DLR Group in downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter operates a 40-person studio at 770 First Avenue focused on K-12 and higher-education design within a 100-percent employee-owned global firm founded in 1966. The studio's integrated architecture-engineering delivery model — bundling structural, mechanical, and interior design under one roof — shares the downtown institutional-design corridor with AECOM San Diego, both advancing large-scale public-facility commissions requiring multi-discipline coordination. DLR Group strengthened its Southern California education practice in 2021 by acquiring San Diego-based BakerNowicki Design Studio, adding specialized K-12 funding expertise and Division of the State Architect plan-check experience to the local office. As an early signatory to the AIA 2030 Commitment and the Architecture 2030 Challenge, the studio embeds net-zero-carbon performance targets into campus master plans, a sustainability framework that extends to site-level grading and stormwater work coordinated with Estrada Land Planning on education-campus projects. The San Diego portfolio's most prominent delivery is the Del Mar Heights School replacement, a K-6 campus perched on coastal bluffs with learning villages grouped by grade level and indoor-outdoor classroom experiences connected to the surrounding nature preserve.