C O V E R
S T O R Y
Culturally Relevant Architectural designer thrills to a Venice vibe PHOTOS BY LUIS CHAVEZ
W
By Bridgette M. Redman hen Tima Bell’s stepmother, the swimmer and actress Esther Williams, learned that he’d completed a degree in architecture, her response was, “Ah, you can finally fix my cabinets.” It was just one example of how people misunderstand and minimize the work that architectural designers do. Everyone, it seems, who has any sort of do-it-yourself sense thinks they know what architects do, but they are often blissfully unaware of the many skills and details that go into the work. Bell, the co-founder of Venicebased Relativity Architects, is a lifelong Venice resident. There were times he resided elsewhere, but the beaches and culture of Venice always called him back. It is for this reason he carries a deep resonance with the city, its architecture and the types of projects that fit in with its character and people. One of his most recent projects was the Venice V Hotel, a boutique property with rooms that reflect the culture and history of Venice. He and his partner, architect Scott Sullivan, met in graduate school and immediately realized they had similar outlooks on architecture. While they practiced separately for a while, they rejoined forces in 2013 to create Relativity Architects where they pursue culturally relevant architecture. Other projects have included the “Dancing with the Stars” studio, Capture Studios, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Imagine Village Apartments, The Gables Restaurant, and Hal’s Bar and Grill. Bell stressed that they are not a stylistic firm and they don’t have a specific typology. “What we design is always contextual,” Bell said. “We are spread against all different kinds of buildings from motion picture studios to housing. With this particular project of hospitality (The Venice V Hotel), it was informed by my growing up here.” He explained that he has spent at least half of every decade since
the 1970s here. His parents came to Santa Monica to go to school and he described that they were deeply immersed in the hippie culture. “I was naked until I was 8,” Bell joked. He grew up on 25th Street and said he was surrounded by hippies, bohemians, actors, people who didn’t have a lot of money — and, of course, skaters. They all congregated at the Venice Beach area, he said, adding that it was a beautiful place to grow up. Then his parents divorced and his mom moved back to Maine. He would go back and forth between them, spending six months with his father and six months with his mother. After he went to college (he got a BFA from Rice University in Texas and a master’s in architecture from the Southern California Institute for Architecture), he settled in Venice. Bell did move for a while to the Valley, a place he described as “stifling” and without the character that Venice has. “I had 10 years of dark ages in the Valley and then I came back,” Bell said. “I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take being away from the beach and that environment.”
When designing, there’s no place like home
Venice resident Tima Bell is the cofounder of Relativity Architects, a Venice-based architecture and design firm.
PAGE 10 THE ARGONAUT SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
It is that sort of love and passion that Bell brings to his Venice projects. He explained that he has a context that he can bring to all his works. With the Venice V project, he added that he worked in hospitality for 28 years and is very aware of what contemporary hotel needs are. “I’m aware of all the different aspects of Venice, from the very bottom, the meth addicts, to the billionaires. I can see in between those and there is a common ground that can be conveyed in the work and we’ve been able to do that consistently,” Bell said. Bell also has all the right contacts, contacts that go beyond commissioning artists or the usual contractors. He described how the client at the hotel was worried about the skater guest-
