“Great use of daylight design, unusual design raises the bar on housing. Noise mitigation excellent. ‘Brilliant floor plan.’ Nice use of color and defensible space.
— AIA Santa Clara Valley Design Awards Jury
“What made Quigley’s building more than just a structure? Not the spaces created for its functions or the meeting of construction code demands and budget requirements but the creativity and intelligence that allow the center to reflect and improve upon the neighborhood around it.
— Alan Hess,
San Jose Mercury News
“The inventive design radiates tremendous energy and vibrancy.
— Alan Hess,
San Jose Mercury News
“Quigley recognized the design opportunity presented by the heritage oak. Good architecture is never mechanical or formulaic, even if most buildings seem to imply it’s both. Good architecture takes advantage of quirky opportunities to create great spaces.”
— Alan Hess,
San Jose Mercury News
“Quigley strongly feels that in California the opportunity to create a more authentic built environment may lie in the struggle to weave an architecture of cultural diversity. The real Arcadian Dream will not be a blending, but a colorful, distinct collage of dislocation. He is interested in a celebration of local architecture as a form of regionalism, understood not as an end in itself but as a means of transcending provincialism and enriching cultural reality. Rather than subvert the conventional Californian ways of building and detailing, Quigley tries to embrace and co-opt the status quo in order to explore the utilitarian vernacular and its intriguing possibilities as a noble and even civic architecture. Quigley tries to embrace and co-opt the status quo in order to explore the utilitarian vernacular and its intriguing possibilities as a noble and even civic architecture.”
— Aaron Bensky,
BEYOND ARCHITECTURAL BUILDING
“In reviewing the West Valley Library, San Jose Mercury News architectural critic Alan Hess described it as “nothing short of brilliant. It is everything that great public architecture ought to be: a blend of present and past, practicality and art, all tied together in a package of extraordinary wit, sensitivity and pleasure…… It’s a design that points the way to a distinctive architecture that captures the essence of our region: the balmy climate, the rich history, the creativity, the progressive lifestyles. And there’s not a cliche in sight.”
— ALAN HESS,
CALIFORNIA ARCHITECTURE
“As San Jose’s first development with a living roof, the project acts as a prototype and educational resource for other municipalities, developers and communities. Casa Feliz has been a model for incorporating water conservation features in affordable housing.”
— Jeff Oberdorfer,
First Community Housing
“The 202 Island Inn single-room-occupancy hotel provides low-cost housing for singles that respects the dignity of its occupants. Without being contrived or forced and without literally replicating surrounding building types, this project integrates itself well within its immediate urban context.”
— Jury Comment,
AIA Honor Award
“Quigley balanced picturesqueness with a modern solution sensitive to social needs.”
— Jury Comment,
AIA Honor Award
“A unique housing concept executed with flair and dignity, yet on a minimal budget.”
— Jury Comment,
AIA Honor Award
“Within strict budget constraints, Quigley was able to incorporate touches that alleviate some of the severity inherent in this building type. Every square inch of the units is efficiently used. Altogether, the results demonstrate that an impoverished budget need not limit design.”
— Progressive Architecture Magazine
“The reigning champion of local library architecture remains San Jose’s superbly realized West Valley Branch Library. Rob Quigley’s tour de force channels an appropriate liveliness with a reassuringly sunny, comfortable space.”
— Alan Hess,
San Jose Mercury News
“Quigley creates in the tradition of California’s Spanish-revival mission style, building on a foundation of standardized construction methods and collective imagery developed in tandem with these methods. This does not mean that he merely employs a particular aesthetic, but rather that he picks up on a particular warping of styles to create forms that are logical and relevant and so reveal their history and place.”
— Aaron Betsky,
Rizzoli monograph
, Buildings + Projects
“Quigley’s work moves towards a regional architecture, proud of being southern Californian and reaching towards a unity flowing out of the culture, the climate, the people, the history.”
— San diego magazine
“Quigley… is alone in taking the youthful spirit of sunny southern California and making it the basis for a new style of architecture.”
— Esquire Magazine
, “In Search of the Best of a Generation”
“… Quigley cares about joy. He sets out to satisfy clients’ architectural needs, just the way every other good architect does, but he also infuses his work with joy –– a quality that definitely is not found in the work of every other good architect.”
— John Dreyfuss,
Los Angeles Times
“Architect Rob Wellington Quigley’s new West Valley Branch Library is nothing short of brilliant.”
“It is everything that great public architecture ought to be: a blend of present and past, practicality and art, all tied together in a package of extraordinary wit, sensitivity and pleasure.”
“It’s a design that points the way to a distinctive architecture that captures the essence of our region: the balmy climate, the rich history, the creativity, the progressive lifestyles. And there’s not a cliché in sight.”
“If more buildings adopted this library’s approach, we would achieve a true architecture for Silicon Valley.”
"The reigning champion of local library architecture remains San José’s superbly realized West Valley Branch Library. Rob Quigley’s tour de force channels an appropriate liveliness with a reassuringly sunny, comfortable space."
“Its design may be rigorously economical, but it uses creativity and imagination lavishly.”
“The ingenuity in this small building’s design stands as a model that we ought to see across the valley. Quigley is one of the most daring and thoughtful of current California architects exploring these themes in a wide range of buildings. His forms and materials and shapes are drawn from California’s vernacular, natural and cultural landscapes, and they are rendered by a sensitivity to line and proportion.”
“The Sun Field Station is a subtle and carefully modulated design. It does not boast. The design must juggle many conflicting factors, including its green elements, its site and its research and education functions. It could have been a mish-mash. But the architect steers the complicated design to a fundamental clarity.”