Founding Principal
Charles Kahn’s desire to connect with people drives everything he does in architecture. As founding principal of Studio KDA, he relishes brainstorming and problem-solving with the studio’s team, and he measures a project’s success by whether it draws people together — into a favorite restaurant, an outdoor plaza that becomes a neighborhood’s living room, or a housing development that turns strangers into neighbors. That instinct has shaped the practice’s focus from the start: places where people eat, shop, live, and work are, in Charles’s view, simply the places where community actually happens.
An outspoken advocate on issues of housing development, Charles brings decades of hands-on experience navigating the entitlement process to every project the studio takes on. He is a former Chairman of the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board, a current member of the Berkeley Planning Commission, and a member of the Urban Land Institute. He also hosts a periodic Developer’s Roundtable, convening the local development community to discuss the issues shaping the future of housing in the East Bay.
When he isn’t at Studio KDA, Charles can be found painting or out dancing, at dinner, or at the theatre — most often with the people he loves most: his wife, Laurie; their three dogs; and a wide circle of family and friends. Charles holds a B.A. from Harvard and a Master of Architecture from U.C. Berkeley.