 Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, designed by Morphosis | |
| Industry | Architectural firm |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1972 |
| Founders | Michael Brickler, Thom Mayne, Livio Santini, James Stafford |
| Headquarters | |
Number of employees | >60 (2019) |
| Website | morphosis |
Morphosis Architects is an interdisciplinary architectural and design practice based in Los Angeles and New York City.
The firm was informally founded in 1972 by Michael Brickler, Thom Mayne, Livio Santini and James Stafford. Michael Rotondi joined the practice in 1975 and remained a principal until 1991. [1] Writing in 1989, Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell called Morphosis "one of the country's most interesting" architecture firms, and described its very physical, materials-focused design style as "look[ing] as if it might hurt you." [2]
Born in Connecticut, Thom Mayne (b. 1944) studied architecture at the University of Southern California and Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was a founding member of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in 1972, and has held faculty positions at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Mayne was the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2005. [3]
Michael Rotondi (b. 1949) was one of 50 students who attended SCI-Arc when it started in 1972. He became the director of the school in 1987, [4] and held that position until 1997. [5] Rotondi's career awards include the 2009 AIA/LA Gold Medal [6] and the 2014 Richard J. Neutra Medal from Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design. [7] [8]
Notable works by the firm include:
Mayne and Rotondi received numerous awards for their work in Morphosis, including 11 American Institute of Architects awards and 12 from Progressive Architecture . In 1992, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awarded them the Academy-Institute Award in Architecture. [1]
Morphosis has been recognized with more than 190 local, national and international awards, including nine for the design of the Emerson College Los Angeles campus and 16 for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. These include the 2014 Los Angeles Architecture Awards Grand Prize, presented by the Los Angeles Business Council, for designing the campus of Emerson College in Hollywood. [16]
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is a private architecture school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1972, SCI-Arc was initially regarded as both institutionally and artistically avant-garde and more adventurous than traditional architecture schools based in the United States. It consists of approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, some of whom are practicing architects. It is based in the quarter-mile long (0.40 km) former Santa Fe Freight Depot in the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles and also offers community events such as outreach programs, free exhibitions, and public lectures.
Thom Mayne is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities postgraduate program. Since then he has held teaching positions at SCI-Arc, the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is principal of Morphosis Architects, an architectural firm based in Culver City, California and New York City, New York. Mayne received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in March 2005.
Diamond Ranch High School is a high school that serves students from Diamond Bar and Phillips Ranch, California, United States, and is operated by the Pomona Unified School District (PUSD) in Pomona, California. Diamond Ranch's athletic teams compete in the Hacienda League of the CIF Southern Section.
Raphael S. Soriano, FAIA, was an architect and educator, who helped define a period of 20th-century architecture that came to be known as Mid-century modern. He pioneered the use of modular prefabricated steel and aluminum structures in residential and commercial design and construction.
Eric Owen Moss practices architecture with his eponymously named LA-based firm founded in 1973.
Santa Fe Freight Depot is a quarter-mile-long building in the industrial area to the east of Downtown Los Angeles, now known as the Arts District. The Southern California Institute of Architecture converted the structure into its campus in 2000. The building's use as a school has helped revitalize a neighborhood previously considered "a gritty corner of downtown".
The Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design is a college part of the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The college houses over 1,600 students; making it one of largest environmental design programs in the United States. The college offers bachelor's degrees in five departments, as well as three master's degree programs. It is the only academic unit within the California State University system to be associated with a Pritzker Prize laureate.
The USC School of Architecture is the architecture school at the University of Southern California. Located in Los Angeles, California, it is one of the university's twenty-two professional schools, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of architecture, building science, landscape architecture and heritage conservation.
Tom Farrage is a metal fabricator, craftsman and art collector who frequently collaborates with architects, artists, inventors, engineers, and filmmakers. Educated at the Southern California Institute of Architecture(1987), he works in steel, stainless steel, bronze, copper, aluminum; mixed media wood, plastic and glass. He has a long association with what has been called the “L.A. Avant Garde” award-winning architects Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, Michael Rotondi, Craig Hodgetts, Frank Israel and Frank Gehry. He is the owner of Farrage & Company, co-owner of Nakao::Farrage Architects in Culver City, California, and is also the trustee of the Nathan H. Shapira Archives, in Southern California.
Patrick Tighe, FAIA, FAAR is an American architect and interior designer based in Los Angeles, California. He is the founder and principal of Tighe Architecture. Tighe was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He received a Master of Architecture with Distinction from UCLA. Tighe worked for Frank O. Gehry & Associates, and was an associate of Thom Mayne’s Morphosis Architects for 7 years before leaving to found Tighe Architecture.
IDEA Office is an American architectural practice based in downtown Los Angeles. It was founded in 1988 by the partnership of Eric A. Kahn and Russell N. Thomsen.
Michele Saee is a Los Angeles-based architect, designer and educator.
Kevin Daly Architects (KDA) is Kevin Daly's architecture firm in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1990 as Daly Genik. Daly has taught architecture and is a fellow at the American Institute of Architects (FAIA).
Hodgetts + Fung, also known as HplusF, is an interdisciplinary design studio based in Culver City, California specializing in architectural design, advanced material fabrication, historical restorations, and exhibition design and is led by principals Craig Hodgetts and Hsinming Fung.
Cara Lee is Korean-born American Shopper and co-founder of the firm Lee + Mundwiler Architects based in Los Angeles.
Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA is an American architect based in Culver City, California. He is the founding partner of the practice Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, formerly known as Ehrlich Architects.
Tom Wiscombe is an American architect based in Los Angeles, California. He is the Principal and Founder of Tom Wiscombe Architecture (TWA). Consisting primarily of unbuilt projects, Wiscombe’s work is known for its massing, graphic qualities, and inventiveness, all informed by contemporary ecological thought. His recently released monograph Objects Models Worlds covers his practice and ideas. He was the Chair of the Undergraduate Program at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he taught for over 15 years.
Marcelo Spina is an Argentinean-American architect (AIA) and educator. He is a partner in PATTERNS, which is a Los Angeles-based architecture firm. He founded PATTERNS in 2002. Since 2001, he has been a Design and Applied Studies Faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc.
Shelly Kappe is an architectural historian and academic who specializes in the residential history of Los Angeles. She was a founding member of the faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), an independent school of architecture created in 1972.
Michael Rotondi is an American architect and educator. He has been a member of two international practices. He attended the Southern California Institute of Architecture when it began (SCI-Arc) in 1972 and, later, was director of the graduate program there.
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