hey everybody i was asked by a friend to make a list of the top ten emergent US architectural firms who started their practice in the last ten years. now i have my own favorites, but i wanted to be more "scientific" in culling these firms together so i thought it might be a proper methodology (or perhaps poetic justice?) to have a forum list (created by whomever is interested) to consider who these firms might be, and then to come up with a consensus for the final top ten (if we can reach one)...
u might want to check out the Arch record Design Vanguard numbers and also the AIA young architects (or emergent, can't remember how is called) prizes latelly....
how about office dA? do they meet the 10 year cutoff?
and i wouldn't count rex up there as it was sort of an offshoot of OMA and basically got a rocket-launched start.
personally i feel like most firms really "emerge" after about 10 years so a lot of my favorites just miss the cutoff. takes a while before you really start landing projects of significance that can actually get built?
is building a concern or can you stand on your installations and academic work? i feel a lot of firms gain rapid recognition by perhaps an installation or a competition entry/win but fail to maintain a steady stream of work or get ugly relegation to just doing houses...
the problem with trying to define a top ten emergent practices from the past decades is that although many firms are emergent or hot one moment they might not have the staying power to even be remembered three years later. i could probably dig into my library and find a bunch of firms that i thought were "the next big thing" but i doubt i'd even recognize half of them now. the whole idea seems to be too influenced by the (often passing) fashions of the moment.
also, i've been rather isolated in recent times and frankly i don't think i could name any recent emergent firms
here are 9 US firms, 10yrs old or less...some are good, some are pretty awesome, some...well, some somehow made it into Design Vanguard, who knows why:
yea jaf I think you subtlely hit on a point. In the last ten years its really been a chance for those overseas to shine in the light a bit, and its been young practices as well. Rojkind would definately be on the list then - not sure how long he's been around...but he stuff is bad ass!
i'll try to play by the rules (although the 10 year point is tough - there are a couple of good firms just on the other side). my own take is to look at firms, like someone mentioned above, who will have some staying power within the media and/or schools.
LTL - another vote.
n Architects - another vote
studio gang - (not my personal favorite, but they'll do well)
rex - you may all be jealous of how they got here, but they'll do alright.
emergent - not my cup of tea, but they've got the 'mo behind them.
predock-frane - name alone will open plenty of doors and they should capitalize on the chances.
iwamoto/scott (personally, i think they're still finding a voice and the work isn't super original. but they are uber connected in all the right places)
johnsen schmaling - kind of a sneak-in vote. crisply done work. good attitude. they'll get some opportunities.
bldgs - forget plexus r+d - these guys, in about 4 years or so, will emerge as the best new firm in atlanta. mark it down now.
chad oppenheim - how many people, with their doors open less than 10 years, have had the run of success this guy has?
there's your 10.
notables that i just don't see being quite at the top:
lindy roy
anyone from boston, with the exception of office d/A(what the hell happened to the town???)
any of the younger firms in l.a. - servo, hernan, etc. write it down - l.a. architecture is in a period of eclipse. it's new york's turn to rise over the next decade. (and i'm not from either, so i've got no dog in the fight)
john ronan
ply architecture
firms outside of 10 years, but who will have some significant influence:
office d/A - clearly one of the brightest lights emerging.
michael maltzan - hate on him if you like, but he's going to be up there.
marlon blackwell - new south (er, west) rising
rick joy - it'll be interesting to see if he can do as well as his former employer. his houses are pretty nice so far. let's see a larger scale project.
daly/genik - getting some larger opportunities and doing ok with them.
shop - not my cup of tea, but they've got the connections.
vincent james - he's not young, but his time is just about now.
greg lynn - definitely not my thing, but the guy has spawned many, many devotees.
some of these seem to be the obvious candidates for nominations...and from the rhetoric on longevity, mass appeal, and general worthiness--i'd like to shift the focus to the work you respect. let's take this beyond the already defined circles and vet the work of these firms properly. i'd like to see some people who i've never heard of...and i'd also like to hear a more thorough position on why you would place them into your list...
What about a list of the best emerging architects WITH A COMMITMENT TO SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT, i.e., architects whose work focuses on serving the underserved, with a sensitivity/sensibility for context and sustainable ideas.
I'd give my vote for practitioners like:
Brett Zamore out of Houston, who's done interesting work with the gulf-area row-house typology and housing for post-Katrina victims
Haworth/Tompkins from England, who's done beautiful affordable housing helping to revitalize London's Oxo district
Santiago Cirugeda in Seville, Spain who (to very roughly summarize) has raised awareness for sustainable building and planning opportunities inherent in Spanish cities' own coding
Anyone interested in a 'Top 10' discussion along these lines? (not to knock SHoP or REX, but it's just that they've been mentioned like 9 times already in this thread, and I think the JJ was probably looking for something else...)
i heard from a friend who went to spain, saying that calatrava's insignificant foot bridges around the coutnry are normal targets of vandalism/graffiti
As far as work I respect: I gotta say Aranda/Lasch (terraswarm) again. They've strapped webcams to pigeons, hacked video billboards to run Proce55ing, and made the best PS1 entry ever: giant styrofoam boulders!
