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, Livio Santini and James Stafford. Michael Rotondi joined the practice in 1975 and remained a principal until 1991."Architects Mayne, Rotondi Cited", Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1992. 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."
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 (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.
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,"Pioneering Design Student Leads Program", Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1987. and held that position until 1997."Architecture School Hires Director", Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1997. Rotondi's career awards include the 2009 AIA/LA Gold Medal"Architect Michael Rotondi Takes the AIA/LA Gold", Curbed, July 27, 2009. and the 2014 Richard J. Neutra Medal from Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design."Michael Rotondi to Receive Richard J. Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence", ArchDaily, October 27, 2014.Michael Rotondi's Curricula Vitae (accessed 2015-02-25).
Projects Notable works by the firm include:
1981–1984: The Lawrence Residence, Hermosa Beach, California; described as "two stylistically different structures that collide at a slight angle on their narrow lot...". 1997: Diamond Ranch High School, Pomona, California 2000: University of Toronto Graduate House, Toronto, Canada 2004: Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, Los Angeles, California 2009: 41 Cooper Square, New York City, New York; housing the Cooper Union Albert Nerken School of Engineering 2007: San Francisco Federal Building, San Francisco, California; the first federal building to achieve LEED certification 2012: Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, Texas 2014: Bill & Melinda Gates Hall, Ithaca, New York; housing Cornell's Computing and Information Science (CIS) program 2014: Emerson College, Los Angeles, California 2017: Bloomberg Center, New York City, New York; a $115 million, five-story, "net-zero energy" building on the Cornell Tech campus which uses the power it creates on its own 2018: Hanking Center, Shenzen, China 2019: Casablanca Finance City Tower, Casablanca, Morocco 2022: Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California 2020-: Korean American National Museum, Los Angeles, California
Awards 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.
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.
References
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