In collaboration with local designer Lynn Pepe, we are happy to receive recognition for an LA project in the Spring 2012 edition of Luxe Magazine, Los Angeles. download

The Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine has invited us, along with nine other accomplished architectural firms, to participate in an unusual and stimulating exhibition that begins on March 24^th in their Crosman Gallery, and runs through September 23^rd. exhibit link

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Amidst our busy professional lives here in the studio, a year goes fast and while it’s going, it often seems as though nothing ever gets finished. Lists grow rather than shrink, books to read pile up, art exhibitions go unvisited for lack of time, lectures come and go without our attendance.

But, in retrospect—here on the dawn of the Year of the Dragon—we look back for just a minute to realize it’s been an incredibly stimulating and productive year. More…

After a restorative summer of travel to Spain, and time spent in the Maine studio getting several projects off the ground there, we are in a “back to school” mode at the LA studio on Rochedale Lane, excited about work we will be doing this fall. Devin has taken the first of two one-week seminars that will lead us to getting Passive House certification (a standard of sustainable design first developed in Germany), and Bruce will be attending design conferences at Haystack School in Maine and in Monterey California. Oh, and we have lots of work to get done, too. More…

The strategy for the rehabilitation of our 1950 Gelb House, by A. Quincy Jones, has been set, and work has begun. We sought out an approach that was respectful of the original design intent of the house, recognized its historical significance, and yet approached it as a living entity reflecting this time, as well as the time it was built. More…

Yesterday, on a late fall day in downeast Maine, with icy rain blowing sideways and an assertive surf pounding the lobster boats in Corea Harbor, we made the final site visit to a house just a small punchlist away from completion. More…

I could describe the specific steps that led us from attending a quiet open house to the day, barely two months later, when we moved into this 1948 gem by A. Quincy Jones.  Suffice it to say, we knew we wanted it within sixty seconds of walking in, and we’re more sure of it every day.  But the task I’ve set for myself is to use words to deconstruct this physical artifact, to a degree that attempts to objectify its essence.  Here goes. More…

“I saw what I saw very clearly.  But I didn’t know what I was looking at.  I had nothing to fit it into.” V.S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival

I can’t seem to finish Naipaul’s classic memoir:  I’ve picked it up numerous times over the years, and the bookmark never makes it more than half way through.  I just don’t love it, that’s the problem, but I do love the title.  I may not even understand the full breadth of his term “Enigma of Arrival”, but my own interpretation evokes a deep phenomenon, hinted at by that simple sentence. More…

Recently, I completed a design proposal for a new house on a double lot just up from the water in Manhattan Beach.  It launched a study to more deeply understand the fundamentals and nuances of local Spanish building precedents that have influenced southern California architecture for over 300 years. More…

There’s so much to say about Marfa, and it’s such an inspiration for my work, that it’s a bit overwhelming to start. We’ve been there several times: several Too Many Times, Landis might say (but he doesn’t really mean it….). What’s easily, quantitatively said about Marfa is that the town is full of stunning installations of art, and there is a very fluid boundary between Art and Place. More…