For me, the excitement in architecture revolves around the idea and the phenomenon of the experience of that idea. Residences offer almost immediate gratification. You can shape space, light, and materials to a degree that you sometimes can't in larger projects.
If i were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, A beautiful House.
During the modern period, the vanguard architect has usually relied on small residential jobs both to supply a steady income and to serve as 'sketches' for ideas that are often later translated to the larger scale of public commissions.
The question that I can't shake - it's this question that keeps coming up for me - is What does the shared home of the future look like? People are sharing homes at a rate that no one ever predicted, but residences and homes weren't designed for it. They were designed around ideas of privacy and separation.
I like interior decorating. I really like to build houses. And landscaping, I like that.
Because I live and breathe design every day, sometimes I will come across an idea that is something I want to try. It often comes from an old hotel or an old restaurant, and I will adapt it to be residential.
I grew up in Northern California on the peninsula. It was a beautiful house, but it was very traditional. It wasn't midcentury modern. I'm talking 1970s, early '80s - design didn't even go 'Wall Street' until, like, 1986.
The most important part of my work on The Orion Building was the creation within the apartments of living space which inspires people and the way they live their lives, whether they have bought a one-bedroom apartment or the penthouse. This building is beautiful to see, sense, and experience.
The bungalow had more to do with how Americans live today than any other building that has gone remotely by the name of architecture in our history.
