SCI-Arc Alumni Magazine #10 (Spring 2015)

SPRING 2015

1

HOW SCI-ARC WORKS Eric Owen Moss

3

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

5

FACULTY PROFILE: ERIC OWEN MOSS Benjamin J. Smith

15 CLASS NOTES

3

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

ABOUT PUBLIC PROGRAMS All events begin at 7pm unless otherwise noted. Lectures take place in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall.

UPCOMING

Lecture Series

HEATHER ROBERGE

November 4

The Lecture Series is broadcast live at sciarc.edu/live. Lectures are also archived for future viewing, and can be found online in the SCI-Arc Media Archive at sma.sciarc.edu.

The SCI-Arc Gallery is open daily from 10am–6pm. The Library Gallery is open Monday–Friday from 10am– 7pm and Saturday–Sunday from 12pm–6pm.

SCI-Arc exhibitions and public programs are made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.

SCI-Arc is located at 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. The building entrance and parking lot are located at 350 Merrick Street, between 4th Street and Traction Avenue.

SCI-Arc Public Programs are subject to change beyond our control. For the most current information, please visit sciarc.edu or call 213.613.2200.

To join SCI-Arc’s Public Programs email list, contact public_programs@ sciarc.edu.

SCI-Arc Gallery

En Pointe June 19 - August 2 June 19, 7pm: Opening Reception + Discussion with Heather Roberge and Eric Owen Moss

PERRY HALL Lecture Series

FABIAN MARCACCIO November 11

Schoolwide Exhibition

RECENT

September 11 - 13

TOD WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN

GRADUATE THESIS

Lecture Series

SCI-Arc Gallery

Being Specific January 14

September 18 - 23

Lecture Series

Symposium

Gamescapes January 21

SELECTED THESIS EXHIBITION NOW

September 25 - 26 SCI-Arc Gallery

ZVI HECKER

JOSE SANCHEZ SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

October 9 - November 29

Dynamic Raumplan January 23 - March 8

Lecture Series

Lecture Series

October 28

Snøhetta Works January 28

LIAM YOUNG

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Dynamic Raumplan

CRAIG DYKERS

4

SCI-Arc Library Gallery Exhibition

WHAT’S A GUGGENHEIM? January 30 - March 1 Lecture Series

CJ LIM Food City February 4

Lecture Series

GREGG PASQUARELLI

Never Ever Don’t: Why SHoP Breaks the Rules February 11 Lecture Series

HENK OVINK Design and Politics February 18 Lecture Series

RAIMUND ABRAHAM LECTURE: ERIC OWEN MOSS + FRANK GEHRY You Can’t Rehearse Something You Haven’t Invented Yet March 4

Frank Gehry + Eric Owen Moss You Can’t Rehearse Something You Haven’t Invented Yet

Symposium

BELMONT FREEMAN, EDUARDO LUIS RODRIGUEZ, HOLLY BLOCK + UNIVERSO GARCIA Havana, What’s Next?

March 13 Lecture Series

ERIC OWEN MOSS Not Fare Well but Fare Forward March 18 Lecture Series

MARCELYN GOW Tropes March 25

Lecture Series

HENRY N. COBB The Voice of Architecture April 1

SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition

HENRY N. COBB Hypostyle April 2 - May 17

Henry N. Cobb Hypostyle

5

AIMING ONWARD: A PROFILE ON ERIC OWEN MOSS Benjamin J. Smith

—You saw it visibly from your hidingplace?

—No. From my invisibly lyingplace.

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake No Matter what instruments he uses, at some point he reaches the edge of certainty beyond which conscious knowledge cannot pass.

Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols ERIC OWEN MOSS has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles and holds Masters degrees in Architecture from both the University of California at Berkeley, College of Environmental Design and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Eric Owen Moss Architects was founded in 1973, and has garnered over 100 local, national, and international design awards. Moss has held teaching positions at major universities around the world including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. He was honored as the 2006 AIA/LA Educator of the Year. Moss received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, and the AIA/LA Gold Medal in 2001. In 2007, he was awarded the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, recognizing a distinguished history of architectural design, and in 2011 he was honored with the Jencks Award by RIBA.

1.

(W)rapper, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

2.

Pterodactyl, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

3.

Moss speaks at SCI-Arc’s 2009 Graduation Ceremony.

4.

Hernan Diaz Alonso, Peter Noever, Eric Owen Moss, Wolf D. Prix and Thom Mayne at the Venice Biennale 2010.

5.

Moss and his son Miller at Alexis Rocha’s 2010 SCI-Arc Gallery exhibit, Still Robot.

6.

Samitaur Tower, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

Making and making Succeeding and failing.

Doing.

Figuring.

Disentagling the tangle of conventions.

Move.

Moving forward.

Backward.

Sideways.

Slipping, finding ground.

Not static.

Learning at an edge.

Which today, tomorrow?

Not yesterday.

The next.

The next move.

Eric Owen Moss is at home with architecture, is at home at SCI-Arc. His pervasive involvement with SCI-Arc witnessed his development from a young and audacious faculty member to its leader with a strong voice. He first started teaching at SCI-Arc in 1974 and became the school’s fourth director in 2002. Eric’s relationship with SCI-Arc began two years after the school opened, which sets him apart from its founding but has allowed him to engage the pedagogy over the past 40 years with a critical gaze that is able to reflect on and challenge the school’s history. With a specific aim at reflexive momentum he has established a vision for SCI-Arc to seek and to do.

I am honored to write this piece about Eric for the SCI-Arc Magazine—to write about someone who has profoundly impacted the development of architecture in Los Angeles and the progress of SCI-Arc. The audience for this magazine has participated in Eric’s story and make this endeavor no small task. His persona in the world of architecture is far reaching and the success of his career as an architect and academic is undeniable. Finding it nearly impossible to start this article without referencing James Joyce, the two quotes above are meant as a suggestion to think about Eric and his sensibility. One, opening the intuitive dreamer’s struggle to visualize what is in their mind, the other, grounding the fortuitous moment when creativity and curiosity eclipse knowledge.

In 1978, when Eric was 35 years old, he received his first Progressive Architecture award for the Morgenstern Warehouse, garnering praise from Charles Moore who said the project was “unusually spirited”1—a remark that is indicative of a time where Moore’s own flamboyant Piazza d’Italia was completed in the same year. Eric’s early houses acquired significant attention, landing covers on prominent international journals like GA Houses and seminal exhibition catalogs such as Los Angeles Now. Projects

like Fun House, Petal House, and the Pinball House embodied the complexity of a distinct Los Angeles Postmodernism—an emblematic charisma that provoked Charles Jencks to write about Eric’s work in a 1983 article featured in AA Files that first posited an LA School. Jencks wrote of Eric’s projects embracing an LA Style, stating, “all the clashes and intersections are here: on the one hand a perfect expression of the laid back Angeleno with his shoes off, drink in hand, contemplating the next way he can extend his personal fulfillment, and on the other hand a free celebration of architectural motifs.”2 This aesthetic, working toward an ambition that could also be described as the precision of casual indifference, succeeds at critiquing the Los Angeles vernacular through a rigorous study that looks effortless with backhanded playfulness.

Eric transformed the identity of Culver City through a collection of bold and confident architecture. In contrast to the witty levity, demonstrated by his early houses, the later projects in Culver City articulate heavy brooding mass. Blocks carve, boxes tumble, cylinders torque, glass warps. Eric’s next challenge is to build a new tower in Culver City, Wrapper, that will require a revision of building codes by the way it moves its structure to the skin through an eccentric network of ribbons, revealing bound exhibitionism.

I was recently shown a photograph by Jeff Kipnis of a curb detail that Harry Cobb took when he visited Eric’s project, Pterodactyl. Jeff remarked that of all of the more obvious moments that could have been photographed, this particular detail was the one that Harry identified as the sign of an architect. The photograph signaled the simultaneity of finesse and disruption, a continuity that feels inappropriate. My intuitive response to the photograph immediately gravitated toward a connection between that detail and Eric’s book, Gnostic Architect. In the book, Eric writes about his fascination of fit and misfit in Henry Moore’s Helmet. The book, in its own right, takes on that theoretical intention. As a designed object, it does not sit silently. It communicates with a simple and deliberate move that activates it and its context. With a diagonal slice at its base that moves upward ½ inch from left to right, the book rotates just under 3 degrees when it slides onto a shelf, giving it a curious and uncomfortable disposition in relation to the other books. Organized chronologically relative to some of Eric’s other books, Buildings and Projects 2 and Buildings and Projects 3, puts the three in an awkward tension. The perplexing question that is raised is “how does this book get positioned on the shelf?”

Constantly, it wavers between the binding sloping inward at its top or jutting outward at its base. The inability for the book to resolve a parallel line, to make its binding line up relative to other objects in its context is maddening, but provides a perverse satisfaction.

The first time seeing Eric on a review at SCI-Arc has imprinted a distinct memory. As a first year M.Arch student watching a review for an upper level graduate studio I was intimidated by the hardline questions Eric asked. I do not recall the project or the specific contents of the discussion, but what I do remember is feeling the intensity of a powerful conversation. Eric maintained a course of asking challenging questions, seeking thoughtful responses from the students, even when they were not possible. What I learned about Eric from that moment, and from watching him in subsequent reviews and discussions, was that Eric asks difficult questions out of a deep respect for architecture and for the people who enter into its discourse. What I naively felt then, as a sharp contrast between us-and-them, grew to a clearer understanding of

6

equality between teacher and student, director and faculty, architect and intern—that what you bring to the table in architecture matters, and you better be able to talk about it.

The opportunity to speak with SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe provided a significant comment about one of the tremendous advantages SCI-Arc directors have. In comparison to many other schools of architecture, SCI-Arc directors have the ability to come in and re-shape the school’s pedagogy and direction quickly and specifically.3 Eric embraced this in his approach to directing SCI-Arc, and it became clear how he invoked that responsibility.

Talking with him about his pedagogical ambitions, some of his motives as director, he said, were “to stretch the range of content, to stretch the range of possibilities, to stretch the range of theoretical possibilities . . . and to do it in an interrogative way, in an optimistic way. . . . To continue to open up possibilities, to be inquisitive, and to wonder . . . retain[ing] the capacity to be fascinated, to be astonished.”4 These values become evident by the range of people and ideas that were brought to the school over the past 14 years. This past semester alone is representative of the diversity of people teaching and passing through SCI-Arc with lectures from Henk Ovink, Frank Gehry, Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, and Craig Dykers; exhibitions from Coop Himmelb(l)au followed by Harry Cobb; and vertical studios with Hernan Diaz Alonso, Marcelyn Gow, Coy Howard, Jeff Kipnis, Eric Owen Moss, David Ruy, Peter Testa, Peter Trummer, and Tom Wiscombe.

A pedagogy that is self-critical and open to what is outside its own walls, reveals the many differences that exist in our discipline. There is not one way to do architecture. There are many ways. Eric, being receptive to that notion, always seems to provoke an underlying question that understands the value of discussing what architecture should do, rather than only asking what it can do. There is intrigue to a school that can embrace two contrasting aphorisms, that “too much of everything is just enough”5 and to do more with less,6 signaling hunger and precision, the hunger to wander and explore everything, but to develop the precision to refine and present cogent ideas.

If Eric has established a pro forma for SCI-Arc, it is the idea that “pro forma needs to be scrutinized, has to be evaluated, has to be examined, and if scrutinizing [it] yields a different prospect or a different pro forma or different possibilities, that is part of the job.”7 This approach, that questions, deliberates, and acts, also means that novelty cannot be accepted without critique and that dogmas need to be challenged. It means that what is put into the world needs to be tested and valued, and changed as needed.

The ability to make change happen expediently is something Eric emphasized during his term as SCI-Arc’s director. A unique institutional makeup, without many of the bureaucratic hurdles of larger universities, coupled with an “aggressive and inquisitive faculty and student body,”8 allowed him to resist institutional stasis, and enliven a dynamic environment at SCI-Arc characterized by the people, the work, and the building. One substantive curriculum change was the thesis schedule. In 2006 graduate thesis reviews were moved from January to September, which rethought the typical academic calendar. Moving this event to the beginning of the academic year allowed incoming students to listen to the outgoing students and participate in an exciting moment at the school right away, where they can see what has been done and can begin to 1

speculate about what could be better.9 Recognizing SCI-Arc’s characteristic ability to be agile, in a relatively short time period the school was able to make substantive advancements with regard to available resources that included purchasing its building, designing and building annual graduation pavilions, host numerous exhibitions, amplify the amount of publications, open the Robot House and the Magic Box, provide a cafe, and create a gathering space with the Hispanic Steps, while maintaining a persistent influx of new, young, and talented faculty and staff.

In last spring’s SCI-Arc Magazine Todd Gannon began his essay with a compelling statement from Eric regarding SCI-Arc’s position toward history—that the school refuses it—yet, Eric concluded his thought with a bracketed question “[or does it?]” signaling the ruminating effect history has within discussions at SCI-Arc. History lingers. How history is used at a school is an important negotiation. Design does not happen in a vacuum, but neither does it rely on the past for validation. Nietzsche offers a convincing view of history in his book, Untimely Meditations, where he states “we need history, certainly, but we need it for reasons different from those for which the idler in the garden of knowledge needs it. . . .

We want to serve history only to the extent that history serves life: for it is possible to value history to such a degree that life becomes stunted and degenerate.”10 In his text, Nietzsche charges the cynic and the champion of history to use history critically to achieve balance between the past and the present. The promise in finding this balance is through the production of something new.

How should we get there? What’s next? Eric can have the last word. [For now.]

I think confidence is important. I’ve often said to students that SCI-Arc deals with students and architects one student at a time or one architect at a time. So you’re not dealing with a mass culture, with mass indoctrination. The one thing that’s critical . . . is an ability to listen, to look at what’s taught, to look at what’s exhibited, to look at what’s built, to look at what’s lectured about, to look at all of those things, to enjoy it, to appreciate it, to learn from it and to take it apart. What’s missing? What can be other than it is?

What did Moss leave out?11

1.

Charles Moore quoted by John Dreyfuss, in “An Unlikely Dash of Exuberance.”

Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1978, F1.

2.

Jencks, Charles. “Los Angeles Now: 29 April-29 May, 1983: LA Style - LA School

[Exhibition Review].” AA Files 5 (1984): 90 3.

Ray Kappe, interview by Benjamin J. Smith February 24, 2015.

4.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015.

5.

