Jeff Shelton

Architect & Designer

I grew up at the base of the Santa Ynez mountains in Santa Barbara, in what had been an early 1900’s boarding school. My family lived in a Library, an Infirmary and in classrooms. I didn’t live in a building designed to be a house until college.

In the hills above our paradise of old school buildings was the Mountain Drive community, where residents were building homes out of adobe, used lumber, wine bottles and ferro cement. One of the founding residents was Architect and Philosopher Frank Robinson, who became my mentor. When I graduated from Architecture School at the University of Arizona in Tucson, I worked for Frank, who taught me much of what I know about architecture.

I worked in downtown Los Angeles for ten years, which gave me experience in how to approach projects, as well as the difficult situations that arise during the process of designing and constructing buildings. I spent a few years with Brenda Levin and Associates where I worked on the Bradbury Building, Grand Central Market, Traveltown in Griffith Park, and the DWP Pumping Station in Elysian Park.

In 1994, I returned to Santa Barbara with my wife and two daughters, and opened up a temporary 100 square foot office on Victoria Street. I’d been there a week, and was still setting up my drafting table, when Dan Upton and Leon Olson showed up and offered me a project on Laguna Street. I’ve since designed five projects with Dan and Leon, and built over fifty buildings with Dan and his crew of friends, including a group in buildings in downtown Santa Barbara where I’ve had the pleasure and challenge of working within the city’s Spanish/Moorish guidelines.