Keynote

The work of Lawrence Scarpa & Angela Brooks, and the firm which they founded together with Gwynne Pugh in 1991, Pugh + Scarpa, has redefined the role of the architect to produce some of the most remarkable and exploratory work today. They do this, not by escaping the restrictions of practice, but by looking, questioning, and reworking the very process of design and building. Each project appears as an opportunity to rethink the way things normally get done--with material, form, construction, even financing--and to subsequently redefine it to cull out its latent potentials--as Lawrence aptly describes: making the “ordinary extraordinary.” This produces entirely inventive work; work that is quite difficult to categorize. It is environmentally sustainable, but not ‘sustainable design;’ it employs new materials, digital practices and technologies, but is not ‘tech or digital;’ it is socially and community conscious, but not politically correct. Rather, it is deeply rooted in conditions of the everyday, and works with our perception and preconceptions to allow us to see things in new ways.

Over the last six years, Pugh + Scarpa has received 35 major design awards, including: nine national AIA Awards, 2005 Record Houses, 2003 Record Interiors, 2003 Rudy Bruner Prize, 2003 AIA COTE “Top Ten Green Building” Award, and is a finalist for the World Habitat Award, one of ten firms selected worldwide. Their work is currently exhibited at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

Angela (Board President) and Lawrence are also co-founders of Livable Places, a nonprofit development and public policy organization dedicated to building mixed-use housing on under-utilized and problematic parcels of land. Livable Places has received almost $1,000,000 in grants from the Irvine Foundation, Bank of America, Fannie Mae Foundation, and a host of other public and private organizations.

Lawrence Scarpa is Principal of Pugh + Scarpa, a firm that he founded together with Gwynne Pugh in 1991. His work has been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries, including the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. In 2004, The Architectural League of New York selected him as an “Emerging Voice” in architecture. He has taught and lectured at the university level at numerous schools including UCLA, University of Florida, Mississippi State University and SCI-arc. He was the 2005 Max Fisher Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan and the 2004 Freidman Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence earned his Bachelor of Design and Master of Architecture from the University of Florida. He is also a registered architect and member of the AIA.

Angela Brooks joined Pugh + Scarpa in 1999, to serve as project manager for their Santa Monica office of more than twenty designers and staff. Angela began her career in the offices of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum. It was also at the Los Angeles Community Design Center--a private non-profit development organization dedicated to building affordable housing and creating stable neighborhoods--that she was first given the chance to manage affordable housing projects. Angela has taught at Otis College and has been a guest critic at SCI-Arc, Pasadena City College, Arizona State University, and University of Oregon. Angela earned her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Florida and Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. She is also a registered architect, member of the AIA, and LEED Accredited Professional.