"Instead of working to make the building pretty, allow it to be beautiful. We live in a world where excellence is considered wasteful, beauty has no value and pride in one’s community infrastructure is unfashionable. To others these qualities are the very definition of humanity."
“We have always been interested in using vernacular construction as a way of achieving a fit with ever decreasing budgets and shortage of skilled craftspeople. There are two vernacular technical processes to draw from in our region: light wood frame and tilt-up concrete. First seriously used by Irving Gill in the early part of this century, tilt-up lay forgotten until warehouse builders discovered it with a vengeance in the 1960s. Although it has evolved to a highly sophisticated technical art, it is largely virgin ground for architects. Much of our recent work explores this second vernacular and its intriguing possibilities as a civic architecture.”
"I’ve always thought of architecture as social theater rather than object making. The role of the designer of public spaces is to create a stage set for what is often a play created at an unspecified future time by someone you don’t know. A stage set in the sense that it guides, amplifies and enables, but does not dictate. Or prescribe. A stage set that feels complete with only a few people. There are two kinds of urban public spaces: one of refuge and one of engagement."
"I’m not going to take you anyplace that you don’t want to go. I may, however, take you where you have never been."
"Like all architects, I enjoy crafting buildings. But my real interest is in making communities. And making communities into cities."
"Seek truth beyond the aesthetic. I am fascinated not by the architectural object but by the dynamic between the building and city. We see our work as a platform for human experience. Like a stage set for a fabulous play. We provide an unknowable but lightly guided trajectory."