​John Howland
Architect, LEED AP

John Howland is an architect, designer, and contractor based in Northern California.  His offices in  San Francisco's East Bay Area and the Sonoma Coast  specialize in public and commercial architectural design and tenant improvements. ​

John Howland is a graduate of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo's renowned architectural school. He has over 35 years of experience in commercial and public building design, master planning, and construction documents and management. He has earned acclaim for creative solutions in adaptive reuse of existing structures, as well as elegant new designs that serve both the aesthetic tastes and functional needs of the client. He is at his best when confronting uniquely challenging projects.

John Howland's long record of successful professional accomplishments and his many contacts in private, public, and governmental agencies can help speed your project along to meet budgetary and scheduling targets.

Braulio Soto
​Architect, AIA

​Braulio grew up in the Napa Valley and received his undergraduate degree in Architecture with a Minor in City and Regional Planning from U.C. Berkeley. Prior to graduation he completed a summer internship under John Howland at an East Bay firm, and worked there as an architect for several years after graduating.  
 
Later Braulio opted to continue his education by earning an M.A at the University of Illinois where he joined the Urban Research Lab, participated in the Rotch Traveling Studio in Japan, and was selected for the Technical University of Munich exchange program.
 
After returning to the Bay Area Braulio worked for architectural firms specializing in single-family residential design and later government and community projects. Braulio is fascinated by technical details involved with digital design tools, fabrication equipment, practical construction, and vice versa. His wide-ranging experience includes collaborating with artist Adam Feibelman to translate hand cut paper cut stencils into a 4-story load bearing steel guardrail that was waterjet cut and the 173’ lineal feet long x 7’ high (average) laser cut Pathways sculpture at San Francisco’s Chase Center. 
 
When not in the office, Braulio can be found hiking, kayaking or cycling in the East Bay as well as engaged in house improvement projects.

Hannah Clayborn
​Historian

Hannah Clayborn serves as historical consultant to John Howland Architects. She is a published historian and retired history museum professional with a half century of experience  conducting historical research throughout California. She earned  two undergraduate degrees in anthropology and psychology from Sonoma State University. While working full time in regional history museums she completed a master’s degree in history.

Hannah began as a curatorial technician with California State Historical Parks, cataloging, researching, and documenting the collections at Jack London SHP, Petaluma Adobe SHP, Sonoma Mission, and the Toscano Hotel. As the executive director of the Healdsburg Museum, she  led a fundraising campaign to restore a 1910 Carnegie Library to house the museum collection, and managed funding and execution of one of the largest Cultural Resource Surveys of historic architecture in California at the time. She served as the executive director of three more northern California history museums before retiring to historical publishing.

​As an editor for Arcadia Publishing she solicited and managed 110 pictorial histories of California cities, institutions and architecture. She has also published four of her own works on California historical subjects