Black Flora Espresso Cup by notNeutral.We are a non-traditional practice. That is, we are not an architecture firm, if that is what is meant by “traditional practice.” We are a design firm. All four partners are registered architects, but we each have additional registrations or expertise: as landscape architects, as interior designers, as urban designers, or as graphic and product designers. We are all very different people, with very different experiences and training, but we are bound together by our passion for doing great design work, our shared values incorporated in that work, and our relationships with each other.
We apply a strong interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to our design process. We try to inspire and develop thoughtful, comprehensive design for projects of all scales and complexities. Our practice literally extends from city-scale urban design and master planning for developers, communities, and non-profits, such as the Baldwin Hills Conservancy; to large scale commercial and institutional projects, like the new administrative campus for the California Endowment or the renovation of the Century City Shopping Center, where we have been able to create a complete synthesis of indoor and outdoor spaces; to urban streetscapes and landscapes, such as Grand Avenue in downtown LA or Douglas Park in Santa Monica; to schools, childcare centers, hospitals, housing, interiors, single family homes; to plates and glasses and graphics for playing cards or children’s bedrooms.
This breadth of attention is perhaps unique among contemporary, architecture-based practices. A similar diversity can be found in design firms whose roots are in graphic design—such as Sussman Prejza in Los Angeles or Vanderbyl Design in San Francisco—or in product design, such as IDEO; but the work of these firms does not typically extend to the building and urban planning scales .
The unique diversity of the practice is the result of a particular tolerance or even affinity for the ambiguity inherent in creating such an integration of disciplines. And, of course, there is a certain amount of self-selection, the result of the shared values that permeate our office: a forward thinking balance of rigor and wit, assertion and decorum, experiment and experience; a desire to give expression to and to derive meaning from the diversity of our culture; and a mission to bring more beauty into the world.
Mark Rios, FAIA, ASLA, founded the practice in 1985 with his initial partner, Charles Pearson. Mark’s education and licensure as both architect and landscape architect form the foundation for the comprehensive, integrated, multidisciplinary approach of the practice. Mark’s creative leadership and talent as a designer have been recognized many times over with numerous awards and publications. His entrepreneurial ambition has led to the unique vision for the practice.
Frank Clementi, AIA, AIGA, and Julie Smith Clementi, ASID, came to work with Mark, each individually, in the early 1990s. They had both worked previously with Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung; before that, Frank worked with Ettore Sottsass and Matteo Thun. Frank’s multiplicity of talents was nurtured and extended by his experience in Italy, particularly in product design. Julie developed a special interest and experience with interiors, which has led her ultimately to the position of CEO at notNeutral, the practice’s product development and retail business.
When I left my position at Universal Studios, Mark asked me to join the firm to provide additional leadership and management, as Mark had just accepted a position at USC as Director of the Landscape Architecture Department and made the commitment to open notNeutral. My tenure as Vice-President of Design and Planning for Universal Studios, along with a previous twelve years as a principal with Frank Gehry, gives me experience with ambitious, large-scale architecture and planning, as well as responsibility for comprehensive creative development of projects. And my experience with projects around the globe brings another new element to the practice.
Our current partnership, Rios Clementi Hale Studios, was birthed at the end of 2003.
Rios Clementi Hale Studios Offices.We don’t see the world as a series of discrete “market sectors.” Perhaps there are some complex programs and environments and products where the specialized expertise required to plan them effectively is so enormous that there is room only for that . . . but we’re not sure we believe it. We can do a great job at solving problems, too, but that’s not what differentiates us. It goes without saying that the places and things we make be planned and constructed efficiently and effectively; technique is important. But, in our view, most things and places that are made should be thought of as bringing more beauty and meaning into the world, too. If we can do this, we create additional value for our clients.
We strive to make our practice a “design think tank.” The intention is to open up our field of consideration and to allow us to become unshackled from the normal constraints of a design “problem.” We believe that in this mode we create the highest value for our clients, maximizing the intellectual and inventive components of practice.
