Morphosis Architects is an interdisciplinary architectural and design practice based in Los Angeles and New York City.
History
The firm was informally founded in 1972 by Michael Brickler,
Thom Mayne
Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) 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 p ...
, Livio Santini and James Stafford.
Michael Rotondi
Michael Rotondi (born June 26, 1949) is an American architect and educator. He has been a member of two international practices (Morphosis from 1976-1991, and RoTo Architects 1991–present, which he founded). He attended the Southern Californi ...
joined the practice in 1975 and remained a principal until 1991.
["Architects Mayne, Rotondi Cited"](_blank)
''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', May 3, 1992. Writing in 1989, ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' 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
ngas if it might hurt you."
Principals
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
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 t ...
(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
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...
in 2005.
Michael Rotondi
Michael Rotondi (born June 26, 1949) is an American architect and educator. He has been a member of two international practices (Morphosis from 1976-1991, and RoTo Architects 1991–present, which he founded). He attended the Southern Californi ...
(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, and held that position until 1997. Rotondi's career awards include the 2009 AIA/LA Gold Medal and the 2014
Richard J. Neutra Medal from
Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design
The Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design (CENV) is a college part of the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). The college houses over 1,600 students; making it one of largest environmental design program ...
.
Projects
Notable works by the firm include:
* The Lawrence Residence, 1981–1984, in Hermosa Beach, California. The home has been described as "two stylistically different structures that collide at a slight angle on their narrow lot...".
*
Diamond Ranch High School
Diamond Ranch High School (or DRHS) 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 ...
near
Pomona,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, which first opened in 1997.
* The
San Francisco Federal Building
The San Francisco Federal Building, formally the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, is an 18-story, building at 90 7th Street on the corner of Mission and 7th streets in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The fede ...
, which opened in 2007 and became the first federal building to achieve
LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
certification.
* The Bill & Melinda Gates Hall at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, 2014.
The $60 million building houses Cornell's
Computing and Information Science (CIS) program.
* Bloomberg Center at
Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech is a technology, business, law, and design campus of Cornell University located on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan, New York City. It includes the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, a joint academic venture between Cornell and the Tec ...
, Sep. 13, 2017, on Roosevelt Island, New York.
The $115 million,
five-story,
"
net-zero energy" building uses the power it creates on its own.
* Korean American National Museum, 2020-, in Los Angeles, California
Awards
Mayne and Rotondi received numerous awards for their work in Morphosis, including 11
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
awards and 12 from ''
Progressive Architecture The Progressive Architecture Awards (P/A Awards) annually recognise risk-taking practitioners and seek to promote progress in the field of architecture.
History
The editors of ''Progressive Architecture'' magazine hosted the first Progressive Arch ...
''. In 1992, the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...
awarded them the Academy-Institute Award in Architecture.
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
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (shortened to Perot Museum) is a natural history and science museum located in Dallas, Texas in Victory Park. The museum was named in honor of Margot and Ross Perot. The current chief executive officer of ...
. These include the 2014 Los Angeles Architecture Awards Grand Prize, presented by the
Los Angeles Business Council
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service (transportation), Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a ...
, for designing the campus of
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
in Hollywood.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Architecture firms based in California
Architecture firms based in New York City