentialed mathematics teacher) and their three children (all graduates of the University of California and an accomplished flutist, oboist and pianist/bassist, respectively). He is an ardent advocate for early musical education and once served as Board President of the New West Youth Symphony Orchestra.  In his spare time Mr. Schwartz enjoys home carpentry, recreational readings in history and natural sciences and flying high-performance sailplanes.