Part of our design process is to do fairly extensive research at the outset of a project. We become well informed by precedents and current thinking by other experts. We often enlist specialists or are brought together on a team as collaborators with other designers who have special expertise. We bring the cohesion and the insistence on a comprehensive and synthesized design, one that must “solve the problem,” but is also—and maybe even more importantly—beautiful.
We share a deep intellectual curiosity about the world around us and our place(s) in it. This leads us to encourage a certain amount of independent research, not constrained by clients and project demands. It also encourages a more collaborative and synergistic view of creating greater value for the office when doing research for a particular project. We have created structures and systems for retention and dissemination of information that we gather in these research efforts, so that it can be utilized easily by the whole office.
Another component of the research is a system of committees established within the office that focus on various topics, such as sustainability, building technology, etc. The topics morph a little over the years and as new interests and issues appear. The assignment of staff to each committee also morphs over time as people’s individual interests change. Additionally, the committees are a forum for staff to assert leadership, practice presentation skills, and generally develop more skills in collaboration.
Yet another aspect of the think tank component is expressed in our firm’s commitment and involvement within the rich academic environment of the various design educational institutions in Los Angeles. We are blessed here in LA with almost a dozen significant design and architecture programs. Mark Rios is the Director of the Landscape Architecture program at USC, and Frank Clementi has been on the faculty at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for over ten years. Bob has taught variously at USC and UCLA and has been part of the NAAB accreditation review process. The firm is supportive of other staff taking on limited teaching responsibilities as well as critic roles with the various design juries that regularly occur around Los Angeles.
We encourage being an active part of our communities. Many of our staff hold positions of responsibility throughout the community, from being part of design advisory boards to being leaders in the Girl Scouts to producing yearbooks for their kids’ schools. And we value participation and leadership within the professions: Bob has served as President of the LA/AIA and Mark and Bob have served on its board of directors.
Ultimately, our self-perception is manifest in our own offices. Two years ago, we rebuilt a 9,000 square foot, two-story office building on Melrose Avenue. The location is a reflection of our diversity in both staff and projects. Many projects and clients are in downtown LA, but as many are on the West Side. Likewise, much of our staff once lived in Venice and Santa Monica, and some still do. More and more, however, our staff live in Silverlake, Korea town, Hollywood, and beyond to the north and east. Our Hollywood location is exactly in the middle of greater LA.
The offices themselves reflect our non-hierarchical diversity. In our second floor studio we inter-mix disciplines and project teams. Everyone works in a similar, open space, including all of the principals. Our studios all share one big wall, which we use constantly to pin up new work, so that we all can see what’s going on. Design discussions are planned, and spontaneous and creative segues are frequent. There is a kind of design baton tossing and an energy that flows from the creative sparks and helps projects build a rigor and discipline.
One of the most unusual aspects of our practice is our retail business, notNeutral. There are probably many other manifestations of design firms as entrepreneurial practices, but designing, making, and selling products directly to the consumer market is unique, especially among architects.
notNeutral designs, manufactures, licenses, and sells housewares of all types, from our award-winning deck of playing cards, to furniture, tableware, fabric, lighting, and glassware, including a unique, joint branding with Blenko glass. The products have been developed based on our own ideas and interests. Julie Smith Clementi leads this aspect of our practice. We operate it as a separate business, but the employees and culture flow from one studio to the other. We also have a product design and manufacturing business developing products for other manufacturers for licenses or “private labels.”
This non-traditional practice, probably like most practices, requires constant care and feeding. Interestingly, much of that comes from the staff, in addition to the principals. We collectively try to contribute i n everything we do to a more sustainable future. We are trying to move towards a self-sustaining model of a design practice, one that is less about the individual personalities and more about the synergy of the whole . . . a new interpretation of sustainability.
Author Bob Hale, AIA, is a partner in Rios Clementi Hale Studios in Los Angeles.
Originally published 2nd quarter 2005, in arcCA 05.2, “Other Business.”
