Founded in 1992 as Ziebarth Associates and listed in The Blue Book since 1994, ZAAP Architecture and Planning runs a commercial-focused practice from Fourth Avenue in Hillcrest covering architecture, land-use planning, and environmental and governmental review services. Built work includes a ground-up Popeyes restaurant, a 7,782-square-foot multi-tenant retail and food pad at Jamacha Road and Main Street in El Cajon, and a 2-story multi-tenant retail and office building — commercial entitlement and construction-document scopes that parallel the urban-infill architecture practice at Di Donato Associates. The founding principal holds degrees in Accounting, History, and a Masters in Architecture and spent two years designing primary and secondary schools in Benin, West Africa through the US Peace Corps before establishing the San Diego office. Tenant-improvement and ground-up scopes regularly require general contractors equipped for shell construction alongside interior build-out packages, a delivery channel shared with commercial general contractors such as Southwest Builders. The most complex project type on the firm's boards converts existing buildings into new commercial programs — for example, a former steakhouse-and-donut-shop shell reworked into a boutique market through coordinated demolition, envelope remodel, and tenant-improvement documentation delivered as a single permit package.