Stephen Phillips, is a British-born American architect, theorist, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. Phillips is the principal of Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS) and Professor of Architecture at

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

, San Luis Obispo.

Education and early career

Born in Oxford, England, Phillips was raised in

Loughton, Essex Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

;

Berkeley Heights, New Jersey Berkeley Heights is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. A commuter town in northern-central New Jersey, the township is nestled within the Raritan Valley region in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States ...

; and

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

. Phillips received his B.A. from Yale University with Distinction in Architecture and his Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania where he was awarded the Paul Philippe Cret Medal for best thesis. Upon earning his

Master’s Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from Princeton University School of Architecture, Phillips was awarded residential fellowships from The J. Paul Getty Foundation and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

alongside research and publication grants from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. He was awarded an

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

at the Museumsquartier in Vienna. Phillips received his professional training in the offices of Charles Moore (Moore Rubel Yudel), Cathy Simon (Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris), and

William Turnbull Jr. William Turnbull Jr., FAIA, (April 1, 1935 – June 26, 1997) was an American Bay Area architect whose unique building designs challenged the more traditional architecture of California's West Coast. His design style is most closely associated ...

(William Turnbull and Associates /Turnbull Griffin Haesloop) prior to launching his own architecture firm.

Professional life

Phillips established Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS) in 1999. The design practice focuses on the construction of modern and contemporary environments. Stephen Phillips Architects is based out of Los Angeles, California and San Francisco, California. Stephen Phillips Architects has received an

American Institute of Architecture 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 sup ...

Merit Award for their work and has been published internationally in ''DOMUS'', ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', ''The Architect’s Newspaper'''','' ''

Dezeen ''Dezeen'' is an online architecture, interiors and design magazine based in London, with offices in Hoxton and also previously in New York City. History ''Dezeen'' was launched in London by Marcus Fairs at the end of November 2006. Its New Yo ...

,'' '' 7x7,'' '' the San Francisco Chronicle,'' ''and

Sunset Magazine ''Sunset'' is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. ''Sunset'' focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States. The magazine is published six times per year by the Sunset Publish ...

,'' among other newspapers, magazines, and journals. In 2021, Phillips was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects for his "exceptional work and significant contributions to architecture and society on a national level.”

Academic life

As the Founding Director of the Cal Poly Los Angeles Metropolitan Program in Architecture and Urban Design, Phillips was awarded The Studio Prize from '' Architect Magazine'' and The Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. An article was written about Phillips’s contribution to architectural education in ''Archinect''’s “Dean’s List” in 2020. He has taught as visiting faculty at

U.C. Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, UCLA,

SCI-Arc 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 ...

, CCA, and the Art Center College of Design. Phillips is the author of ''L.A. en Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s'' from Lars Müller Publishers, 2014; and ''Elastic Architecture: Frederick Kiesler and Design Research in the First Age of Robotic Culture'' from MIT Press, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Stephen 20th-century American architects Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American architects People from Oxford Yale University alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni Princeton University School of Architecture alumni California Polytechnic State University faculty