John Perry Barlow with Bob Weir, I Need a Miracle, Studio Album, Arista, 1978.

6.

R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon, Anchor Books1938, 1978.

7.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

8.

Ibid.

9.

Ibid.

10.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and R. J Hollingdale, transl., Untimely Meditations.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 2011 Kindle edition.

11.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

BENJAMIN J. SMITH is the 20142015 Design of Theory Fellow at SCIArc teaching Design Studio and Cultural Studies courses. He is a founding partner of LOOP, a firm engaged in advanced building and design practices. Benjamin is a Candidate in the Doctoral Program in Architecture at University of Michigan writing a dissertation titled: “Without Walls: SCI-Arc and Los Angeles Architecture of the 1970s and 1980s” and has published numerous papers related to his research. He received his Bachelor of Arts at St. Olaf College and his Master of Architecture at SCI-Arc. At SCI-Arc he was honored with a distinguished graduate thesis and the Alpha Rho Chi Medal. Benjamin has worked for Morphosis Architects in Los Angeles and Paris, and George Yu Architects in Los Angeles. Previously, he has been an instructor and guest critic at University of Michigan and a guest critic at SCI-Arc, University of Kentucky, and Woodbury University.

7.

The New City, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects and owners Frederick and Laurie Smith.

8.

Morgenstern Warehouse, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

9.

Todd Gannon and Eric Owen Moss during Undergraduate Thesis, 2014.

10.

SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion Competition exhibition discussion, 2012.

11.

Eric Owen Moss Architects office, Culver City.

12.

Petal House, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

13.

The Beehive, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

5

AIMING ONWARD: A PROFILE ON ERIC OWEN MOSS Benjamin J. Smith

—You saw it visibly from your hidingplace?

—No. From my invisibly lyingplace.

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake No Matter what instruments he uses, at some point he reaches the edge of certainty beyond which conscious knowledge cannot pass.

Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols ERIC OWEN MOSS has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles and holds Masters degrees in Architecture from both the University of California at Berkeley, College of Environmental Design and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Eric Owen Moss Architects was founded in 1973, and has garnered over 100 local, national, and international design awards. Moss has held teaching positions at major universities around the world including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. He was honored as the 2006 AIA/LA Educator of the Year. Moss received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, and the AIA/LA Gold Medal in 2001. In 2007, he was awarded the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, recognizing a distinguished history of architectural design, and in 2011 he was honored with the Jencks Award by RIBA.

1.

(W)rapper, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

2.

Pterodactyl, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

3.

Moss speaks at SCI-Arc’s 2009 Graduation Ceremony.

4.

Hernan Diaz Alonso, Peter Noever, Eric Owen Moss, Wolf D. Prix and Thom Mayne at the Venice Biennale 2010.

5.

Moss and his son Miller at Alexis Rocha’s 2010 SCI-Arc Gallery exhibit, Still Robot.

6.

Samitaur Tower, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

Making and making Succeeding and failing.

Doing.

Figuring.

Disentagling the tangle of conventions.

Move.

Moving forward.

Backward.

Sideways.

Slipping, finding ground.

Not static.

Learning at an edge.

Which today, tomorrow?

Not yesterday.

The next.

The next move.

Eric Owen Moss is at home with architecture, is at home at SCI-Arc. His pervasive involvement with SCI-Arc witnessed his development from a young and audacious faculty member to its leader with a strong voice. He first started teaching at SCI-Arc in 1974 and became the school’s fourth director in 2002. Eric’s relationship with SCI-Arc began two years after the school opened, which sets him apart from its founding but has allowed him to engage the pedagogy over the past 40 years with a critical gaze that is able to reflect on and challenge the school’s history. With a specific aim at reflexive momentum he has established a vision for SCI-Arc to seek and to do.

I am honored to write this piece about Eric for the SCI-Arc Magazine—to write about someone who has profoundly impacted the development of architecture in Los Angeles and the progress of SCI-Arc. The audience for this magazine has participated in Eric’s story and make this endeavor no small task. His persona in the world of architecture is far reaching and the success of his career as an architect and academic is undeniable. Finding it nearly impossible to start this article without referencing James Joyce, the two quotes above are meant as a suggestion to think about Eric and his sensibility. One, opening the intuitive dreamer’s struggle to visualize what is in their mind, the other, grounding the fortuitous moment when creativity and curiosity eclipse knowledge.

In 1978, when Eric was 35 years old, he received his first Progressive Architecture award for the Morgenstern Warehouse, garnering praise from Charles Moore who said the project was “unusually spirited”1—a remark that is indicative of a time where Moore’s own flamboyant Piazza d’Italia was completed in the same year. Eric’s early houses acquired significant attention, landing covers on prominent international journals like GA Houses and seminal exhibition catalogs such as Los Angeles Now. Projects 2

like Fun House, Petal House, and the Pinball House embodied the complexity of a distinct Los Angeles Postmodernism—an emblematic charisma that provoked Charles Jencks to write about Eric’s work in a 1983 article featured in AA Files that first posited an LA School. Jencks wrote of Eric’s projects embracing an LA Style, stating, “all the clashes and intersections are here: on the one hand a perfect expression of the laid back Angeleno with his shoes off, drink in hand, contemplating the next way he can extend his personal fulfillment, and on the other hand a free celebration of architectural motifs.”2 This aesthetic, working toward an ambition that could also be described as the precision of casual indifference, succeeds at critiquing the Los Angeles vernacular through a rigorous study that looks effortless with backhanded playfulness.

Eric transformed the identity of Culver City through a collection of bold and confident architecture. In contrast to the witty levity, demonstrated by his early houses, the later projects in Culver City articulate heavy brooding mass. Blocks carve, boxes tumble, cylinders torque, glass warps. Eric’s next challenge is to build a new tower in Culver City, Wrapper, that will require a revision of building codes by the way it moves its structure to the skin through an eccentric network of ribbons, revealing bound exhibitionism.

I was recently shown a photograph by Jeff Kipnis of a curb detail that Harry Cobb took when he visited Eric’s project, Pterodactyl. Jeff remarked that of all of the more obvious moments that could have been photographed, this particular detail was the one that Harry identified as the sign of an architect. The photograph signaled the simultaneity of finesse and disruption, a continuity that feels inappropriate. My intuitive response to the photograph immediately gravitated toward a connection between that detail and Eric’s book, Gnostic Architect. In the book, Eric writes about his fascination of fit and misfit in Henry Moore’s Helmet. The book, in its own right, takes on that theoretical intention. As a designed object, it does not sit silently. It communicates with a simple and deliberate move that activates it and its context. With a diagonal slice at its base that moves upward ½ inch from left to right, the book rotates just under 3 degrees when it slides onto a shelf, giving it a curious and uncomfortable disposition in relation to the other books. Organized chronologically relative to some of Eric’s other books, Buildings and Projects 2 and Buildings and Projects 3, puts the three in an awkward tension. The perplexing question that is raised is “how does this book get positioned on the shelf?”

Constantly, it wavers between the binding sloping inward at its top or jutting outward at its base. The inability for the book to resolve a parallel line, to make its binding line up relative to other objects in its context is maddening, but provides a perverse satisfaction.

The first time seeing Eric on a review at SCI-Arc has imprinted a distinct memory. As a first year M.Arch student watching a review for an upper level graduate studio I was intimidated by the hardline questions Eric asked. I do not recall the project or the specific contents of the discussion, but what I do remember is feeling the intensity of a powerful conversation. Eric maintained a course of asking challenging questions, seeking thoughtful responses from the students, even when they were not possible. What I learned about Eric from that moment, and from watching him in subsequent reviews and discussions, was that Eric asks difficult questions out of a deep respect for architecture and for the people who enter into its discourse. What I naively felt then, as a sharp contrast between us-and-them, grew to a clearer understanding of

6

equality between teacher and student, director and faculty, architect and intern—that what you bring to the table in architecture matters, and you better be able to talk about it.

The opportunity to speak with SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe provided a significant comment about one of the tremendous advantages SCI-Arc directors have. In comparison to many other schools of architecture, SCI-Arc directors have the ability to come in and re-shape the school’s pedagogy and direction quickly and specifically.3 Eric embraced this in his approach to directing SCI-Arc, and it became clear how he invoked that responsibility.

Talking with him about his pedagogical ambitions, some of his motives as director, he said, were “to stretch the range of content, to stretch the range of possibilities, to stretch the range of theoretical possibilities . . . and to do it in an interrogative way, in an optimistic way. . . . To continue to open up possibilities, to be inquisitive, and to wonder . . . retain[ing] the capacity to be fascinated, to be astonished.”4 These values become evident by the range of people and ideas that were brought to the school over the past 14 years. This past semester alone is representative of the diversity of people teaching and passing through SCI-Arc with lectures from Henk Ovink, Frank Gehry, Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, and Craig Dykers; exhibitions from Coop Himmelb(l)au followed by Harry Cobb; and vertical studios with Hernan Diaz Alonso, Marcelyn Gow, Coy Howard, Jeff Kipnis, Eric Owen Moss, David Ruy, Peter Testa, Peter Trummer, and Tom Wiscombe.

A pedagogy that is self-critical and open to what is outside its own walls, reveals the many differences that exist in our discipline. There is not one way to do architecture. There are many ways. Eric, being receptive to that notion, always seems to provoke an underlying question that understands the value of discussing what architecture should do, rather than only asking what it can do. There is intrigue to a school that can embrace two contrasting aphorisms, that “too much of everything is just enough”5 and to do more with less,6 signaling hunger and precision, the hunger to wander and explore everything, but to develop the precision to refine and present cogent ideas.

If Eric has established a pro forma for SCI-Arc, it is the idea that “pro forma needs to be scrutinized, has to be evaluated, has to be examined, and if scrutinizing [it] yields a different prospect or a different pro forma or different possibilities, that is part of the job.”7 This approach, that questions, deliberates, and acts, also means that novelty cannot be accepted without critique and that dogmas need to be challenged. It means that what is put into the world needs to be tested and valued, and changed as needed.

The ability to make change happen expediently is something Eric emphasized during his term as SCI-Arc’s director. A unique institutional makeup, without many of the bureaucratic hurdles of larger universities, coupled with an “aggressive and inquisitive faculty and student body,”8 allowed him to resist institutional stasis, and enliven a dynamic environment at SCI-Arc characterized by the people, the work, and the building. One substantive curriculum change was the thesis schedule. In 2006 graduate thesis reviews were moved from January to September, which rethought the typical academic calendar. Moving this event to the beginning of the academic year allowed incoming students to listen to the outgoing students and participate in an exciting moment at the school right away, where they can see what has been done and can begin to

speculate about what could be better.9 Recognizing SCI-Arc’s characteristic ability to be agile, in a relatively short time period the school was able to make substantive advancements with regard to available resources that included purchasing its building, designing and building annual graduation pavilions, host numerous exhibitions, amplify the amount of publications, open the Robot House and the Magic Box, provide a cafe, and create a gathering space with the Hispanic Steps, while maintaining a persistent influx of new, young, and talented faculty and staff.

In last spring’s SCI-Arc Magazine Todd Gannon began his essay with a compelling statement from Eric regarding SCI-Arc’s position toward history—that the school refuses it—yet, Eric concluded his thought with a bracketed question “[or does it?]” signaling the ruminating effect history has within discussions at SCI-Arc. History lingers. How history is used at a school is an important negotiation. Design does not happen in a vacuum, but neither does it rely on the past for validation. Nietzsche offers a convincing view of history in his book, Untimely Meditations, where he states “we need history, certainly, but we need it for reasons different from those for which the idler in the garden of knowledge needs it. . . .

We want to serve history only to the extent that history serves life: for it is possible to value history to such a degree that life becomes stunted and degenerate.”10 In his text, Nietzsche charges the cynic and the champion of history to use history critically to achieve balance between the past and the present. The promise in finding this balance is through the production of something new.

How should we get there? What’s next? Eric can have the last word. [For now.]

I think confidence is important. I’ve often said to students that SCI-Arc deals with students and architects one student at a time or one architect at a time. So you’re not dealing with a mass culture, with mass indoctrination. The one thing that’s critical . . . is an ability to listen, to look at what’s taught, to look at what’s exhibited, to look at what’s built, to look at what’s lectured about, to look at all of those things, to enjoy it, to appreciate it, to learn from it and to take it apart. What’s missing? What can be other than it is?

What did Moss leave out?11

1.

Charles Moore quoted by John Dreyfuss, in “An Unlikely Dash of Exuberance.”

Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1978, F1.

2.

Jencks, Charles. “Los Angeles Now: 29 April-29 May, 1983: LA Style - LA School

[Exhibition Review].” AA Files 5 (1984): 90 3.

Ray Kappe, interview by Benjamin J. Smith February 24, 2015.

4.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015.

5.

John Perry Barlow with Bob Weir, I Need a Miracle, Studio Album, Arista, 1978.

6.

R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon, Anchor Books1938, 1978.

7.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

8.

Ibid.

9.

Ibid.

10.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and R. J Hollingdale, transl., Untimely Meditations.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 2011 Kindle edition.

11.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

BENJAMIN J. SMITH is the 20142015 Design of Theory Fellow at SCIArc teaching Design Studio and Cultural Studies courses. He is a founding partner of LOOP, a firm engaged in advanced building and design practices. Benjamin is a Candidate in the Doctoral Program in Architecture at University of Michigan writing a dissertation titled: “Without Walls: SCI-Arc and Los Angeles Architecture of the 1970s and 1980s” and has published numerous papers related to his research. He received his Bachelor of Arts at St. Olaf College and his Master of Architecture at SCI-Arc. At SCI-Arc he was honored with a distinguished graduate thesis and the Alpha Rho Chi Medal. Benjamin has worked for Morphosis Architects in Los Angeles and Paris, and George Yu Architects in Los Angeles. Previously, he has been an instructor and guest critic at University of Michigan and a guest critic at SCI-Arc, University of Kentucky, and Woodbury University.

7.

The New City, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects and owners Frederick and Laurie Smith.

8.

Morgenstern Warehouse, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

9.

Todd Gannon and Eric Owen Moss during Undergraduate Thesis, 2014.

10.

SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion Competition exhibition discussion, 2012.

11.

Eric Owen Moss Architects office, Culver City.

12.

Petal House, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

13.

The Beehive, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

5

AIMING ONWARD: A PROFILE ON ERIC OWEN MOSS Benjamin J. Smith

—You saw it visibly from your hidingplace?

—No. From my invisibly lyingplace.