... and if we're going international, then don't forget Andrew Maynard!
top ten emergent US firms
hey everybody i was asked by a friend to make a list of the top ten emergent US architectural firms who started their practice in the last ten years. now i have my own favorites, but i wanted to be more "scientific" in culling these firms together so i thought it might be a proper methodology (or perhaps poetic justice?) to have a forum list (created by whomever is interested) to consider who these firms might be, and then to come up with a consensus for the final top ten (if we can reach one)...
does that include practices that existed other places like the UK or China and just opened offices in the US since 1997? Or are we talking new new?
i'm willing to see where that leads, if everyone else is...
Or do you mean the other emergent?
i like tom wiscombe's office called, funny enough, emergent architecture
i'll try and think of others...
That's what I mean. He's both kinds...
and i'm sure you've already looked @ rex, a.k.a. oma, jr.
in lieu of one list lists can we do top 5s or 10s?
yeah, i'm having trouble thinking of other firms that have emerged in the last decade.
if/when i do, i'll list them all @ once rather than throw them out there.
u might want to check out the Arch record Design Vanguard numbers and also the AIA young architects (or emergent, can't remember how is called) prizes latelly....
ahhh...actually i was hoping to avoid those lists, but whatever helps the process.
then just place ur friends under it ;) is the best/easiest way to validate someone and to have a new list :)
This is tough. N Architects is cool, but they've been around for years! When do firms officially emerge? And how long does that sparkly sparkle last?
some of my favorites:
Aranda/Lasch (aka Terraswarm)
GAGE/CLEMENCEAU
SERVO
Iwamoto/Scott
Howeler Yoon
that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure I can think of more ...
yeah GARPIKE u have a point there...i think is quite to define where or when....
emergent at WIKIPEDIA
is SERVO american??
- although they haven't built much, the do represent that generation of new practices well
yeah mad, servo is american
servo is multinational. But basically American.
SERVO is at least half american, yeah.
I second Studio Gang.
It's tough to do this without it turning into either a list of your friends or an excuse to start fights.
Should be top ten "I've heard of these guys, have you?" list.
that sounds like a nice way to begin
servo is defunct i think... or in a state of reoganization... (at least this one is)
how about office dA? do they meet the 10 year cutoff?
and i wouldn't count rex up there as it was sort of an offshoot of OMA and basically got a rocket-launched start.
personally i feel like most firms really "emerge" after about 10 years so a lot of my favorites just miss the cutoff. takes a while before you really start landing projects of significance that can actually get built?
is building a concern or can you stand on your installations and academic work? i feel a lot of firms gain rapid recognition by perhaps an installation or a competition entry/win but fail to maintain a steady stream of work or get ugly relegation to just doing houses...
the problem with trying to define a top ten emergent practices from the past decades is that although many firms are emergent or hot one moment they might not have the staying power to even be remembered three years later. i could probably dig into my library and find a bunch of firms that i thought were "the next big thing" but i doubt i'd even recognize half of them now. the whole idea seems to be too influenced by the (often passing) fashions of the moment.
also, i've been rather isolated in recent times and frankly i don't think i could name any recent emergent firms
here are 9 US firms, 10yrs old or less...some are good, some are pretty awesome, some...well, some somehow made it into Design Vanguard, who knows why:
Bercy Chen ('01): http://www.bcarc.com/
WORK AC ('02): http://www.work.ac/
SHoP ('96)...11 is more than 10, I know: http://www.shoparc.com/
LTL ('97): http://www.ltlwork.net/pages/profile.html
Tolkin ('99): http://www.tolkinarchitecture.com/
Plexus R+D ('96) 11 again, I know: http://www.plexus-architecture.com/
LOC (?) : http://www.locllc.org/
Predock_Frane ('99): http://www.predockfrane.com/
John Ronan ('97): http://www.jrarch.com/
#1:
LUCE et studio
may miss the 10 year cut off???
i don't know if any of these are "emerging," more like just my favorites, but...
sean godsell
pugh-scarpa
allied works
david adjaye
snohetta
jva
homeboys:
van tine-guthrie studio
ply architecture
rahul mehrotra associates
SERVO = making UCLA students do your work for you...assholes
does this include firms who pay their staff?
jafilder are those all in the US? I didn't know Godsell had a yank practice
oh sorry, didn't read carefully enough. let's go global.
out of Boston I believe
yea jaf I think you subtlely hit on a point. In the last ten years its really been a chance for those overseas to shine in the light a bit, and its been young practices as well. Rojkind would definately be on the list then - not sure how long he's been around...but he stuff is bad ass!
