MK · Architecture
34.1107° N · 118.1502° W

Manasi
Kshirsagar

Architectural Designer LEED BD+C Practicing in California · Est. 2018
Selected Works · 2018 — 2026
Begin
00  ·  Manifesto

A short note on the work, written in the same spirit it’s drawn.

Architecture, for me, is a quiet act of precision. A drawing set is not a deliverable—it is a conversation,  repeated,  refined,  until the building is already built on paper. Eight years between the line and the wall—between the consultant call and the final stamp—have taught me that the most beautiful buildings are the ones that are first most clearly understood.

01  ·  Selected works

Drawn,  detailed,
built.

A curated set of recent commissions across luxury residential, biotech laboratories, and commercial interiors—led from schematic design through permit and construction.

Plan · Site 5 m N
01Residential · in progress

Hillside Residence

A luxury single-family home on a south-facing slope, drawn from a legacy schematic into a fully coordinated, permittable set. The work involved establishing graphic standards from scratch, modernising a PowerCADD legacy into AutoCAD, and shepherding the documentation through city submittal, plan-check, and revisions.

Location
South Pasadena, CA
Year
2022 — Present
Role
Lead Designer of Record (Documentation)
Studio
Susan Masterman Architects
Phase
SD · DD · CD · Permit
Tools
AutoCAD · PowerCADD · Morpholio
Axon · Lab 2 m X Z Y
02Laboratory · TI · Built

Biotech & Chemistry Laboratory

A series of laboratory tenant improvements for life-sciences and chemistry tenants in Silicon Valley. Revit BIM models from schematic through construction, coordinated with structural, MEP, and specialty lab consultants—balancing rigorous code compliance with the choreography of fume hoods, gas lines, and bench layouts.

Location
Mountain View / Bay Area, CA
Year
2018 — 2022
Role
Junior Designer · BIM Coordination
Studio
CAS Architects
Phase
SD → CD → CA
Tools
Revit · AutoCAD · Photoshop
Section 1 m ±00.00 GROUND +04.20 LEVEL 02 +08.40 LEVEL 03 +12.80 ROOF
03Commercial · Office TI · Built

Office Tenant Improvements

Multi-floor commercial office build-outs across Silicon Valley campuses. Delivered Revit-based construction documents and coordinated multi-disciplinary teams—structural, MEP, IT, AV—to maintain documentation integrity through value engineering and field changes.

Location
Bay Area, CA
Year
2018 — 2022
Role
Junior Designer
Studio
CAS Architects
Phase
SD → CA
Tools
Revit · AutoCAD
Plan · Interior 1 m LIVING KITCHEN · DINING BEDROOM 02 PRIMARY
04Interior · Residential

Interior Compositions

Layout studies and interior presentation packages developed for high-end residential clients. Iterative drawings produced in PowerCADD and Morpholio Trace, refined through Adobe Suite for client-facing presentation—each plan a careful negotiation of light, sightlines, and the geometry of daily life.

Type
Interior Architecture
Year
2023 — 2025
Role
Designer
Output
Plans · Layouts · Presentation
Tools
PowerCADD · Morpholio Trace
Output
InDesign · Photoshop
Sketch · Field — double-hung entry · 0.0 FIELD MEASURE · 06.2017 CHINO · CA
05Survey · Sketch · Early Practice

Field Measure

An early study in looking. A summer of measured exterior and interior hand sketches—the kind of slow, attentive work that becomes the substrate for everything that follows. Drafted before drawing programs were ever opened, in pencil, from a tape and a level.

Location
Chino, CA
Year
2017
Role
Design Intern
Studio
Design Concepts
Output
Hand sketches · Site documentation
Tools
Pencil · Tape · Patience
02  ·  Practice

A working method.

Built on eight years of documentation discipline—part draftsperson, part editor, part diplomat with the city. Below, the working tools.

Design & Documentation

  • Construction Documentation
  • Plans · Sections · Elevations
  • BIM Coordination
  • Drawing Set Standards · QA / QC
  • Permit & Plan-Check Submittals
  • Code Research & Due Diligence
  • Construction Administration Support

Project Delivery

  • Schematic DesignSD
  • Design DevelopmentDD
  • Construction DocumentsCD
  • Construction AdministrationCA
  • Consultant CoordinationSTR · MEP
  • Client Presentations
  • Sheet & Documentation Standards

Sectors & Tools

  • Luxury Single-Family Residential
  • Biotech & Chemistry Laboratories
  • Commercial Office & Tenant Improvements
  • Revit · AutoCAD · PowerCADD
  • Rhino · SketchUp · Morpholio
  • Adobe Illustrator · InDesign · Photoshop
  • LEED BD+C accreditedUSGBC
03  ·  Recognition

A small ledger.

Education, accreditation, and a few honours along the way.

2026
Architecture License — California
In progress · AXP & ARE
Credential
2024
LEED BD+C
U.S. Green Building Council
Accreditation
2018
Bachelor of Architecture
California College of the Arts · San Francisco
Degree · NAAB
2017
George Frederick Jewett Foundation Scholarship
Awarded for excellence in architectural studies
Honour
2013
California College of the Arts Merit Scholarship
Awarded on entry
Honour
04  ·  Monograph

The full book.

A printable, page-turning portfolio of selected projects, drawings, and process. Read in full below, or download the monograph for offline review.

MK Architecture Portfolio

An ongoing edit of selected works—construction documentation, design development, presentation drawings, and process sketches—maintained as a single bound document. The book mirrors the way I work: in sets, in revisions, with versions.

Open on Issuu
05  ·  Connect

Open to collaborations, consulting briefs, and conversations about the work.

Let’s draw something.

Email manasi.bk@gmail.com Telephone (408) 368-3006
Studio South Pasadena, California
Portfolio Issuu · MK Architecture
Availability Selectively · 2026 — 2027