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake No Matter what instruments he uses, at some point he reaches the edge of certainty beyond which conscious knowledge cannot pass.

Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols ERIC OWEN MOSS has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles and holds Masters degrees in Architecture from both the University of California at Berkeley, College of Environmental Design and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Eric Owen Moss Architects was founded in 1973, and has garnered over 100 local, national, and international design awards. Moss has held teaching positions at major universities around the world including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. He was honored as the 2006 AIA/LA Educator of the Year. Moss received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, and the AIA/LA Gold Medal in 2001. In 2007, he was awarded the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, recognizing a distinguished history of architectural design, and in 2011 he was honored with the Jencks Award by RIBA.

1.

(W)rapper, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

2.

Pterodactyl, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

3.

Moss speaks at SCI-Arc’s 2009 Graduation Ceremony.

4.

Hernan Diaz Alonso, Peter Noever, Eric Owen Moss, Wolf D. Prix and Thom Mayne at the Venice Biennale 2010.

5.

Moss and his son Miller at Alexis Rocha’s 2010 SCI-Arc Gallery exhibit, Still Robot.

6.

Samitaur Tower, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

Making and making Succeeding and failing.

Doing.

Figuring.

Disentagling the tangle of conventions.

Move.

Moving forward.

Backward.

Sideways.

Slipping, finding ground.

Not static.

Learning at an edge.

Which today, tomorrow?

Not yesterday.

The next.

The next move.

Eric Owen Moss is at home with architecture, is at home at SCI-Arc. His pervasive involvement with SCI-Arc witnessed his development from a young and audacious faculty member to its leader with a strong voice. He first started teaching at SCI-Arc in 1974 and became the school’s fourth director in 2002. Eric’s relationship with SCI-Arc began two years after the school opened, which sets him apart from its founding but has allowed him to engage the pedagogy over the past 40 years with a critical gaze that is able to reflect on and challenge the school’s history. With a specific aim at reflexive momentum he has established a vision for SCI-Arc to seek and to do.

I am honored to write this piece about Eric for the SCI-Arc Magazine—to write about someone who has profoundly impacted the development of architecture in Los Angeles and the progress of SCI-Arc. The audience for this magazine has participated in Eric’s story and make this endeavor no small task. His persona in the world of architecture is far reaching and the success of his career as an architect and academic is undeniable. Finding it nearly impossible to start this article without referencing James Joyce, the two quotes above are meant as a suggestion to think about Eric and his sensibility. One, opening the intuitive dreamer’s struggle to visualize what is in their mind, the other, grounding the fortuitous moment when creativity and curiosity eclipse knowledge.

In 1978, when Eric was 35 years old, he received his first Progressive Architecture award for the Morgenstern Warehouse, garnering praise from Charles Moore who said the project was “unusually spirited”1—a remark that is indicative of a time where Moore’s own flamboyant Piazza d’Italia was completed in the same year. Eric’s early houses acquired significant attention, landing covers on prominent international journals like GA Houses and seminal exhibition catalogs such as Los Angeles Now. Projects 5

like Fun House, Petal House, and the Pinball House embodied the complexity of a distinct Los Angeles Postmodernism—an emblematic charisma that provoked Charles Jencks to write about Eric’s work in a 1983 article featured in AA Files that first posited an LA School. Jencks wrote of Eric’s projects embracing an LA Style, stating, “all the clashes and intersections are here: on the one hand a perfect expression of the laid back Angeleno with his shoes off, drink in hand, contemplating the next way he can extend his personal fulfillment, and on the other hand a free celebration of architectural motifs.”2 This aesthetic, working toward an ambition that could also be described as the precision of casual indifference, succeeds at critiquing the Los Angeles vernacular through a rigorous study that looks effortless with backhanded playfulness.

Eric transformed the identity of Culver City through a collection of bold and confident architecture. In contrast to the witty levity, demonstrated by his early houses, the later projects in Culver City articulate heavy brooding mass. Blocks carve, boxes tumble, cylinders torque, glass warps. Eric’s next challenge is to build a new tower in Culver City, Wrapper, that will require a revision of building codes by the way it moves its structure to the skin through an eccentric network of ribbons, revealing bound exhibitionism.

I was recently shown a photograph by Jeff Kipnis of a curb detail that Harry Cobb took when he visited Eric’s project, Pterodactyl. Jeff remarked that of all of the more obvious moments that could have been photographed, this particular detail was the one that Harry identified as the sign of an architect. The photograph signaled the simultaneity of finesse and disruption, a continuity that feels inappropriate. My intuitive response to the photograph immediately gravitated toward a connection between that detail and Eric’s book, Gnostic Architect. In the book, Eric writes about his fascination of fit and misfit in Henry Moore’s Helmet. The book, in its own right, takes on that theoretical intention. As a designed object, it does not sit silently. It communicates with a simple and deliberate move that activates it and its context. With a diagonal slice at its base that moves upward ½ inch from left to right, the book rotates just under 3 degrees when it slides onto a shelf, giving it a curious and uncomfortable disposition in relation to the other books. Organized chronologically relative to some of Eric’s other books, Buildings and Projects 2 and Buildings and Projects 3, puts the three in an awkward tension. The perplexing question that is raised is “how does this book get positioned on the shelf?”

Constantly, it wavers between the binding sloping inward at its top or jutting outward at its base. The inability for the book to resolve a parallel line, to make its binding line up relative to other objects in its context is maddening, but provides a perverse satisfaction.

The first time seeing Eric on a review at SCI-Arc has imprinted a distinct memory. As a first year M.Arch student watching a review for an upper level graduate studio I was intimidated by the hardline questions Eric asked. I do not recall the project or the specific contents of the discussion, but what I do remember is feeling the intensity of a powerful conversation. Eric maintained a course of asking challenging questions, seeking thoughtful responses from the students, even when they were not possible. What I learned about Eric from that moment, and from watching him in subsequent reviews and discussions, was that Eric asks difficult questions out of a deep respect for architecture and for the people who enter into its discourse. What I naively felt then, as a sharp contrast between us-and-them, grew to a clearer understanding of

6

6

7

4 8

equality between teacher and student, director and faculty, architect and intern—that what you bring to the table in architecture matters, and you better be able to talk about it.

The opportunity to speak with SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe provided a significant comment about one of the tremendous advantages SCI-Arc directors have. In comparison to many other schools of architecture, SCI-Arc directors have the ability to come in and re-shape the school’s pedagogy and direction quickly and specifically.3 Eric embraced this in his approach to directing SCI-Arc, and it became clear how he invoked that responsibility.

Talking with him about his pedagogical ambitions, some of his motives as director, he said, were “to stretch the range of content, to stretch the range of possibilities, to stretch the range of theoretical possibilities . . . and to do it in an interrogative way, in an optimistic way. . . . To continue to open up possibilities, to be inquisitive, and to wonder . . . retain[ing] the capacity to be fascinated, to be astonished.”4 These values become evident by the range of people and ideas that were brought to the school over the past 14 years. This past semester alone is representative of the diversity of people teaching and passing through SCI-Arc with lectures from Henk Ovink, Frank Gehry, Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, and Craig Dykers; exhibitions from Coop Himmelb(l)au followed by Harry Cobb; and vertical studios with Hernan Diaz Alonso, Marcelyn Gow, Coy Howard, Jeff Kipnis, Eric Owen Moss, David Ruy, Peter Testa, Peter Trummer, and Tom Wiscombe.

A pedagogy that is self-critical and open to what is outside its own walls, reveals the many differences that exist in our discipline. There is not one way to do architecture. There are many ways. Eric, being receptive to that notion, always seems to provoke an underlying question that understands the value of discussing what architecture should do, rather than only asking what it can do. There is intrigue to a school that can embrace two contrasting aphorisms, that “too much of everything is just enough”5 and to do more with less,6 signaling hunger and precision, the hunger to wander and explore everything, but to develop the precision to refine and present cogent ideas.

If Eric has established a pro forma for SCI-Arc, it is the idea that “pro forma needs to be scrutinized, has to be evaluated, has to be examined, and if scrutinizing [it] yields a different prospect or a different pro forma or different possibilities, that is part of the job.”7 This approach, that questions, deliberates, and acts, also means that novelty cannot be accepted without critique and that dogmas need to be challenged. It means that what is put into the world needs to be tested and valued, and changed as needed.

The ability to make change happen expediently is something Eric emphasized during his term as SCI-Arc’s director. A unique institutional makeup, without many of the bureaucratic hurdles of larger universities, coupled with an “aggressive and inquisitive faculty and student body,”8 allowed him to resist institutional stasis, and enliven a dynamic environment at SCI-Arc characterized by the people, the work, and the building. One substantive curriculum change was the thesis schedule. In 2006 graduate thesis reviews were moved from January to September, which rethought the typical academic calendar. Moving this event to the beginning of the academic year allowed incoming students to listen to the outgoing students and participate in an exciting moment at the school right away, where they can see what has been done and can begin to

speculate about what could be better.9 Recognizing SCI-Arc’s characteristic ability to be agile, in a relatively short time period the school was able to make substantive advancements with regard to available resources that included purchasing its building, designing and building annual graduation pavilions, host numerous exhibitions, amplify the amount of publications, open the Robot House and the Magic Box, provide a cafe, and create a gathering space with the Hispanic Steps, while maintaining a persistent influx of new, young, and talented faculty and staff.

In last spring’s SCI-Arc Magazine Todd Gannon began his essay with a compelling statement from Eric regarding SCI-Arc’s position toward history—that the school refuses it—yet, Eric concluded his thought with a bracketed question “[or does it?]” signaling the ruminating effect history has within discussions at SCI-Arc. History lingers. How history is used at a school is an important negotiation. Design does not happen in a vacuum, but neither does it rely on the past for validation. Nietzsche offers a convincing view of history in his book, Untimely Meditations, where he states “we need history, certainly, but we need it for reasons different from those for which the idler in the garden of knowledge needs it. . . .

We want to serve history only to the extent that history serves life: for it is possible to value history to such a degree that life becomes stunted and degenerate.”10 In his text, Nietzsche charges the cynic and the champion of history to use history critically to achieve balance between the past and the present. The promise in finding this balance is through the production of something new.

How should we get there? What’s next? Eric can have the last word. [For now.]

I think confidence is important. I’ve often said to students that SCI-Arc deals with students and architects one student at a time or one architect at a time. So you’re not dealing with a mass culture, with mass indoctrination. The one thing that’s critical . . . is an ability to listen, to look at what’s taught, to look at what’s exhibited, to look at what’s built, to look at what’s lectured about, to look at all of those things, to enjoy it, to appreciate it, to learn from it and to take it apart. What’s missing? What can be other than it is?

What did Moss leave out?11

1.

Charles Moore quoted by John Dreyfuss, in “An Unlikely Dash of Exuberance.”

Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1978, F1.

2.

Jencks, Charles. “Los Angeles Now: 29 April-29 May, 1983: LA Style - LA School

[Exhibition Review].” AA Files 5 (1984): 90 3.

Ray Kappe, interview by Benjamin J. Smith February 24, 2015.

4.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015.

5.

John Perry Barlow with Bob Weir, I Need a Miracle, Studio Album, Arista, 1978.

6.

R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon, Anchor Books1938, 1978.

7.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

8.

Ibid.

9.

Ibid.

10.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and R. J Hollingdale, transl., Untimely Meditations.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 2011 Kindle edition.

11.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

BENJAMIN J. SMITH is the 20142015 Design of Theory Fellow at SCIArc teaching Design Studio and Cultural Studies courses. He is a founding partner of LOOP, a firm engaged in advanced building and design practices. Benjamin is a Candidate in the Doctoral Program in Architecture at University of Michigan writing a dissertation titled: “Without Walls: SCI-Arc and Los Angeles Architecture of the 1970s and 1980s” and has published numerous papers related to his research. He received his Bachelor of Arts at St. Olaf College and his Master of Architecture at SCI-Arc. At SCI-Arc he was honored with a distinguished graduate thesis and the Alpha Rho Chi Medal. Benjamin has worked for Morphosis Architects in Los Angeles and Paris, and George Yu Architects in Los Angeles. Previously, he has been an instructor and guest critic at University of Michigan and a guest critic at SCI-Arc, University of Kentucky, and Woodbury University.

7.

The New City, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects and owners Frederick and Laurie Smith.

8.

Morgenstern Warehouse, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

9.

Todd Gannon and Eric Owen Moss during Undergraduate Thesis, 2014.

10.

SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion Competition exhibition discussion, 2012.

11.

Eric Owen Moss Architects office, Culver City.

12.

Petal House, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

13.

The Beehive, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

5

AIMING ONWARD: A PROFILE ON ERIC OWEN MOSS Benjamin J. Smith

—You saw it visibly from your hidingplace?

—No. From my invisibly lyingplace.

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake No Matter what instruments he uses, at some point he reaches the edge of certainty beyond which conscious knowledge cannot pass.

Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols ERIC OWEN MOSS has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles and holds Masters degrees in Architecture from both the University of California at Berkeley, College of Environmental Design and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Eric Owen Moss Architects was founded in 1973, and has garnered over 100 local, national, and international design awards. Moss has held teaching positions at major universities around the world including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. He was honored as the 2006 AIA/LA Educator of the Year. Moss received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, and the AIA/LA Gold Medal in 2001. In 2007, he was awarded the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, recognizing a distinguished history of architectural design, and in 2011 he was honored with the Jencks Award by RIBA.

1.

(W)rapper, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

2.

Pterodactyl, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

3.

Moss speaks at SCI-Arc’s 2009 Graduation Ceremony.

4.

Hernan Diaz Alonso, Peter Noever, Eric Owen Moss, Wolf D. Prix and Thom Mayne at the Venice Biennale 2010.

5.

Moss and his son Miller at Alexis Rocha’s 2010 SCI-Arc Gallery exhibit, Still Robot.

6.

Samitaur Tower, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

Making and making Succeeding and failing.

Doing.

Figuring.

Disentagling the tangle of conventions.

Move.

Moving forward.

Backward.

Sideways.

Slipping, finding ground.

Not static.

Learning at an edge.

Which today, tomorrow?

Not yesterday.

The next.

The next move.

Eric Owen Moss is at home with architecture, is at home at SCI-Arc. His pervasive involvement with SCI-Arc witnessed his development from a young and audacious faculty member to its leader with a strong voice. He first started teaching at SCI-Arc in 1974 and became the school’s fourth director in 2002. Eric’s relationship with SCI-Arc began two years after the school opened, which sets him apart from its founding but has allowed him to engage the pedagogy over the past 40 years with a critical gaze that is able to reflect on and challenge the school’s history. With a specific aim at reflexive momentum he has established a vision for SCI-Arc to seek and to do.