Top 5 in DC
Studio 27
Inscape Studio
Envision
Adamstein & Demetriou (Okay, they're 20 years old, but they still design like a fearless emergent firm)
Bonstra Haresign
skylab
lps
probably not as goos as some already mentioned but still decent...
della valle bernheimer
cho slade
kbas
[url=http://www.hufft.com/]matt hufft[url]
i'm not touching the europeans... i'd be here all night.
ack..
matt hufft
john -
i'll try to play by the rules (although the 10 year point is tough - there are a couple of good firms just on the other side). my own take is to look at firms, like someone mentioned above, who will have some staying power within the media and/or schools.
LTL - another vote.
n Architects - another vote
studio gang - (not my personal favorite, but they'll do well)
rex - you may all be jealous of how they got here, but they'll do alright.
emergent - not my cup of tea, but they've got the 'mo behind them.
predock-frane - name alone will open plenty of doors and they should capitalize on the chances.
iwamoto/scott (personally, i think they're still finding a voice and the work isn't super original. but they are uber connected in all the right places)
johnsen schmaling - kind of a sneak-in vote. crisply done work. good attitude. they'll get some opportunities.
bldgs - forget plexus r+d - these guys, in about 4 years or so, will emerge as the best new firm in atlanta. mark it down now.
chad oppenheim - how many people, with their doors open less than 10 years, have had the run of success this guy has?
there's your 10.
notables that i just don't see being quite at the top:
lindy roy
anyone from boston, with the exception of office d/A(what the hell happened to the town???)
any of the younger firms in l.a. - servo, hernan, etc. write it down - l.a. architecture is in a period of eclipse. it's new york's turn to rise over the next decade. (and i'm not from either, so i've got no dog in the fight)
john ronan
ply architecture
firms outside of 10 years, but who will have some significant influence:
office d/A - clearly one of the brightest lights emerging.
michael maltzan - hate on him if you like, but he's going to be up there.
marlon blackwell - new south (er, west) rising
rick joy - it'll be interesting to see if he can do as well as his former employer. his houses are pretty nice so far. let's see a larger scale project.
daly/genik - getting some larger opportunities and doing ok with them.
shop - not my cup of tea, but they've got the connections.
vincent james - he's not young, but his time is just about now.
greg lynn - definitely not my thing, but the guy has spawned many, many devotees.
is LTL really in the last 10 years? Seems like they've been around forever.
I second Howeler/Yoon ( http://www.hyarchitecture.com/ )
one that hasn't been mentioned yet...
la dallman
another vote for SHoP (even though it's been 11 years)
another vote for LTL
another vote for Work AC
and i guess another vote for REX
ltl
i love their work
You have to throw Brad Pitt in there. Nobody outside of the architecture world has heard of the above firms. I'm being completely serious too.
don't forget Paris Hilton, RA
some of these seem to be the obvious candidates for nominations...and from the rhetoric on longevity, mass appeal, and general worthiness--i'd like to shift the focus to the work you respect. let's take this beyond the already defined circles and vet the work of these firms properly. i'd like to see some people who i've never heard of...and i'd also like to hear a more thorough position on why you would place them into your list...
just a thought.
landon bone baker, in chicago. decent work, good purpose.
SHoP
REX
What about a list of the best emerging architects WITH A COMMITMENT TO SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT, i.e., architects whose work focuses on serving the underserved, with a sensitivity/sensibility for context and sustainable ideas.
I'd give my vote for practitioners like:
Brett Zamore out of Houston, who's done interesting work with the gulf-area row-house typology and housing for post-Katrina victims
Haworth/Tompkins from England, who's done beautiful affordable housing helping to revitalize London's Oxo district
Santiago Cirugeda in Seville, Spain who (to very roughly summarize) has raised awareness for sustainable building and planning opportunities inherent in Spanish cities' own coding
Anyone interested in a 'Top 10' discussion along these lines? (not to knock SHoP or REX, but it's just that they've been mentioned like 9 times already in this thread, and I think the JJ was probably looking for something else...)
i heard from a friend who went to spain, saying that calatrava's insignificant foot bridges around the coutnry are normal targets of vandalism/graffiti
As far as work I respect: I gotta say Aranda/Lasch (terraswarm) again. They've strapped webcams to pigeons, hacked video billboards to run Proce55ing, and made the best PS1 entry ever: giant styrofoam boulders!
... and if we're going international, then don't forget Andrew Maynard!
Teddy Cruz (don't judge him by his Icon manifesto!)
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