Yes, residential architects design houses. But these days, that’s just the beginning of the story. At ra‘s winter Reinvention Symposium, held in San Diego, we dipped into some of the entrepreneurial endeavors architects are plumbing: design/build, development, landscape design, product design, and more.
We bestowed our annual Leadership Awards on three accomplished firms: Dan Rockhill’s Rockhill and Associates, a design/build firm; Safdie Rabines Architects, designers of houses, bridges, and much more; and Frank Welch and Associates, poetic explorers of vernacular modernism for 50 years.
We toured some handsome houses, including two projects in La Jolla, Calif.—The Prospect by Jonathan Segal, FAIA, and a cliffside residence by Safdie Rabines; a “case study-inspired” house in Point Loma, Calif., by Matthew B. Wells, AIA, Architects Hanna Gabriel Wells, and his wife, Wan Su Lim, a commercial architect; the latest row house project by Kevin deFreitas Architects, AIA, in Escondido, Calif.; and Sebastian Mariscal Studio’s new infill house in San Diego.
Keynote speaker Tom Kundig, FAIA, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects, delved into his sculptural approach to reinventing the house. Also wowing the crowd were architects Teddy Cruz; Duo Dickinson, AIA; Jeremiah Eck, FAIA; John Jennings; Jennifer Luce, AIA; Leo Marmol, FAIA; Mark McInturff, FAIA; Dale Mulfinger, FAIA; Whitney Sander; and Dennis Wedlick, AIA.
Stay tuned for the next Reinvention, December 3–5, in Charleston, S.C.