I am honored to write this piece about Eric for the SCI-Arc Magazine—to write about someone who has profoundly impacted the development of architecture in Los Angeles and the progress of SCI-Arc. The audience for this magazine has participated in Eric’s story and make this endeavor no small task. His persona in the world of architecture is far reaching and the success of his career as an architect and academic is undeniable. Finding it nearly impossible to start this article without referencing James Joyce, the two quotes above are meant as a suggestion to think about Eric and his sensibility. One, opening the intuitive dreamer’s struggle to visualize what is in their mind, the other, grounding the fortuitous moment when creativity and curiosity eclipse knowledge.

In 1978, when Eric was 35 years old, he received his first Progressive Architecture award for the Morgenstern Warehouse, garnering praise from Charles Moore who said the project was “unusually spirited”1—a remark that is indicative of a time where Moore’s own flamboyant Piazza d’Italia was completed in the same year. Eric’s early houses acquired significant attention, landing covers on prominent international journals like GA Houses and seminal exhibition catalogs such as Los Angeles Now. Projects 11

like Fun House, Petal House, and the Pinball House embodied the complexity of a distinct Los Angeles Postmodernism—an emblematic charisma that provoked Charles Jencks to write about Eric’s work in a 1983 article featured in AA Files that first posited an LA School. Jencks wrote of Eric’s projects embracing an LA Style, stating, “all the clashes and intersections are here: on the one hand a perfect expression of the laid back Angeleno with his shoes off, drink in hand, contemplating the next way he can extend his personal fulfillment, and on the other hand a free celebration of architectural motifs.”2 This aesthetic, working toward an ambition that could also be described as the precision of casual indifference, succeeds at critiquing the Los Angeles vernacular through a rigorous study that looks effortless with backhanded playfulness.

Eric transformed the identity of Culver City through a collection of bold and confident architecture. In contrast to the witty levity, demonstrated by his early houses, the later projects in Culver City articulate heavy brooding mass. Blocks carve, boxes tumble, cylinders torque, glass warps. Eric’s next challenge is to build a new tower in Culver City, Wrapper, that will require a revision of building codes by the way it moves its structure to the skin through an eccentric network of ribbons, revealing bound exhibitionism.

I was recently shown a photograph by Jeff Kipnis of a curb detail that Harry Cobb took when he visited Eric’s project, Pterodactyl. Jeff remarked that of all of the more obvious moments that could have been photographed, this particular detail was the one that Harry identified as the sign of an architect. The photograph signaled the simultaneity of finesse and disruption, a continuity that feels inappropriate. My intuitive response to the photograph immediately gravitated toward a connection between that detail and Eric’s book, Gnostic Architect. In the book, Eric writes about his fascination of fit and misfit in Henry Moore’s Helmet. The book, in its own right, takes on that theoretical intention. As a designed object, it does not sit silently. It communicates with a simple and deliberate move that activates it and its context. With a diagonal slice at its base that moves upward ½ inch from left to right, the book rotates just under 3 degrees when it slides onto a shelf, giving it a curious and uncomfortable disposition in relation to the other books. Organized chronologically relative to some of Eric’s other books, Buildings and Projects 2 and Buildings and Projects 3, puts the three in an awkward tension. The perplexing question that is raised is “how does this book get positioned on the shelf?”

Constantly, it wavers between the binding sloping inward at its top or jutting outward at its base. The inability for the book to resolve a parallel line, to make its binding line up relative to other objects in its context is maddening, but provides a perverse satisfaction.

The first time seeing Eric on a review at SCI-Arc has imprinted a distinct memory. As a first year M.Arch student watching a review for an upper level graduate studio I was intimidated by the hardline questions Eric asked. I do not recall the project or the specific contents of the discussion, but what I do remember is feeling the intensity of a powerful conversation. Eric maintained a course of asking challenging questions, seeking thoughtful responses from the students, even when they were not possible. What I learned about Eric from that moment, and from watching him in subsequent reviews and discussions, was that Eric asks difficult questions out of a deep respect for architecture and for the people who enter into its discourse. What I naively felt then, as a sharp contrast between us-and-them, grew to a clearer understanding of

1

1

6

12

13

equality between teacher and student, director and faculty, architect and intern—that what you bring to the table in architecture matters, and you better be able to talk about it.

The opportunity to speak with SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe provided a significant comment about one of the tremendous advantages SCI-Arc directors have. In comparison to many other schools of architecture, SCI-Arc directors have the ability to come in and re-shape the school’s pedagogy and direction quickly and specifically.3 Eric embraced this in his approach to directing SCI-Arc, and it became clear how he invoked that responsibility.

Talking with him about his pedagogical ambitions, some of his motives as director, he said, were “to stretch the range of content, to stretch the range of possibilities, to stretch the range of theoretical possibilities . . . and to do it in an interrogative way, in an optimistic way. . . . To continue to open up possibilities, to be inquisitive, and to wonder . . . retain[ing] the capacity to be fascinated, to be astonished.”4 These values become evident by the range of people and ideas that were brought to the school over the past 14 years. This past semester alone is representative of the diversity of people teaching and passing through SCI-Arc with lectures from Henk Ovink, Frank Gehry, Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, and Craig Dykers; exhibitions from Coop Himmelb(l)au followed by Harry Cobb; and vertical studios with Hernan Diaz Alonso, Marcelyn Gow, Coy Howard, Jeff Kipnis, Eric Owen Moss, David Ruy, Peter Testa, Peter Trummer, and Tom Wiscombe.

A pedagogy that is self-critical and open to what is outside its own walls, reveals the many differences that exist in our discipline. There is not one way to do architecture. There are many ways. Eric, being receptive to that notion, always seems to provoke an underlying question that understands the value of discussing what architecture should do, rather than only asking what it can do. There is intrigue to a school that can embrace two contrasting aphorisms, that “too much of everything is just enough”5 and to do more with less,6 signaling hunger and precision, the hunger to wander and explore everything, but to develop the precision to refine and present cogent ideas.

If Eric has established a pro forma for SCI-Arc, it is the idea that “pro forma needs to be scrutinized, has to be evaluated, has to be examined, and if scrutinizing [it] yields a different prospect or a different pro forma or different possibilities, that is part of the job.”7 This approach, that questions, deliberates, and acts, also means that novelty cannot be accepted without critique and that dogmas need to be challenged. It means that what is put into the world needs to be tested and valued, and changed as needed.

The ability to make change happen expediently is something Eric emphasized during his term as SCI-Arc’s director. A unique institutional makeup, without many of the bureaucratic hurdles of larger universities, coupled with an “aggressive and inquisitive faculty and student body,”8 allowed him to resist institutional stasis, and enliven a dynamic environment at SCI-Arc characterized by the people, the work, and the building. One substantive curriculum change was the thesis schedule. In 2006 graduate thesis reviews were moved from January to September, which rethought the typical academic calendar. Moving this event to the beginning of the academic year allowed incoming students to listen to the outgoing students and participate in an exciting moment at the school right away, where they can see what has been done and can begin to

speculate about what could be better.9 Recognizing SCI-Arc’s characteristic ability to be agile, in a relatively short time period the school was able to make substantive advancements with regard to available resources that included purchasing its building, designing and building annual graduation pavilions, host numerous exhibitions, amplify the amount of publications, open the Robot House and the Magic Box, provide a cafe, and create a gathering space with the Hispanic Steps, while maintaining a persistent influx of new, young, and talented faculty and staff.

In last spring’s SCI-Arc Magazine Todd Gannon began his essay with a compelling statement from Eric regarding SCI-Arc’s position toward history—that the school refuses it—yet, Eric concluded his thought with a bracketed question “[or does it?]” signaling the ruminating effect history has within discussions at SCI-Arc. History lingers. How history is used at a school is an important negotiation. Design does not happen in a vacuum, but neither does it rely on the past for validation. Nietzsche offers a convincing view of history in his book, Untimely Meditations, where he states “we need history, certainly, but we need it for reasons different from those for which the idler in the garden of knowledge needs it. . . .

We want to serve history only to the extent that history serves life: for it is possible to value history to such a degree that life becomes stunted and degenerate.”10 In his text, Nietzsche charges the cynic and the champion of history to use history critically to achieve balance between the past and the present. The promise in finding this balance is through the production of something new.

How should we get there? What’s next? Eric can have the last word. [For now.]

I think confidence is important. I’ve often said to students that SCI-Arc deals with students and architects one student at a time or one architect at a time. So you’re not dealing with a mass culture, with mass indoctrination. The one thing that’s critical . . . is an ability to listen, to look at what’s taught, to look at what’s exhibited, to look at what’s built, to look at what’s lectured about, to look at all of those things, to enjoy it, to appreciate it, to learn from it and to take it apart. What’s missing? What can be other than it is?

What did Moss leave out?11

1.

Charles Moore quoted by John Dreyfuss, in “An Unlikely Dash of Exuberance.”

Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1978, F1.

2.

Jencks, Charles. “Los Angeles Now: 29 April-29 May, 1983: LA Style - LA School

[Exhibition Review].” AA Files 5 (1984): 90 3.

Ray Kappe, interview by Benjamin J. Smith February 24, 2015.

4.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015.

5.

John Perry Barlow with Bob Weir, I Need a Miracle, Studio Album, Arista, 1978.

6.

R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon, Anchor Books1938, 1978.

7.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

8.

Ibid.

9.

Ibid.

10.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and R. J Hollingdale, transl., Untimely Meditations.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 2011 Kindle edition.

11.

Eric Owen Moss, interview by Benjamin J. Smith, April 7, 2015

BENJAMIN J. SMITH is the 20142015 Design of Theory Fellow at SCIArc teaching Design Studio and Cultural Studies courses. He is a founding partner of LOOP, a firm engaged in advanced building and design practices. Benjamin is a Candidate in the Doctoral Program in Architecture at University of Michigan writing a dissertation titled: “Without Walls: SCI-Arc and Los Angeles Architecture of the 1970s and 1980s” and has published numerous papers related to his research. He received his Bachelor of Arts at St. Olaf College and his Master of Architecture at SCI-Arc. At SCI-Arc he was honored with a distinguished graduate thesis and the Alpha Rho Chi Medal. Benjamin has worked for Morphosis Architects in Los Angeles and Paris, and George Yu Architects in Los Angeles. Previously, he has been an instructor and guest critic at University of Michigan and a guest critic at SCI-Arc, University of Kentucky, and Woodbury University.

7.

The New City, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects and owners Frederick and Laurie Smith.

8.

Morgenstern Warehouse, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

9.

Todd Gannon and Eric Owen Moss during Undergraduate Thesis, 2014.

10.

SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion Competition exhibition discussion, 2012.

11.

Eric Owen Moss Architects office, Culver City.

12.

Petal House, Los Angeles, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

13.

The Beehive, Culver City, Eric Owen Moss Architects.

7

NEWS

Support the IVRV House!

SCI-Arc & Habitat LA invite you to join in the effort to build the IVRV House by making a gift today. Since the house is entirely student designed and built with the help of volunteers, we are looking for donations and sponsorships to help build the next generation of affordable housing. We hope you will consider being part of this exciting project. For more information on the SCI-Arc & Habitat LA Housing project or about how to make a gift, please contact Morgan Quirk, Development Associate at 213-3565312 or at morgan_quirk@sciarc.edu.

SCI-ARC & HABITAT LA TO START IVRV HOUSE CONSTRUCTION THIS SUMMER In September 2014, SCI-Arc and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles announced the start of a strategic partnership tackling innovative ways to redevelop neglected properties in LA and design innovative low-income homes that would positively impact their communities. During the fall, under the coordination of design faculty Darin Johnstone, a group of graduate and undergraduate students at SCI-Arc spent their semester in studio coming up with inexpensive and simultaneously inventive design concepts for a single family home or a duplex. Sixteen schematic designs presented in mid-term reviews were narrowed down to five, and students regrouped to work on refining the selected proposals. A jury consisting of SCI-Arc faculty and Habitat for Humanity staff voted during final reviews in early December ranking each of the five shortlisted projects in categories ranging from design, to sustainable features, to affordability. Students also had the opportunity to vote for their favorite project. Based on the tally of votes, the reviewers selected the IVRV House—short for Inverse Reverse House—as the winning design incorporating both SCI-Arc design esthetics and Habitat for Humanity key concepts. The student team responsible for the winning design consisted of Deysi Blanco, Howard Chen and Sarah Mark. What impressed the jury was the IVRV team’s creative approach exploring the relationship and blur between indoor and outdoor areas while addressing the necessity for private space.

This past spring, the students’ focus shifted to the construction documentation and prototyping phase of the project. But perhaps a more pressing issue the team had to address was the urgency to raise additional funds and in-kind support to enable them to build the house in one summer. In parallel with their design studio work, students initiated an aggressive fundraising campaign to help secure funds and in-kind contributions to bring their project to life. A highlight of their outreach was an initiative to raise $50,000 on crowd funding website Indiegogo. From March to mid-May, students, alumni, parents and friends of SCI-Arc tapped into their social networks, getting the team closer and closer to their goal. Alumni reached out offering to volunteer on the construction site, and volunteering events with students and staff at the school are already in the works for the summer.

Construction of the IVRV House is scheduled to start in June on a site located in the unincorporated neighborhood of Westmont in Los Angeles. Students will be joined in their efforts by a group of trained volunteers from Habitat LA. The team is expected to complete the home by September, with the entire cost being funded through donations and in-kind sponsorships. Once complete, the home will be transferred to a Los Angeles family through Habitat LA’s established low-income housing program, and will serve as a prototype for employing non-generic solutions to affordable home design.

The program’s goal is not merely to build an individual home, but to test new grounds for design innovation and ultimately help evolve and extend Habitat LA’s standard model of affordable housing.

8

SCI-ARC PRESS LAUNCHES OFFRAMP ARCHITECTURAL JOURNAL

SCI-ARC CAMPUS SERVES AS BACKDROP FOR EXPERIMENTAL ART PROJECTS

Interpretations, distorting, bending with alternatives, lies, lying, liar. The multi-faceted nature of contemporary discourse in architecture can be conceived as a field of partial and subjective truths evidenced by its mediums and conventions. Questioning traditional notions of representation as a principal means for exchange, we ask what relation contemporary work must bear to a referent to acquire meaning. From orthographic projections and perspectival distortions to rendering curated views, optical aberrations, and texturing, our discipline offers specific forms of effect-production.

