Where
60 Gate 5 Road Unit D
Sausalito, CA 94963
When
October 10, 2025
12:45 pm – 5:00 pm
September 14, 2025 • Posted by Design Bay Area
Design Bay Area presents: Dynamic Minds Sausalito.
Diane Dorrans Saeks leads the intensely inspiring afternoon. We’ll enjoy the fresh-air-and-sunshine Sausalito scene, walking from one studio to the next. We’ll begin the tour with custom-crafted cocktails as we meet the designers, the architects, and learn how they work, their next projects, their process, and their inspirations.
The afternoon will end with a get-together/reception, where we meet the creative teams, and learn about their projects, their professional process, and their professional trajectories.
Meeting Location + Directions:
Parking & Directions Summary
- We will meet at: The Office of Charles de Lisle: 60 Gate 5 Road, Unit D, Sausalito, California, 94965
- Use Exit 445A (Marin City / Sausalito) off US-101
- From Bridgeway → left onto Marinship Way → right onto Gate 5 Rd → to Building 60 Unit D on right.
- Nearest public parking:
• Marina Office Plaza Lot (~302 spaces, 2-hour free)
• Marinship Park lot
• Lot #5 (3-hour free)
• Street / metered spaces (check signs)
About the Studios:
Luca Pignata and Luca Studio of Architecture
Luca Pignata, originally from Northern Italy, arrived in the Napa Valley three decades ago, and worked closely with architect Howard Backen for twenty five years. He opened his studio in Sausalito a year ago, along with associates and staff.
“To be an architect is to accept the challenge of shaping space, defining the elusive and giving form to an idea. Our objective is to create architecture with meaning and purpose, inspired by our clients, the location, culture, and environment.
We believe that the buildings we admire are the ones that celebrate values we consider important, and that the architect’s tools should be honesty, curiosity, passion, respect for the environment, creativity, and knowledge.”
– Luca Pignata
The Office of Charles de Lisle
The Office of Charles de Lisle is a multidisciplinary design firm whose projects focus on interior design, innovation, and execution of handmade custom furnishings, product design, and the decorative arts.
Says Charles de Lisle: “It is our belief that great design, combined with quality manufacturing, helps create lasting and unique environments. It is our goal to always broaden our perspectives, learn from our surroundings and create thoughtful, exceptionally detailed, interesting work. Our office’s award winning interior projects reach from California to Mexico City, Hawaii, Washington, Montana, Nova Scotia & New York.”
Studio Collins Weir
Susan Collins Weir and her husband, Chris Weir work closely with leading architects, builders, artists, and crafts specialists of all kinds. The studio draws on its principals’ background in architecture and art to infuse spaces with warmth, quiet confidence, technical precision and material richness.
Reflecting the history, site and individuality of each home, the studio collaborates with clients to craft welcoming spaces that come alive with color, textiles, objects and art. As makers themselves, the partners strong foundation in fields including studio art, art history, architecture and industrial design allows them meaningfully and creatively to express each client’s vision. The studio is widely recognized for its custom furnishings, professional craft and bespoke detailing so that a home comes together in a supportive, holistic environment.
About Diane Dorrans Saeks:
Diane Dorrans Saeks, a lifelong journalist and lecturer, has been presenting her in-studio design seminars for UC Berkeley, California College of the Arts, and San Francisco DESIGN WEEK for several decades .
She is the acclaimed author of 26 books on design, travel, interiors, and architecture and gardens. Diane is design editor for PAPERCITY magazine Dallas and Houston, and a founding editor for C magazine and Metropolitan Home, and writes for many other publications.
She has published best-selling design books with Rizzoli, Taschen and Chronicle Books
A lifelong arts advocate and a Francophile she lives in California and visits France as often as possible.
Photo courtesy of Luca Studio or Architecture