#AIACALIF #MDC 3: Interview with Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA PS COVID-19

April 03, 2020

#AIACALIF #MDC 3: Interview with Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA PS COVID-19

Angela Brooks, FAIA & Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA
of Brooks + Scarpa, Architects

LISTEN HERE for PODCAST w/ LAWRENCE SCARPA, FAIA

This blog was done a little late in the game, but as things would have it, it turned out to be a good thing as we don't know when we are going to be back at a conference like this one. For most of us who attend these events, we enjoy getting together and we enjoy the interpersonal relationships that we have. Architecture is one of the most tightly knit, albeit incestuous professions that I know of. I can remember talking with the pastor of our church, now the bishop of our synod of the ELCA, about how we were talking to our professors and he said, "Do your professors remember you? I would be surprised if anyone from college remembers me at all." And i said, "well, architecture is a pretty close profession and there aren't very many of us really, we tend to know each other from school or work"

The last days and speakers of MDC 2019

You can see the list of speakers in the MDC link that is here

MDC 2019 Conference and List of Speakers and Schedule

but what I really want to post right now so that I can really just show the freedom to socialize that was happening so few months ago as opposed to where we are right now. And we will return to those days hopefully soon. Practice this new term and habit that we have come to know as "social distancing" and I hope to see you IRL real soon!!!

One person (not in the architecture profession, ore really not in any profession, had said to me, as to my position on the planning commission, about recusing myself from any projects where I knew the architect and I said, "I would be recusing myself from every other project, and I would be more suspect of an architect who didn't know any of the architects that were coming before them for review, as that would say to me that the person really didn't practice or wasn't up to date on current architectural issues."

I also have to say that I am so proud of my profession, as much as people may think that we are opinionated, stubborn, sometimes elitist, though we are like the cobbler's children who don't have shoes, we are also some of the most forward thinking, empathetic people one will ever meet. We are problem solvers and as such, we look for solutions. I do not know how I would have made it through the last few years without the help of other architects encouraging me and giving me opportunities to grow as an architect and as a person and I am very grateful for that.

Bob Harris of Lake Flato Architects talks about
RESONANCE: Nature, Place, Craft & Restraint

Bob Harris of Lake Flato Architects
I have always liked this firm's work even before they were "that popular" or a "big firm" but as usual this firm's work and their presentations (I also saw another firm principal present at the AIA CRAN Symposium in Scottsdale) are just always a firm that has good work. And Bob Harris just seems like "someone who is a starchitect who seems like they would be a nice person and fun to hang out with" as my archifriend said in one of his blogs. I told that same friend, "well, I don't know if he is fun to hang out with but he was nice when I got coffee next to him in line at the MDC." And Angie and I refer to their work and regionalism in the interview that she and I did that night after the speakers were done that night.

ANACAPA

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu of Neri and Hu

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu (Neri and Hu): Obsessions and Disappearing Villages
A firm that is based in China, their work and presentation was both humorous and seductive, and a forewarning that we do may have to do things that we as Americans never feel like we have to worry about, "the home of the free and the brave" has become a condition that we are questioning in more ways than one, politically and socially and culturally.

Paul Kephart and Marta Kephart (RANA): Lightened Footprints, Natural Landscapes
If I could find these products that they were making out of almond hulls, please let me know. I am just fascinated by the planting of seeds, plants and ideas that this firm has in the beautiful area of Northern California and it still has me thinking about landscape architecture and it's important relationship to our profession.

the last day at MDC: morning of my birthday

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA

Principal, Brooks + Scarpa Architects

Biography

The work of Lawrence Scarpa has redefined the role of the architect to produce some of the most remarkable and exploratory work today. He does this, not by escaping the restrictions of practice, but by looking, questioning and reworking the very process of design and building. Each project appears as an opportunity to rethink the way things normally get done – with material, form, construction, even financing – and to subsequently redefine it to cull out its latent potentials – as Scarpa aptly describes: making the “ordinary extraordinary.” This produces entirely inventive work that is quite difficult to categorize. It is environmentally sustainable, but not “sustainable design;” it employs new materials, digital practices and technologies, but is not “tech” or “digital;” it is socially and community conscious, but not politically correct. Rather, it is deeply rooted in conditions of the everyday, and works with our perception and preconceptions to allow us to see things in new ways.

Over the last ten years, Mr. Scarpa’s firm BROOKS + SCARPA received more than 50 major design awards, notably 18 National AIA Awards, including the 2010 Architecture Firm Award, the 2006 and 2003 AIA Committee on the Environment “Top Ten Green Project” awards, 2005 Record Houses, 2003 Record Interiors, 2003 Rudy Bruner Prize, and finalist for the World Habitat Award, one of ten firms selected worldwide. In 2004 The Architectural League of New York selected him as an “Emerging Voice” in architecture and in 2009 he received The Lifetime Achievement Award from Interior Design Magazine. In 2010 his firm Pugh + Scarpa received the AIA National and California Council Firm Award. His work was recently exhibited at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC and featured in NEWSWEEK. Mr. Scarpa has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio.

He has taught and lectured at the university level at numerous schools including the 2012 Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He was also the 2009 E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor, the 2008 Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University, the 2007 Eliel Saarinen Visiting Professor at the Alfred Taubman College of Architecture at the University of Michigan, 2005 University of Michigan Max Fisher Visiting Fellow, and 2004 Freidman Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a co-founder of Livable Places, Inc.; a nonprofit development and public policy organization dedicated to building mixed-use housing on under-utilized and problematic parcels of land.

About Brooks + Scarpa (formerly Pugh + Scarpa)

At Brooks + Scarpa we believe that architecture should engage the user, heighten their sense of awareness, and bring a deeper understanding and vitality to their experience. We strive to create environments that stimulate its occupants and leave lasting impressions. Our attitude not only stresses the search for fundamental principles of architecture, but also attempts to find and reveal the extraordinary from the ordinary.

Brooks + Scarpa approaches each project as the continuation of an ongoing inquiry. We encourage a culture of ingenuity and exploration that enables us to maintain a fresh approach to every project we undertake. Our ongoing research in materials and technologies as well as our constant re-examination of known conditions, accepted norms and established methods leads us to innovative solutions and stimulating new ways of approaching design. This is true regardless of the scale - big or small, whether for public or private use, for rich or for poor. This is an approach that has often led us to reinvent established building types.

Understanding functional and behavioral patterns are intrinsic to our working method. We believe in simplicity, which results in flexibility. Our work is more about an attitude of mind, defining goals and honoring commitments. We believe that architecture can encourage people to forge a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the fundamental, yet delicate relationships that exist between themselves, the natural world, its vital resources, and our collective cultures.

Brooks + Scarpa is committed to conserving the environment and intelligently utilizing our natural and cultural resources. We believe that societies across the globe are experiencing a shift in attitude from one merely concerned with surviving on earth to one concerned with changing how we live so that the earth can survive. We embrace this shift and seek to enhance the impact of sustainable design and development as a basic tenet of our practice. Rather than diminishing in meaning, the ideas of sustainability have the potential and power to enrich and broaden our culture as well as our architectural language.

Brooks + Scarpa is an architecture, engineering, interior design and planning firm based in Los Angeles, CA. Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, and Angela Brooks, AIA, are the sole principals and the firm is consciously structured to ensure their participation in each project.

BROOKS+SCARPA

There are some noises in the background and it is actually the machinery making the PPE in the shop as Larry notes later.

Interview with Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, Click here