Granting that architectural representations are in themselves a form of truth, what do they actually represent? What is the nature of their plural truths? To what degrees do falsehood, deceit, fiction, and lies play in this analysis? These are some of the questions Offramp #09 sets out to ask.

Offramp is an academic journal published by SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. Between 1987 and 2000, SCI-Arc produced seven editions of Offramp, before the title was retired for a number of years. In July 2014, the school reintroduced the journal as part of the school’s Design of Theory Fellowship program led by design faculty Marcelyn Gow and Cultural Studies Coordinator Dora Epstein-Jones. The program reimagined the journal into an online publication featuring a collection of architectural essays by SCIArc alumni, faculty and members of the architectural community.

The first online issue, Offramp #09 features essays by Roxy Paine, Pita + Bloom, Perry Kulper, Uri Wegman, Joe Day (M.Arch ’94), Michael Young, Brauna Mori, Ramiro Diaz-Granados (B.Arch ’96), Debbie Garcia (B.Arch ’16), John Southern (M.Arch ’02), Laurel Broughton (M.Arch ’06) and Kyle Miller, among others.

Offramp #09 is edited by 2014-2015 SCI-Arc Fellow Benjamin J. Smith (M.Arch ’07), and previous Fellows Stefano Passeri (M.Arch ’13) and Benjamin Farnsworth (M.Arch ’13).

A transformative grant awarded by ArtPlace in 2012 gave SCI-Arc the unique opportunity to extend its conceptual design voice by building two arts venues to energize and transform its Arts District home. The first venue, called the Hispanic Steps, is designed as an indoor amphitheater located in the heart of the school. It provides an open, welcoming gathering space for lectures, performances, symposia, film series and community meetings. The second, the SCI-Arc Graduation Pavilion designed and built by P-A-T-T-E-RN-S in the school’s parking lot, serves as a multi-purpose pavilion and gathering hub. Completed in 2013, the outdoor pavilion has since become a landmark, a natural marquee for SCI-Arc’s campus and the Arts District’s largest public programming venue.

Most recently, the school’s outdoor pavilion morphed into a performance space to host the closing night of Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre’s Parts and Labor Redux. The pavilion, with its intricate system of textiles wrapped around the steel frame, served as a background for Duckler’s choreographic exploration of America’s love affair with the automobile, which featured dancers performing on and around a 1970 Cadillac Coupe de Ville parked underneath.

Coming up in the fall, SCI-Arc joins forces with The Industry to host the experimental production Hopscotch: A Mobile Opera for 18 Cars. Originated and produced by The Industry’s artistic director Yuval Sharon, the show aims to expand our traditional definition of opera. As the name suggests, the performance will take place inside 18 cars as they drive around designated routes in in Los Angeles. Audience members can ride in individual cars, or can choose to gather in the SCI-Arc parking lot, where they will be able to simultaneously watch live streams of what is happening in each of the cars, and attend the culminating moment of the show when all the cars converge on the SCI-Arc campus for a closing performance.

Offramp is available at http://offramp.sciarc.edu.

9

NEWS

TOM WISCOMBE COMPLETES SCHEMATIC DESIGN OF DTLA MUSEUM SCI-Arc design faculty Tom Wiscombe has recently completed his schematic design for the Old Bank District Museum (OBDM) commissioned by SCI-Arc trustee Tom Gilmore. Wiscombe, who heads the LA-based practice Tom Wiscombe Architecture, presented his designs to members of the LA development and arts community in late February. The OBDM is a contemporary art and design museum located in the heart of the Old Bank District of Downtown Los Angeles. The project is part adaptive reuse and part new construction, capitalizing on the tension between historical and contemporary architecture. Unlike generalizing forms of coherence we have become familiar with in this late period of digital architecture, such as smoothness and continuity, this project is based on a new, non-literal form of coherence produced by the uniqueness of specific objects and the vicarious relations between them.

Located beneath, inside of and on top of the Farmer’s & Merchant’s Bank, the Hellman Building, and the Bank House Garage at 4th and Main Street, the Museum is a three-dimensional space that weaves through these buildings, inhabiting their hidden or forgotten spaces. It is an unorthodox museum form, in the sense that it withdraws from iconicity and creates a world within a world.

The main 45,000 sq.ft. exhibition space is located in basement and

sub-basement spaces that include turn-of-the-century bank vaults that become part of the ensemble. A sequence of discrete objects draws visitors through the space. Objects penetrate through floors, peek over rooftops and inhabit dark interior voids. For the roof of the Bank House Garage, Wiscombe envisioned a 35,000 sq.ft. sculpture garden with a café and amphitheater, establishing a new ground in the city.

Wiscombe has developed an international reputation through winning competition entries, exhibitions of work at major cultural institutions and publications worldwide. Most recently, he won second place in the international competition for the Kinmen Passenger Service Center in Taiwan. Prior to founding his practice, he worked for Coop Himmelb(l)au, where he was the right hand of Principal Wolf Prix (M.Arch) for more than 10 years. He was responsible for multiple international projects and large project teams from competition through realization. In addition to leading his practice, Wiscombe is a senior faculty member at SCI-Arc teaching design in the M.Arch 2 and ESTm programs and is the Applied Studies Coordinator in charge of curriculum building and faculty recruitment.

10

SCI-ARC PRESS LAUNCHES BOOK

BY LONGTIME FACULTY MEMBER COY HOWARD

ANNA NEIMARK EXHIBITS IN GRAHAM FOUNDATION GROUP SHOW IN CHICAGO SCI-Arc design studio faculty Anna Neimark and partner Andrew Atwood of First Office exhibited their work in a Graham Foundation-funded show curated by designer Jimenez Lai. Hosted at the foundation’s Chicago headquarters, the exhibition Treatise: Why Write Alone? brought together fourteen design offices led by young, emerging designers to consider architectural treatise as a site for theoretical inquiry, experimentation and debate. Organizers proposed several questions to participants, among them: Why write? And, why write alone? In response to these questions, Treatise featured more than 200 works, from drawings and models to multi-media installations, designed by emerging practices that utilize diverse—and often unexpected—strategies, forms and materials.

The show was complemented by a publication series, also titled Treatise, published in March. Rather than a compilation or ongoing series, this set of single-authored treatises takes cues from the publication series Pamphlet Architecture as it originated in the 1970s. In contrast to Pamphlet Architecture, the Treatise project published all fourteen treatises at once in order to investigate the collective and individual stakes that emerge from assembling this temporary alliance. Exhibiting in Treaties alongside First Office were design firms Bittertang (New York); Bureau Spectacular (Chicago); CAMES/Gibson (Chicago); Design With Company (Chicago); FAKE Industries (New York); Pieterjan Ginckels (Brussels, Belgium); is-office (Chicago); Andrew Kovacs (Los Angeles); Alex Maymind (Los Angeles); Normal Kelley (Chicago and New York); Point Supreme (Athens, Greece); SOFTlab (New York); and Young & Ayata (New York).

First Office is a Los Angeles-based architecture and design collaborative founded by Andrew Atwood and Anna Neimark.

Built projects include a collaboration on the Pinterest office headquarters in San Francisco, a dome stage in Afghanistan, a temporary screening room at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, and the rehabilitation of a shotgun house in Lexington, Kentucky. Their work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad, including the Beijing Biennale, the Pacific Design Center, the WUHO Gallery, and the SCI-Arc Gallery in Los Angeles, among others.

The Thickening of Time, a new book by SCI-Arc design faculty Coy Howard, continues the school’s tradition of innovation by challenging the current status of digital architecture. Published in April by SCI-Arc Press in collaboration with the architect, the 288-page volume features Howard’s exploration of the aesthetic implication of seductive insinuations, mysterious withholdings, liminal indirections, and subtle allusions in the design of three urban rooftop villa projects. As visual synecdoche of architectural experience, the images, dramatically framed, enlarge our engagement, making us all detectives following clues, conjuring a closure that never comes.

The book features more than 100 carefully constructed and choreographed digital images embedding the deep cultural terroir of the three cities of Los Angeles, Tokyo and New York. Each of the images is constructed to engender a mood and sense of place rather than depict or illustrate an architectural concept. Fusing the avant-garde and the traditional, the designs of the villas create a poetic sense of serenity, where the desires for the future and the memories of the past are sensed simultaneously. Additionally, critical essays by Dr. George Rand, Jeffrey Kipnis and Larry Rouch position the work in a broad range of topics, including the current critical discussions on the impact of digital imagery on architecture.

Coy Howard is a designer with a broad range of interests and accomplishments. His furniture is included the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Denver Art Museum. He has won a broad range of awards for his work, and consulted as an advisor to many institutions, including The Getty Center, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In 2008, he was the Eero Saarinen Distinguished Professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. In 2012, he was the Bernoudy Architect in Residence at The American Academy in Rome.

This book, along with other SCI-Arc Press publications, is available for purchase online and at the SCI-Arc Supply Store.

11

NEWS

ELENA MANFERDINI EXHIBITS AT ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO An exhibition by SCI-Arc design faculty Elena Manferdini explores the potential of the contemporary grid, a mastering system dominant in a significant portion of the modern American cityscape. Dubbed Building the Picture, the installation of new work by Manferdini opened at the Art Institute of Chicago in March. For this new work for the Art Institute, Manferdini’s manipulation of the grid blurs the line between fashion and pattern in an architectural context and introduces a contemporary landscape with strong ties to the past. Manferdini drew inspiration from the iconic orthogonal geometries of the design of Mies van der Rohe, including his 860–880 Lake Shore Drive apartments in Chicago.

By digitally manipulating images of this internationally recognized building, whose structure is an ode to Chicago’s strict urban grid, Manferdini created an immersive environment that builds off the design. Although the image was rendered in two dimensions, the play of light, color, depth, and perspective invites the user to experience the work up close as well as from a distance. The conceptual basis for the suite of drawings presented in the show is rooted in the belief that architecture has been able to produce new models for contemporary facades and affect-driven political forms that exhibit a multidirectional, differential quality, resisting traditional protocols in which representational mechanisms can be precisely oriented. This fluidity is the symbol of a non-hierarchical,

globalized society in which buildings are viewed in context with larger political and geographical radii of influence.

Italian-born, Los Angeles-based architect Elena Manferdini has become adept at creating vibrant architectural installations that employ complex patterns, luscious colors, and rich textures to introduce new spatial and visual narratives to challenge the clean lines and abstract forms of architectural modernism. Manferdini currently teaches design studio and visual studies at SCI-Arc, and is the coordinator of the school’s graduate thesis program.

Elena Manferdini: Building the Picture is part one of a twopart series of special commissions generously supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. The show is on view through July 12 at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Elena Manferdini founded Atelier Manferdini in Bologna, Italy, and in 2009 she established her firm in Venice, Calif. She has completed art and architectural projects in the United States, Europe and Asia. Her work has been exhibited internationally at LACMA and MoCA in Los Angeles, MAXXI in Rome, and the MAK Center in Vienna. In 2006, she was invited to design the West Coast Pavilion for the United States at the Beijing Biennale hosted at the Chinese Millenium Museum. In both 2008 and 2010, she curated West Coast sessions for the United States, also at the Beijing Biennale. Manferdini teaches design studio and visual studies seminars at SCI-Arc, and currently serves as Graduate Thesis Coordinator.

12

AN ARCHITECTURAL TAKE ON THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

DESIGN FACULTY MARGARET GRIFFIN ELEVATED TO FAIA

The 2015 Conney Conference on Jewish Arts, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with the University of Southern California, featured a roster of engaging events marking the project’s 10th anniversary. Among them, a stimulating panel discussion at Doheny Library on the USC campus presented SCIArc Director Eric Owen Moss, Graduate Programs Chair Hernan Diaz Alonso, guest panelist Robert Eisenman, and design faculty Russell Thomsen, in a conversation centered on the historical, ethical and political issues behind designing a memorial for the Holocaust. Dubbed What is a Holocaust Memorial?, the conversation was spurred by a recent exhibition hosted at SCI-Arc in fall 2014, when Russell Thomsen and his late partner Eric Khan of IDEA Office presented their own take on the future of Auschwitz via a through-provoking architectural proposal for the future of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Their design called for a 30-foot-high wall of logs around the perimeter of the camp, evoking the nothingness the death camp produced by removing it wholesale from the landscape.

Architecturally, Idea Office’s Birkenau proposal has a kinship with recent memorials that mark enormous loss not with heroic statuary or traditional buildings, but by leaving a kind of void.

While Kahn and Thomsen’s proposal was an attempt to temporarily “blank” the site, rendering it inaccessible and invisible, SCIArc Director Eric Owen Moss raised the question of appropriate and inappropriate uses of the memorial, citing Peter Eisenman’s Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Thomsen readily acknowledges that the memorial proposed by his firm will not be built, as it conflicts with the official preservation plan being carried out by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. However, for architects, he believes it’s worth thinking deeply about how to create emotionally charged structures, even ones that will never be more than drawings or models.

SCI-Arc design faculty Margaret Griffin has been elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The fellowship recognizes architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture, achieving a standard of excellence in the profession. Griffin is a co-founder and principal of the Los Angeles-based Griffin Enright Architects, a collaborative practice that yields creative, forward-thinking designs. Her work combines innovation and experimentation with a desire to explore cultural complexities relative to the built environment. Recently completed projects include the Birch Residence in Los Angeles, the Balanchi Residence in Pasadena, the Williams Residence in Saratoga, and the Thaxton Office Building in Studio City. The firm is also currently in the design phase of the Beatrice Masterplan, a 200,000 sq. ft. mixed-use development including office and retail spaces in Playa Vista, as well as residences in San Diego and Los Angeles.

During an investiture ceremony held at the 2015 National AIA Convention in Atlanta, Margaret Griffin joined the ranks of several SCI-Arc directors, founders and notable alumni elected AIA Fellows since the program’s inception. SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss became an AIA Fellow in 1992; Ray Kappe, founding director, in 1969; Michael Rotondi (B.Arch ’79), second director, in 1997; Thom Mayne, trustee and founding faculty member, in 2004; and John Enright, Undergraduate Programs Chair, in 2012.

Alumni Nick Seierup (B.Arch ’79) and Steve McConnell (B.Arch ’84) became Fellows in 2006; Michael Folonis (B.Arch ’78) and David Hertz (B.Arch ’83) in 2008; and Peter Grueneisen (M.Arch ’90) in 2009. Pritzker Prize winning alumnus Shigeru Ban (’78’80) became an Honorary Fellow in 2004. Less than four percent of AIA’s membership—currently exceeding 85,000 architects—is distinguished with the FAIA honor.

