Karen Murray

As a partner at Van Meter Williams Pollack, Karen provides firm-wide leadership and direction for projects ranging in scale from the neighborhood to the individual building. Her unique blend of architecture and urban design skills allows her to act as a bridge between the two disciplines, providing implementable design solutions, feasibility studies and prototypical building design for many of the firm’s projects. 

Karen is adept at navigating the complex jurisdictional processes that urban master plans require and is currently leading the Balboa Reservoir Master Plan, a 17 acre, 1100-unit Master Plan in San Francisco.  She also led the Sunnydale HOPE SF project, a 50-acre, 1,685-unit mixed-use and mixed-income redevelopment of San Francisco’s largest public housing site. 

On the architectural side, Karen focuses on urban infill housing and mixed-use developments. She is currently leading a 71-unit, 9 story affordable housing project on a former parking lot at 180 Jones Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district and has recently completed 2175 Market Street a compact 88-unit mixed-use development with a rooftop terrace and retail hall also in San Francisco.  

Ms. Murray’s previous experience involves both institutional and private projects in Washington, DC including the National Children’s Center, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, lab and classroom buildings for the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech and a variety of office and residential projects.  Preservation and adaptive reuse projects include Henrico County Cultural Arts Center, a turn of the century elementary school conversion and Eastern Market, preservation and documentation of the last open-air farmers market in Washington, DC.