My first project for at the office was a manufacturing campus near Sacramento, California, for furniture maker Herman Miller. To evoke a sense of urbanity in the open landscape of Northern California, we created a central plaza under a monumental trellis structure that we hoped would provide shelter from the weather for both employees and visitors to the facility.
At Herman Miller, we collaborated with fellow architect Stanley Tigerman and landscape architect Peter Walker. Through these experiences, I learnt that the genesis of a new urbanism is very much the result of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary effort.
This collaborative approach was carried through to our team’s next project - a master plan in Cleveland, Ohio for the insurance company Progressive Corporation. We collaborated with fellow architect Peter Eisenman (who happens to have been my professor at Harvard) and with artists Claus Oldenburg and Donald Judd. In retrospect, I think this experience of artists and architects working together has made a profound impression on me, and has influenced my current interest in blurring the boundaries between urbanism, art and architecture.
More than a decade has passed between the Progressive Corporation project and this project for Pro-Arch - a master plan project near Düsseldorf, Germany for automaker Mercedes Benz. This time, the office collaborated with European architects Rem Koolhaas and Jean Nouvel to create the master plan. Although the three studios conceived the master plan together, it was decided that each team would develop a portion of the project for presentation to Düsseldorf’s city officials.
Our office was given the task of designing ‘twin’ office towers, each resting on a plinth of commercial spaces proposed by Koolhaas. Nouvel would design a performing arts building, also connected to Koolhaas’ plinth. Although the Pro-Arch master plan was never realized, the discussions it raised about how to create density in the contemporary city - both horizontally and vertically - would remain with me for many future projects.
Recently, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the seemingly chaotic structure of the new megalopolises being constructed in the world’s emerging economies in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. I think they are more vital manifestations of our pluralistic and inter-connected culture than the traditional urbanism of Europe.
How to develop an effective and sustainable architectural language to capture the essence of this vibrant urban lifestyle and the values of our democratic society today is the priority as I look forward to launching my own practice.
The projects in this section were designed and executed during my time at Gehry Partners LLP (the office). I am grateful to Mr. Gehry and the team at the office for their generosity and support over the years. All intellectual property rights of these projects continue to be owned by the office unless otherwise mentioned. The narrative texts on the projects are entirely personal, they do not represent the views or opinions of the office, its clients or any other third party or organization.