FACULTY, ALUMNI ENGAGE AUDIENCES AT ACSA ANNUAL MEETING IN TORONTO

notable educators who addressed what they consider to be an ideal mission statement of architectural education. The discussion focused primarily on what is new or persistent about architecture in the 21st century. SCI-Arc design faculty Marcelyn Gow presented the paper Architecture in the Penumbra, part of a session focusing on architectural research, while design faculty Anna Neimark presented her paper, Installation Work. Design faculty David Freeland coordinated a paper session themed Architecture’s Complexity Complex, while Cultural Studies Coordinator Dora Epstein-Jones led a session dubbed From Tectonic to Technique: Adventures in Architecture’s Ontologies. Alumna Erin Bessler (M.Arch ’12) coordinated a two-part session dubbed The Problem, being joined in conversation by fellow alumnus David Eskenazi (M.Arch ’12).

A highlight of the annual ACSA meeting was the announcement of several awards. The prestigious 2015 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion was awarded to architect Peter Eisenman, FAIA, who joined ACSA President Hsinming Fung on stage to celebrate the special occasion. Next followed the 2015 Architectural Education Awards, honoring educators who inspire and challenge students through exemplary work in areas including building design, community collaborations, scholarship and service. Design faculty Marcelo Spina of SCI-Arc, along with partners Georgina Huljich and Maximiliano Spina, received an ACSA Faculty Design Award for their multi-family housing project Jujuy Redux.

A group of SCI-Arc faculty and alumni attended the 103rd annual conference hosted by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) from March 19-21, 2015 in Toronto, Canada.

The annual meeting, co-chaired by David Ruy of the Pratt Institute and Lola Sheppard of University of Waterloo, was organized under the leadership of ACSA’s Board of Directors and SCI-Arc Academic Affairs Director Hsinming Fung, who curently serves as ACSA President. Themed “The Expanding Periphery and the Migrating Center,” the conference featured more than 20 thematic sessions where faculty and alumni of SCI-Arc presented their papers and proposals alongside more than 200 faculty members from over 100 architecture schools in the U.S. and Canada. The organizers’ goal: to explore the implications of architecture’s recently colonized frontiers while also bringing scrutiny to architecture’s core discipline, and examining what remains essential within a mutable disciplinary terrain. The closing keynote at ACSA’s 103rd Annual Meeting was presented by SCI-Arc trustee and founding faculty Thom Mayne.

SCI-Arc alumnus Jason Payne (B.Arch ’94) was part of the annual meeting’s opening keynote discussion, joining a panel of

13

ALUMNI NEWS

OPEN SEASON SPRING 2015

OPEN SEASON – CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS AND YOUNG ALUMNI

Open Season Workshop Presenters: Bradford Brewer (M.Arch ’02), NAC | Architecture Luis Herrera (B.Arch ’96), L Design & Build Parini Mehta (M. Arch ’06), CO Architects Cathy Pack (M.Arch ’02), AECOM Matthew Pool (B.Arch ’13), Gensler Manori Sumanasinghe (B.Arch ’14), Hodgetts + Fung Naia Waters (’99), Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Open Season Participating Firms: (fer)studio 5+design AD&D Architecture Design & Development Architectural Photography & Design Ball-Nogues Studio Cannon Design CO Architects Connect Homes Dean Nota Architect Design Initiatives Fore Architects Gehry Partners Gensler GMPA Architects Heyday Partnership HKS Architects John Winston Studio KTGY Group L Design & Build M-Rad NAC|Architecture NBBJ Perkins+Will Perkowitz + Ruth Architects Shubin + Donaldson Architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Steinberg Architects Studio Collective WERK Westfield Withee Malcolm Architects

In the middle of preparing for thesis and the end of the spring semester, beginning to look for employment after graduation can be a daunting task for students. To support them as they begin their search, SCI-Arc hosts two annual events in March—the Open Season Workshop and Exhibition. The Alumni Council and other alumni volunteers help plan and run the workshop and volunteer at the exhibition’s opening reception. On Saturday, March 7, six alumni came to SCI-Arc for the afternoon workshop, attended by more than 40 eager undergraduate and graduate students. With their diverse backgrounds and career experiences, the alumni offered first-hand advice about searching for a job, including where to look, how to contact a potential employer, and what to do and not do during the interview process. “Participating in the resume workshop and the Open Season career event helped me identify how I wanted to practice architecture, and presented me with opportunities to pursue my career goals,” says Manori Sumanasinghe (B.Arch ’14), who participated in Open Season in Spring 2014, and this year, served on the alumni panel for the workshop.

Some of the advice to students graduating this year was very practical, including tips for formatting a resume and the suggestion to take advantage of 18 months of free AIA membership after graduation. Speaking more broadly, the alumni volunteers encouraged students to keep in mind what they want, but to be open to new opportunities. And to be prepared.

One of the key ideas behind the workshop is to prepare students for the Open Season Exhibition at the end of the month, when participating students pin up work of their choosing that best shows their skills and interests, along the walls of the school’s South Gallery. Potential employers, including studio principals, hiring managers, and alumni are invited to come and see the work, and meet students. This year, nearly 70 students, including 18 currently in undergraduate thesis, pinned up, and during the opening reception, were able to talk about their work and career interests with some of the 75 firm reps and alumni guests who attended.

Each year, students report that they made valuable connections during Open Season, which helped land them their first job. One example is ESTm alumnus Nikita Troufanov (MDesR ’14), who was recruited by Nike’s Innovation Team to work as a Computational Designer in their San Francisco office. Troufanov’s work caught Nike’s attention when a company designer and recruiter visited SCI-Arc. “They saw my project and it stood out to them as something relevant to Nike,” Nikita explains. Some students are contacted by employers well after the reception, thanks to an electronic “resume book” that each attendee is given at the event.

What drives potential employers to attend SCI-Arc’s Open Season is the opportunity to source their multi-disciplinary teams at SCI-Arc. Director of Academic Affairs Hsinming Fung touched on the idea of converging disciplines and how this trend affects SCI-Arc graduates in a recent interview with ICON Magazine.

Fung says companies building product think tanks increasingly recruit at schools such as SCI-Arc. “They’re pulling together teams of creative innovators: a designer, a scientist, a business person, an architect. They realize that, by combining talent from different disciplines, they will come up with better ideas.”

ALUMNI IN THE BAY AREA CONNECT WITH SCI-ARC On Tuesday, March 24, 2015, more than 45 alumni and friends met at BAR Architects for the SCI-Arc Bay Area Alumni Reception.

Two SCI-Arc alumni currently working at BAR, William Duncanson (B.Arch ’95) and Stephen Hegedus, AIA (B.Arch ’00), helped arrange for SCI-Arc to use the firm’s spacious offices in the Northeast Waterfront Historic District of San Francisco. SCI-Arc hosts several receptions like this around the world each year to provide alumni with an occasion to meet one another and help strengthen ties within the SCI-Arc community.

At BAR, alumni caught up over drinks and light hors d’oeuvres and then heard an update from Undergraduate Program Chair John Enright. John shared news about the well-attended spring lectures series, the construction and recent opening of the Magic Box, and the school’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity – Los Angeles this semester. John also reported on current admissions and enrollment trends, the school’s finances regarding the purchase of its current building, and the strong position in which Eric Owen Moss is leaving the school at the end of his tenure, and from which Hernan Diaz Alonso will build when he begins his directorship in September 2015. Alumni from all five decades of SCI-Arc’s history attended the gathering, as well as two former visiting students from Mexico, who now live in San Francisco.

“On top of connecting with familiar and new faces alike, I appreciated hearing John Enright’s ‘state of the union’ on what has been happening at SCI-Arc. For those of us outside of the LA area, and consumed with our professional and family lives, it’s always a good to see how the school and its education of architects is evolving,” shared Hegedus after the event. “Ditto,” added Duncanson, expressing his agreement and echoing the sentiment felt during the event among the enthusiastic group of alumni and friends.

14

Dear Alumni,

1

2

Whenever I meet fellow SCI-Arc alumni, we inevitably share stories from our time at school.

It seems that no matter when we were students, we have fond memories of Fridays at 5 – the time at the end of the week that we stepped away from studio to hang out with our classmates and teachers.

In the same spirit, this spring, the Alumni Council has launched Soirées@7, an alumni take on Fridays at 5. The first event, in what we hope will be an ongoing series, was held at Zinc Café near SCI-Arc after the Wednesday night lecture. Kevin Wronske (B.Arch ’02), partner of Heydey Partnership, served as our alumni host. By the time you read this, we will have held the second Soirée at Arup’s satellite office in downtown LA, designed by Zago Architecture, with Andrew Zago as our featured guest. We’re planning to hold these casual meet-ups throughout the year and across Los Angeles, as a way to meet and re-engage more alumni. We encourage those of you in other cities to consider hosting your own Soirées@7 to get local alumni together.

Other activities this spring include the efforts of the Media and Exhibitions Committee, which continues to publish alumni work on the Alumni Portal (sciarcalumni.org).

Please be on the lookout for a Call for Entries. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to have your work featured in association with SCI-Arc and to help exhibit how immensely talented the alumni body is. The Committee is now featuring alumni profiles on the Portal, as well, which can serve as a helpful resource for prospective students and their families.

In this issue, you can read about Open Season, led by the Open Season and Student Outreach Committee. We are working to develop more ways to connect alumni with students for career advice and professional networking. On a similar note, the Council has initiated an Entrepreneurial Committee whose aim is to assist SCI-Arc graduates and students as they establish their own ventures, by offering venues for knowledge exchange and collaboration with other industries, such as technology and finance.

I am delighted to share this Alumni Council report with you. Our goal over the year has been to engage alumni as we carry out the mission of connecting alumni to each other, the school, and students, and supporting SCI-Arc. There are still a few months of the academic year left and I hope you’ll be involved if you haven’t already. Visit the school to tour the new Magic Box, which opened its doors in January 2015; watch some of the fantastic lectures from this past semester on the SCI-Arc Media Archive (sma.sciarc.edu); or support students with a donation to SCI-Arc’s Scholarship Fund (sciarc.edu/giving.html).

Also, this fall, the Alumni Council will be electing new members; please contact Irene Mason, irene_mason@sciarc.edu, if you are interested in being involved.

Enjoy this tenth issue of the Magazine and reading about all the amazing things going on at school. I look forward to connecting with you soon.

Sincerely,

Beth Gibb (M.Arch ’89) Chair, Alumni Council 2014-15

3

SCI-ARC ALUMNI COUNCIL 2014-2015 Beth Gibb (M.Arch ’89) Luis Herrera (B.Arch ’96) Beth Holden (B.Arch ’98) Nerin Kadribegovic (M.Arch ’03) Cara Lee (M.Arch ’96) Zachery Main (B.Arch ’13) Jennifer Marmon (M.Arch ’01) Paras Nanavati (B Arch ’04) Dean Nota (B.Arch ’76) Matthew Rosenberg (M.Arch ’09) Elissa Scrafano (M.Arch ’90) Scott Sullivan (M.Arch ’99) Dana Swinsky (M.Arch ’89) Joe Tarr (M.Arch ’08) Vlado Valkof (MRD ’04) Naia Waters (’98) Dan Weinreber (M.Arch ’02)

1.

Omar Preciado, an undergraduate student, talks with SCI-Arc Trustee Tom Gilmore at Open Season.

2.

Open Season connects students with potential employers and alumni, helping them expand their professional networks before graduating.

3.

More than 120 students and guests fill the South Gallery during the Open Season Reception.

4.

William Duncanson (B.Arch ’95) talks with Gabriel Alvarez and Nicolas Backal, both former SCI-Arc exchange students, and recent grad Shuangzhi Shen (M.Arch ’14) at the San Francisco Alumni Reception at BAR Architects, where William is a senior designer.

5.

More than 40 alumni and guests attended the San Francisco Reception, including from left to right, Lisa DiazMcPeek (M.Arch ’11), Erica Nobori (M.Arch ’08), and Emily Jagoda (M. Arch ’95).

6.

Alumni, including DaeHyun David Kim (B.Arch ’14), Hazelyn Aquino (B.Arch ’14), Kevin Nguyen (B.Arch ’14), and Steve Moody (B.Arch ’13), listen to John Enright’s update about the school at the reception in San Francisco.

13

ALUMNI NEWS

OPEN SEASON SPRING 2015

OPEN SEASON – CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS AND YOUNG ALUMNI

Open Season Workshop Presenters: Bradford Brewer (M.Arch ’02), NAC | Architecture Luis Herrera (B.Arch ’96), L Design & Build Parini Mehta (M. Arch ’06), CO Architects Cathy Pack (M.Arch ’02), AECOM Matthew Pool (B.Arch ’13), Gensler Manori Sumanasinghe (B.Arch ’14), Hodgetts + Fung Naia Waters (’99), Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Open Season Participating Firms: (fer)studio 5+design AD&D Architecture Design & Development Architectural Photography & Design Ball-Nogues Studio Cannon Design CO Architects Connect Homes Dean Nota Architect Design Initiatives Fore Architects Gehry Partners Gensler GMPA Architects Heyday Partnership HKS Architects John Winston Studio KTGY Group L Design & Build M-Rad NAC|Architecture NBBJ Perkins+Will Perkowitz + Ruth Architects Shubin + Donaldson Architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Steinberg Architects Studio Collective WERK Westfield Withee Malcolm Architects

In the middle of preparing for thesis and the end of the spring semester, beginning to look for employment after graduation can be a daunting task for students. To support them as they begin their search, SCI-Arc hosts two annual events in March—the Open Season Workshop and Exhibition. The Alumni Council and other alumni volunteers help plan and run the workshop and volunteer at the exhibition’s opening reception. On Saturday, March 7, six alumni came to SCI-Arc for the afternoon workshop, attended by more than 40 eager undergraduate and graduate students. With their diverse backgrounds and career experiences, the alumni offered first-hand advice about searching for a job, including where to look, how to contact a potential employer, and what to do and not do during the interview process. “Participating in the resume workshop and the Open Season career event helped me identify how I wanted to practice architecture, and presented me with opportunities to pursue my career goals,” says Manori Sumanasinghe (B.Arch ’14), who participated in Open Season in Spring 2014, and this year, served on the alumni panel for the workshop.

Some of the advice to students graduating this year was very practical, including tips for formatting a resume and the suggestion to take advantage of 18 months of free AIA membership after graduation. Speaking more broadly, the alumni volunteers encouraged students to keep in mind what they want, but to be open to new opportunities. And to be prepared.

One of the key ideas behind the workshop is to prepare students for the Open Season Exhibition at the end of the month, when participating students pin up work of their choosing that best shows their skills and interests, along the walls of the school’s South Gallery. Potential employers, including studio principals, hiring managers, and alumni are invited to come and see the work, and meet students. This year, nearly 70 students, including 18 currently in undergraduate thesis, pinned up, and during the opening reception, were able to talk about their work and career interests with some of the 75 firm reps and alumni guests who attended.

Each year, students report that they made valuable connections during Open Season, which helped land them their first job. One example is ESTm alumnus Nikita Troufanov (MDesR ’14), who was recruited by Nike’s Innovation Team to work as a Computational Designer in their San Francisco office. Troufanov’s work caught Nike’s attention when a company designer and recruiter visited SCI-Arc. “They saw my project and it stood out to them as something relevant to Nike,” Nikita explains. Some students are contacted by employers well after the reception, thanks to an electronic “resume book” that each attendee is given at the event.

What drives potential employers to attend SCI-Arc’s Open Season is the opportunity to source their multi-disciplinary teams at SCI-Arc. Director of Academic Affairs Hsinming Fung touched on the idea of converging disciplines and how this trend affects SCI-Arc graduates in a recent interview with ICON Magazine.

Fung says companies building product think tanks increasingly recruit at schools such as SCI-Arc. “They’re pulling together teams of creative innovators: a designer, a scientist, a business person, an architect. They realize that, by combining talent from different disciplines, they will come up with better ideas.”

6

ALUMNI IN THE BAY AREA CONNECT WITH SCI-ARC On Tuesday, March 24, 2015, more than 45 alumni and friends met at BAR Architects for the SCI-Arc Bay Area Alumni Reception.

Two SCI-Arc alumni currently working at BAR, William Duncanson (B.Arch ’95) and Stephen Hegedus, AIA (B.Arch ’00), helped arrange for SCI-Arc to use the firm’s spacious offices in the Northeast Waterfront Historic District of San Francisco. SCI-Arc hosts several receptions like this around the world each year to provide alumni with an occasion to meet one another and help strengthen ties within the SCI-Arc community.

At BAR, alumni caught up over drinks and light hors d’oeuvres and then heard an update from Undergraduate Program Chair John Enright. John shared news about the well-attended spring lectures series, the construction and recent opening of the Magic Box, and the school’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity – Los Angeles this semester. John also reported on current admissions and enrollment trends, the school’s finances regarding the purchase of its current building, and the strong position in which Eric Owen Moss is leaving the school at the end of his tenure, and from which Hernan Diaz Alonso will build when he begins his directorship in September 2015. Alumni from all five decades of SCI-Arc’s history attended the gathering, as well as two former visiting students from Mexico, who now live in San Francisco.

“On top of connecting with familiar and new faces alike, I appreciated hearing John Enright’s ‘state of the union’ on what has been happening at SCI-Arc. For those of us outside of the LA area, and consumed with our professional and family lives, it’s always a good to see how the school and its education of architects is evolving,” shared Hegedus after the event. “Ditto,” added Duncanson, expressing his agreement and echoing the sentiment felt during the event among the enthusiastic group of alumni and friends.

14

Dear Alumni, Whenever I meet fellow SCI-Arc alumni, we inevitably share stories from our time at school.

It seems that no matter when we were students, we have fond memories of Fridays at 5 – the time at the end of the week that we stepped away from studio to hang out with our classmates and teachers.

In the same spirit, this spring, the Alumni Council has launched Soirées@7, an alumni take on Fridays at 5. The first event, in what we hope will be an ongoing series, was held at Zinc Café near SCI-Arc after the Wednesday night lecture. Kevin Wronske (B.Arch ’02), partner of Heydey Partnership, served as our alumni host. By the time you read this, we will have held the second Soirée at Arup’s satellite office in downtown LA, designed by Zago Architecture, with Andrew Zago as our featured guest. We’re planning to hold these casual meet-ups throughout the year and across Los Angeles, as a way to meet and re-engage more alumni. We encourage those of you in other cities to consider hosting your own Soirées@7 to get local alumni together.

Other activities this spring include the efforts of the Media and Exhibitions Committee, which continues to publish alumni work on the Alumni Portal (sciarcalumni.org).

Please be on the lookout for a Call for Entries. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to have your work featured in association with SCI-Arc and to help exhibit how immensely talented the alumni body is. The Committee is now featuring alumni profiles on the Portal, as well, which can serve as a helpful resource for prospective students and their families.

In this issue, you can read about Open Season, led by the Open Season and Student Outreach Committee. We are working to develop more ways to connect alumni with students for career advice and professional networking. On a similar note, the Council has initiated an Entrepreneurial Committee whose aim is to assist SCI-Arc graduates and students as they establish their own ventures, by offering venues for knowledge exchange and collaboration with other industries, such as technology and finance.

I am delighted to share this Alumni Council report with you. Our goal over the year has been to engage alumni as we carry out the mission of connecting alumni to each other, the school, and students, and supporting SCI-Arc. There are still a few months of the academic year left and I hope you’ll be involved if you haven’t already. Visit the school to tour the new Magic Box, which opened its doors in January 2015; watch some of the fantastic lectures from this past semester on the SCI-Arc Media Archive (sma.sciarc.edu); or support students with a donation to SCI-Arc’s Scholarship Fund (sciarc.edu/giving.html).

Also, this fall, the Alumni Council will be electing new members; please contact Irene Mason, irene_mason@sciarc.edu, if you are interested in being involved.

Enjoy this tenth issue of the Magazine and reading about all the amazing things going on at school. I look forward to connecting with you soon.

Sincerely,

Beth Gibb (M.Arch ’89) Chair, Alumni Council 2014-15

SCI-ARC ALUMNI COUNCIL 2014-2015 Beth Gibb (M.Arch ’89) Luis Herrera (B.Arch ’96) Beth Holden (B.Arch ’98) Nerin Kadribegovic (M.Arch ’03) Cara Lee (M.Arch ’96) Zachery Main (B.Arch ’13) Jennifer Marmon (M.Arch ’01) Paras Nanavati (B Arch ’04) Dean Nota (B.Arch ’76) Matthew Rosenberg (M.Arch ’09) Elissa Scrafano (M.Arch ’90) Scott Sullivan (M.Arch ’99) Dana Swinsky (M.Arch ’89) Joe Tarr (M.Arch ’08) Vlado Valkof (MRD ’04) Naia Waters (’98) Dan Weinreber (M.Arch ’02)

1.

Omar Preciado, an undergraduate student, talks with SCI-Arc Trustee Tom Gilmore at Open Season.

2.

Open Season connects students with potential employers and alumni, helping them expand their professional networks before graduating.

3.

More than 120 students and guests fill the South Gallery during the Open Season Reception.

4.

William Duncanson (B.Arch ’95) talks with Gabriel Alvarez and Nicolas Backal, both former SCI-Arc exchange students, and recent grad Shuangzhi Shen (M.Arch ’14) at the San Francisco Alumni Reception at BAR Architects, where William is a senior designer.

5.

More than 40 alumni and guests attended the San Francisco Reception, including from left to right, Lisa DiazMcPeek (M.Arch ’11), Erica Nobori (M.Arch ’08), and Emily Jagoda (M. Arch ’95).

6.

Alumni, including DaeHyun David Kim (B.Arch ’14), Hazelyn Aquino (B.Arch ’14), Kevin Nguyen (B.Arch ’14), and Steve Moody (B.Arch ’13), listen to John Enright’s update about the school at the reception in San Francisco.

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ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI RECEIVE AWARD TO DEVELOP DIGITAL TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN DESIGN

BARBARA BESTOR DESIGNS DAYTIME DISCO FOR BEATS BY DRE SCI-Arc alumna Barbara Bestor (M.Arch ’92) has been at work on a large scale project involving the redesign of the Beats by Dre headquarters in Culver City, Calif. At 105,000 sq. ft., the office space is one of the larger projects her Silver Lake-based firm has taken on. Bestor Architecture worked with workplace consultant Loescher + Meachem Architects to develop a scheme that could accommodate working environments for three CEOs, four executives, and 650 employees across more than a dozen departments that span software (Beats Music) to hardware (Beats Electronics).

The design was completed in spring of 2014 before Apple acquired Beats.

When first approached to design the Beats headquarters, Bestor thought of Silent Disco, an experimental site-specific installation she created for the SCI-Arc Gallery back in 2011. “Daytime disco is not a bad model for an office,” thought Bestor, recalling her SCIArc installation. Known for her use of color and patterning, for the Beats interior Bestor combined spaces saturated in deep blue and red paint with custom op-art wallpaper. Three elements organize the office layout: a long, two-story lobby that cuts across the building’s short axis and two courtyards, one all-white and dedicated to marketing and a deep blue courtyard for operations. A bit of an oversized thoroughfare during the day, Bestor designed the lobby to function as a place for Beats Electronics President Luke Wood’s legendarily inspiring all-hands meetings where the whole company gathers in the space. Beats is a Southern Californian company and Bestor’s design underlines that connection to L.A.’s history, landscape, and culture with a series of photo murals by photographer Iwan Baan in 10 of the conference and break-out rooms. The aerial images depict neighborhoods such as Silver Lake, Holmby Hills, and Hollywood Hills, as well as the abstractions of freeway interchanges and the oil pumpjacks bobbing away in Baldwin Hills.

Earlier this year, Bestor was announced as winner of the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2015 National Honor Award for Interior Architecture for the Beats by Dre design. She received the award at a public ceremony held at the AIA’s National Convention in Atlanta, and celebrated alongside fellow SCI-Arc alumni and faculty who gathered for a SCI-Arc reception hosted at the convention. Her firm was also honored with Interior Design’s Best of Year Award in the Large Office: Creative category for the office design.

Bestor, who recently married writer, director and producer Tom Stern, is currently at work renovating the renowned Silvertop residence designed by John Lautner, which was recently acquired

by Wood.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected alumni Peter Arnold (M.Arch ’94) and Hadley Arnold (M.Arch ’94) of Woodbury University’s Arid Lands Institute as winners of the 2015 Latrobe Prize for their “Drylands Resilience Initiative: Digital Tools for Sustainable Urban Design in Arid and Semi-Arid Urban Centers.” The Latrobe Prize, named for architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, is awarded biennially by the AIA College of Fellows for a two-year program of research leading to significant advances in the architecture profession. The $100,000 award will enable the Arid Lands Institute and its cross-disciplinary partners to further develop and test a proprietary digital design tool, known as “Hazel,” that eventually will enable arid communities anywhere to design and build the infrastructure needed to capture, retain and distribute stormwater runoff. The jury was particularly impressed with the research plan, the working partnerships that are part of the proposal, and the social justice at the center of the research.

As founders and co-directors of the Arid Lands Institute, Peter and Hadley Arnold strive to train designers and citizens to innovate in response to hydrologic variability brought on by climate change.

Part of their research, they created a stormwater runoff model based on 30-year precipitation data, assessed soil types and ground surface impermeability, and analyzed zones contaminated with chemicals to pinpoint areas in the valley best suited for stormwater infiltration and capture. Their Drylands Resilience Initiative addresses the critical global issue of securing low-carbon and sustainable urban water supplies within arid urban centers. The proposed technology to be funded by the Latrobe Prize builds on previous public and private sector funded research to maximize low-carbon localized water supply, shape water-smart urban planning, zoning and building policy, as well as develop pilot projects that are scalable and replicable. The resulting digital tool should enable engineers and architects to make more thoughtful decisions on the integration of stormwater capture and reuse in their projects.

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SCI-ARC ALUMNUS PRESENTS CHALLENGE TO BOLSTER ALUMNI SUPPORT

ALUMNI COMPLETE INSTALLATION AT OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY SCI-Arc design faculty Ramiro Diaz-Granados (B.Arch ’96) of Los Angeles-based Amorphis, in collaboration with alumnus Matthew Au (M.Arch ’11), recently completed an interior intervention for a new building on the campus of Oregon State University.

Titled Afterglow, their design was installed in the university’s new Student Experience Center (SEC), injecting a vibrantly colored set of surfaces that produce an atmospheric effect similar to afterglows—an optical phenomena associated with the scattering of light particles during sunset.

Build out of laser-cut aluminum sheets and anodized with gradient color, the design adheres to and takes its cues from the center’s architecture, serving as an eccentric counterpart to the building’s exterior facades. While the exterior of the building is intended to be contextual with the larger campus setting, the interior lobby has baroque ambitions. The plan geometry defining the lobby is comprised of irregular and overlapping shapes based on a composition of arcs. As a result, the building’s interior has no single center, but several multiplied centers which are indexed in radial lines that break down the surfaces into strips, overwhelming the space with color, luminosity, shape and texture. The main ceiling piece signals a frustration of the space with not terminating in a dome or atrium and is composed of an inverted ridgeline figure surrounding an ovoid plane of mirrored tiles. OSU’s Student Experience Center opened to the public at the end of April.

From roughly 2,500 miles away in Florida, William Wietsma (B.Arch ’77) looks back fondly to his time as a student at SCIArc’s first campus in the 1970s. Now, as an alumnus, he has been in touch from a distance, through communications from the school and re-connecting at an alumni event in Miami last April. A real estate developer and licensed architect, Bill says his education at SCI-Arc helped him learn how to rationalize and solve complex problems, which has had an impact on his career ever since. He is president and owner of Wietsma Lippolis Construction, an architecture and construction company that designs and builds luxury homes in South Florida.

After Bill and his wife, Caroline, attended a SCI-Arc event last spring, Bill was interested in renewing his support of SCI-Arc (the couple had generously contributed to the 2010 Annual Fund). As the Wietsmas considered making a donation, Bill says he felt compelled to do more than just write a check. He wanted to help motivate other alumni to join him and help build a stronger fundraising program for the school.

Intent on finding a way to increase support of SCI-Arc from fellow alumni, Bill proposed a challenge that is currently in place.

He and Caroline will match all donations of $1,000 or more from alumni given from December 2014 through December 2015. For every $4,000 in new alumni dollars, the Wietsmas will contribute $1,000, up to a combined total of $100,000. The goal of the 2015 Alumni Challenge is to increase the number of alumni who support the school annually at the leadership level of $1,000 or more, and to raise a record amount in annual fund dollars. Donors who participate in the Challenge will be part of the school’s inaugural Director’s Circle, a group representing leadership donors who are committed to SCI-Arc, its future and its students. SCI-Arc has already seen a few alumni sign on for the challenge, with some choosing to make monthly contributions of $83 for a year to complete their pledge.

Looking forward, the 2015 Alumni Challenge lays the foundation for building a more robust fundraising program at the school.

“Our hope is that this becomes ongoing,” say Bill. “We are happy to be able to propose this first Challenge and help the school start the Director’s Circle.” As momentum builds, the Wietsmas are eager to partner with alumni who will step forward and join the launch of the Director’s Circle, a key program in the school’s overall development strategy. Gifts to any designation count toward Director’s Circle recognition. If you are interested in participating in the 2015 Alumni Challenge, please contact Irene Mason, Associate Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Affairs, at irene_mason@ sciarc.edu or 213-356-5388.

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CLASS NOTES

1970s

Sam Lubell of Architect’s Newspaper interviewed SCI-Arc honorary trustee Michael Rotondi (B.Arch ’73), who was awarded the Richard J. Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence from Cal Poly Pomona.

Michael Folonis, FAIA (B.Arch ’78) was the recipient of a 2014 Honor Award from the Society of American Registered Architects for the 16th Street UCLA Outpatient Surgery and Oncology Center in Santa Monica.

Last year, he was invited by the San Francisco AIA to speak on a panel regarding “Design Excellence in Healthcare, as well as the 2014 National AIA Convention in Chicago where he addressed the topic of “Small Firm Sustainable Strategies.”

Steven Lombardi (B.Arch ’79), in collaboration with Collective Magpie, will create the “Weightless Lounge” for the San Diego Art Fair, which will take place this fall in Balboa Park, Calif. The installation will feature an air filled cube sculpture, air filled seating and plywood tables.

1980s

In Memory: Gillian Rendle Stromberg (B.Arch ’80) of Healdsburg, Calif., passed away at the age of 75, after a multi-year long battle with ALS. Born in London, England, Gillian moved in the early 1960s to Argentina and then to Brazil with her husband, Martin Woods. Gillian was active in small theatre productions. In Brazil, she met her eventual husband of more than 30 years, Robert Weiner. From 1970 until the early 2000s she raised her children in Texas and Southern California, where she practiced as a licensed architect and established a gourmet cafe and catering business. In addition, she became a successful realtor. Gillian served on the board of the Raven Theatre and the Healdsburg Animal Shelter. She was an avid gardener and her garden was featured in Sunset Magazine (Sept. 2007). She is survived by her husband, Ross Stromberg, who she married in 2006; her two children; her brother; and her stepchildren, grandchildren, and numerous cousins.

The Los Angeles Times featured Emily Ain (M.Arch ’83), who together with her husband, has been at work on their Modernist house in Beverly Crest for 17 years.

Shigeru Ban (B.Arch ’87-’89) received the 2015 Posey Leadership Award from Austin College in March. An exhibit of his work called Shigeru Ban: Humanitarian Architecture was featured at the Dallas Center for Architecture.

The Los Angeles Times highlighted the sale of Anne Troutman’s (M.Arch ’87) Santa Monica loft-like home. The living space, originally a century-old Methodist church, later served as the Patriotic Hall for the Women’s Relief Corps. Troutman and Aleks Instanbullu Architects restored the historical landmark while converting the building into a loft.

1990s

Alumni from the class of 1990 celebrated their 25th reunion in April with a weekend of festivities in Los Angeles. Alumni gathered in Mid-City, Venice, and downtown LA at SCI-Arc to catch up with one another and former faculty and friends of the class.

On Saturday, alumni and their guests had dinner at the top of the Hispanic Steps at SCI-Arc after the Spring Show Opening Reception, where they had the chance to see work of students at SCI-Arc today and find familiar ground with their time as undergraduate and graduate programs.

Peter Grueneisen, (M.Arch ’90) and his firm, nonzero\architecture, recently completed a two-story building in Santa Monica, Calif., as part of a series of projects for noted film composer Hans Zimmer. Other recently completed projects include a film post-production facility for Shochiku MediaWorx in Tokyo and several projects for Japanese musician Yoshiki in Hollywood. Convo

by Design’s podcast interview with Grueneisen is available on iTunes.

Michael Poris, AIA (M.Arch ’90), principal of Detroit-based McIntosh Poris Associates (MPA), was awarded two AIA Detroit Honor Awards for the designs of Brizola Restaurant at Greektown Casnio and the Woodward Garden Theater renovations, both in Detroit. The Woodward Garden Theater and Apartments also received the 2014 CREW Special Impact Award and the 2013 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Global Award for Excellence, the latter of which was one of ten projects selected globally and one of the two in the United States. Poris is currently working on a 100-room boutique hotel conversion of the old Detroit Fire Department Headquarters, as well as a new 185unit multi-family project in Lafayette Park called Du Charme Place.

Andreas Angelidakis’s (B.Arch ’92) exhibition this spring at the New Institute Museum Park in Rotterdam, dubbed 1:1 Period Rooms, explored the mechanisms of fakeness in architecture and the ways in which art is presented to the public.

Barbara Bestor (M.Arch ‘92) and Bestor Architecture received one of eight 2015 AIA Honor Awards for Interior Architecture for the Beats By Dre Headquarters in Culver City, Calif.

The project was one of two winning entries in California. “We love the young, hip vibe-the design is not over the top and could be relevant for a long time,” wrote the jury. The firm was also honored with Interior Design’s Best of Year Award in the Large Office: Creative category for the office design.

Arch Daily highlighted the creation of Pavilion –S a multifunctional annex of a Veracruz City, Mexico. Pavilion –S is a home that was designed by Luis Manuel Herrera Gil (M.Arch ’93) and a small team of other architects.

Landscape Architecture Magazine’s January 2015 issue featured the

Longworth Residence’s landscape remodel designed by Pejman Berjis (B.Arch ’92) and his firm Studio H20.

Benita Welch (M.Arch ’93), principal of GKV Architects, was the architect for the recently completed Zuma New York, a high-profile, 24,000-square-foot restaurant located in New York City.

Current projects include the historic Thompson Hotel, the new office design for Rockrose, and the Beekman, a 340,000-square-foot project involving the restoration of a NYC landmark and the construction of a new 46 story mixed-use building in downtown Manhattan.

Heidi Kahn (M.Arch ’93), founder of KAHN architecture in New York, was chosen as one of SmartCEO’s Future 50 winners. The organization’s Future50 award program recognizes the fastest growing, entrepreneurial companies in the greater New York area.

Azure Magazine’s Jan/Feb 2015 issue featured the C-Glass House designed

by SCI-Arc trustee Joe Day (M.Arch ’94) and his firm Deegan-Day Design.

Vietnam Bridge featured an exhibition by Hoanh Tran (M.Arch ’95) and partner Archie Pizzini of HTA + pizzini based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Their show included photo and text-based works and installations that highlight the concepts driving their architectural practice and reveal their creative responses to the city.

Anthony Fontenot (M.Arch ’96)’s indepth essay, “Notes Toward a History of Non-Planning,” was published in Places Journal. Fontenot is currently an associate professor at Woodbury University School for Architecture.

Lifo, a Greek publication, profiled Constantine Lambrinopoulos (M.Arch ‘96) of Athens-based architectural firm Klab, whose redesign of the Andronikos Hotel on the island of Mykonos received international acclaim.

Beth Holden (B.Arch ’98), principal of New Theme, has been working on several projects in downtown Los Angeles, including the renovation of the 101-year-old Globe Theatre on Broadway and adaptive reuse of the Regent Theater on Main Street in the Historic Core.

Roberto Biaggi (M.Arch ’99) and Celso Gonzalez (B.Arch ’95-’98) are at work on a 300-feet mural in the city of San Juan, the country’s capital in the Porto Rican town of Guaynabo.

The two met at SCI-Arc in the late ‘90s and founded the design practice Zero Design based in Puerto Rico.

2000s

Alan Loomis (M.Arch ’00) has been promoted to Deputy Director for Urban Design and Mobility in the City of Glendale Community Development Department. In addition to overseeing urban design strategy, design review and preservation, his new responsibilities include overseeing all transit and transportation planning for the City of Glendale.

Jennifer Marmon (M.Arch ’01) and her firm, PAR designed new galleries for Ibid in London and Los Angeles. In the latter location, the gallery expanded into the historic urban fabric of the Los Angeles Arts District. The project involved transforming an abandoned garage warehouse and large courtyard into a 12,000-square-foot exhibition and event outpost. Marmon was also featured in a Next Progressives centerfold piece for Architect Magazine.

In the article, Marmon mentioned that earning her M.Arch from SCI-Arc was highly influential to the direction of her practice.

Heather Flood (M.Arch ’04)’s SCIArc Gallery show, Punk’d, was named among Critic’s Picks: 2014 Top 10 Exhibitions in Los Angeles by Art Ltd. Magazine.

Kasper Guldager Jorgensen (M.Arch ’04) was a featured speaker at Risk 2015, a national architecture conference in Melbourne in May 2015.

He is an innovator and developer at 3XN, and a partner and director of GXN, an internal innovation unit established in 2007 to exploit the possibilities of applying the latest knowledge and technology to design and architecture.

Deborah Schneiderman, RA, LEED AP (M.Arch ’96), associate professor of interior design at the Pratt Institute, paired with artist Bishakh Som to create Prefab Bathroom and Beyond: An Architectural Graphic Novel, published

by McFarland in the fall of 2014. This is her second book.

Jody Beck (M.Arch ’06) and RossAlan Tisdale (M.Arch ’06), principals at Traction Architecture, participated in the “Lights on Tampa 2015” event in downtown Tampa, Fla., which featured the duo’s public art project, Sky Striker.

The project involved rigging a carnival high-striker machine to Tampa’s iconic Rivergate Tower so that 240 LED light fixtures would illuminate the 31 floor cylindrical skyscraper, depending on how hard the machine was struck.

The installation tapped into collective childhood memories of carnivals and harkened back to the historic site of the Florida State fairgrounds.

Can Sucuoglu (M.Arch ’07) and Elif Ensari (M.Arch ’08) of Turkey, designed a series of modular floating docks that extend into the Gulf of Izmir, transforming Izmir’s waterfront and allowing the city’s residents to experience the sea up close. Each of the docks is four meters squared, sealed with marine glue and designed to be used for fishing, reading and sunbathing. The set includes a shaded module for drinking Turkish coffee, as well as a selfie platform.

Pittsburgh News featured Nina Barbuto (Mediascapes ’08) in their 2015 people-to-meet list of 10 People Making Their Mark on Pittsburgh.

Barbuto recently founded the Assemble Gallery in a storefront in Garfield’s Penn Avenue Arts District, with a mission of connecting people through DIY workshops and hosting events focused

18

on art, technology, science and math.

Matthew Rosenberg (M. Arch ‘09)’s studio M-Rad was featured in ArchDaily for a proposal involving live-work towers in downtown Las Vegas.

KQED featured SCI-Arc faculty Ilaria Mazzoleni and alumni Maya Alam (M.Arch ‘11), Astri Bang (UG ‘10) and Janni S. Pedersen (UG ‘11), profiling their design of a banana-slug inspired greenhouse prototype, equipped with special silicone units that capture and release water.

stemming from the content of the conference.

Rachel Bagan (B.Arch ’14) has been working as a designer at Omgivning, an architectural firm in downtown Los Angeles, while making her way towards becoming a licensed architect. On the side, she has been developing a personal jewelry line called DNRMYNT and was recently featured as a designer in a RAW Artistic Showcase held in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.

2010s

Marcus Friesl (M.Arch ’07) and Teri Moore (B.Arch ’07) are founders of architectural film Moore+Friesl. There current projects include a grand display in New York at the Museum of Moving Image, a flagship boutique for Van Cleef & Arpels, and the Lincoln Square Synagogue.

Yaohua Wang (B.Arch ‘10) won the Harvard GSD’s 2014 James Templeton Kelley Prize for Best M.Arch II Thesis for his project, “Salvaged Stadium.”

His design proposal is regarding the adaptation of Olympic stadiums worldwide that face issues of post-event sustainability.

Matthew Noe (M.Arch ’11) works in the DC office of HKS Architects where he was responsible for the design refinements and detail documentation of the Capital One World Headquarters’ main entry canopy, a complex and dynamic sculptural form at the base of the 31-story tower. He also recently completed the HKS Fellowship design competition where his team created small interventions in Anacostia, a lowincome neighborhood in DC. Future projects include leading the design and building of the 2015 USGBC Green Build Conference Legacy project, in which HKS partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank to add an outdoor kitchen to their existing Urban Garden.

Their collaborative “Urban Food Studio” was selected out of four finalists for USGBC funding and will begin construction this summer.

Erin Besler (M.Arch ’12) was elected by the Museum of Modern Art as one of five finalists for its 2015 Young Architects Program, an annual competition to design and build an outdoor space for the summer at the museum’s PS1 satellite location in Long Island City, NY. She has also been selected to participate in the Chicago Architecture Biennial in the fall.

Ralph Spencer Steenblik (M.Arch ’12) organized “Sculpting the Architectural Mind,” a symposium held at Pratt Institute in New York City. The conference included many esteemed speakers including Sanford Kwinter, Harry Francis Mallgrave, and others. The conference was co-organized with Dan Bucsescu and along with Pratt Institute and was sponsored by the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture.

Ralph has been approached by several publishers regarding an edited volume

Alumni and faculty guests at the Class of 1990 25th Reunion dinner at SCI-Arc on April 25, 2015 (from left to right) Top row: Alan Hess, Elissa Scrafano, Elizabeth Gibb, Matthew Fineout; 4th row: Robert Mangurian, Mary-Ann Ray, Ron Verdier, Hassan Majd, Bob Bangham, Jerry Sullivan, Brenda Economides; 3rd row: Yasi Vafai, Susan Narduli, Tami Wedekind, Dane Twichell, Cynthia Carlson, Peter Grueneisen; 2nd row: Michael Poris, Andreas Hierholzer, Lauren Maass, Birgitte Bear Verburgt; Front row: Geoffrey Kahn, Andre Bilokur, Benjamin Marcus, Tracy Levine, Spike Wolff

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE 960 EAST 3RD ST. LOS ANGELES, CA 90013

Photograph by Stephanie Atlan