Michael Rotondi

Michael Rotondi (born June 26, 1949) is an American architect and educator. He co-founded two international practices (Morphosis from 1976-1991, and RoTo Architects 1991-present). He was co-founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in 1972, and later, founder of the graduate programs there.[4]

Michael Rotondi
Born (1949-06-26) June 26, 1949
Los Angeles, California, United States of America
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSouthern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)April Greiman
ChildrenBenny Cassette
AwardsAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters for Architecture
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal[1]
30 Most Admired Design Teachers in America (2013)[2]
Richard J Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence (2014)[3]
PracticeRoTo Architects
Websitewww.rotoark.com

Early life

Born in the Silver Lake/Los Feliz area of Los Angeles to Italian immigrants,[5] Rotondi’s father was an executive chef (Italian cuisine), his mother a self-taught musician[6] and seamstress [7]. As a child, he would build things with his siblings and, inspired by his godfather who was a contractor, would draw the front elevation of apartment buildings on Los Feliz Blvd, "then reinvent them," imagining what the interior spaces were like. “We were always building, digging underground, digging out hedges in a hill to make a cage. We were always constructing spaces for ourselves, not out of an urge to be builders but to make hideouts.”[8] He recognized houses by Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright in the neighborhood not by the architects’ names, but because they “just looked better. It looked different than all the rest.” [9]

In Junior High School, he took drafting classes where he "fell in love with" isometric drawing and realized his affinity for precision.[10] After high school he attended Los Angeles City College, taking preparatory architecture courses. [11] He then attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Cal Poly Pomona.[12]

Career

SCI-Arc

In 1972, Rotondi was one of fifty people to leave Cal Poly Pomona and start the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)[13] with Ray Kappe. [14]. He received his diploma from SCI-Arc in 1973. Since founding SCI-Arc with his colleagues, Rotondi has been active in advancing and growing the school. He started the Graduate Programs, of which he was Director from 1978-1987, then succeeded Founding Director Kappe as the second Director from 1987-1997.[4] “I moved from student to teacher, to graduate school director to director of the institute. I was part of and a witness to this extraordinary process.”[15]

Architectural Practice

Rotondi’s earlier work is highlighted by industrial concepts and materials, and asymmetry, and is considered to be one of the primary figures of Los Angeles' Postmodernism school.[16] [17] He began his professional architecture practice in 1973 with Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall (DMJM), then from 1974-1976 practiced both independently and in collaboration with Peter de Bretteville and Craig Hodgetts. He formed the partnership Morphosis with Thom Mayne in 1976, where they worked together through 1991.[18] On November 1, 1991 Rotondi founded a new firm, RoTo Architects, with Clark Stevens and Brian Reiff.[15] He views RoTo as "a collaboration of people working in an open practice where ideas move about for anyone’s use without the need to feel proprietary. Authorship is less important than collaboration.”[15]

Current

Rotondi is currently a Distinguished Faculty at SCI-Arc where he teaches design studios, thesis students and seminars on creative imagination.[4] He also teaches at Arizona State University, where he has been a long-time educator[19], and lectures at universities around the world.

His firm RoTo Architects works internationally in a wide range of fields including residential, commercial, cultural, and contemplative, and has been widely published and received numerous awards.[4] His practice also has a strong mentorship approach, where he is “trying to incubate the careers of the people that are here now.”[20] The firm works on both commissioned and speculative projects, the latter being projects that were "invented" for the purposes of teaching are developed in the office, with the aim of turning them into real projects.[21]

Philosophical views

Rotondi’s personal life and career is marked by a philosophical shift occurring in spring of 1989, when he met and began working with designer April Greiman[15], and weeks later was invited to a two-day discourse with neuroscientists and the Dalai Lama. “Romantic love and compassion hit me within two months. Everything I had known to be true began to dissolve.”[22] What emerged was a “new concept of order,” where he experienced that unity and diversity were simultaneously possible, and realized creativity “did not have to be the product of a tormented soul,” the motivation could be love (compassion, generosity) and not fear (anger, selfishness).[15]

Meditation began to inform his teaching and practice. “In order to discover the building, you have to step back and not impose your will on it. You have to become a transparent medium that allows it all to come forth and pass through you.” Helping something to naturally become, is “one of the hardest things to sustain.”[23]

In teaching and architecture, his basic objective is to bridge intellectual and spiritual practice, and “outwardly manifest my inner journey.”[15] He views his role in life (as a teacher, architect, mentor, friend) as an "evolutionary imperative" to move the species forward.[24]

In a description of architectural practice, Rotondi stated: "The most inventive work comes from people who have a beginner’s mind ... In a beginner’s mind you’re trying to provisionally remove expectations from the process and develop the innocence that you had as a child.”[25]

In a symposium to students at the University of Utah, he stated his five principles:[15]

  1. The importance of the continual process of discovery
  2. The paradigm shifts in science that deepen and alter our understanding of the way that our world operates and our position in it
  3. Closing the gap between ideas emerging in a new paradigm and when they are taken into architecture
  4. The concept of architecture as a medium of exchange and exploration
  5. The notions of order, wholeness and coherence

“The works come out of all of this. They are intended to be documents of the process. The Promise of Architecture.”[15] Rotondi views architecture as a platform, where the "architectural mind" can be developed by anyone, particularly in design disciplines, to solve problems in the world: “the ultimate test of any idea is to construct it.”[26]

Major projects

Published Works

Authored
  • Michael Rotondi, Clark P. Stevens (2006). RoTo Works: Still Points. Rizzoli International Publications, New York. ISBN 978-0847828135
  • Michael Rotondi, Margaret Reeve, April Greiman (Designer) (1997). From the Center: Design Process at SCI-Arc. The Monacelli Press; Spi edition, New York. ISBN 978-1885254344
  • Michael Rotondi, Christian Unverzagt (1996). MAP 1: RoTo Architects. University of Michigan College of Architecture Business Office, Ann Arbor. ISBN 978-0961479244

Authored a Piece Within
  • Brigitte Kowanz, Fountain : Light + Space, Glanzstoff, Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2017
  • Meyer, Neuman, Rotondi, Architectural Resistance: Contemporary Architects Face Schindler Today, MaK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, 2003
  • Michael Rotondi, Margaret Reeve, April Greiman (Designer), From the Center: Design Process at SCI-Arc, The Monacelli Press; Spi edition, New York, 1997
  • Daniel Birnbaum, Michael Rotondi, Paul Virilio, etc, James Turrell: The Other Horizon, MAK and Ostfildern, Cantz, Vienna, 1998

Interviewed
  • Stephen Philips, L.A. [TEN], Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s – 1990s, Lars Muller Publishers, Zurich, 2014
  • Aino Paasonen, The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews, SCI Arc Public Access Press, 2001

Lecture
  • Michael Rotondi, The 1994 Henrietta Johnson Louis Symposium on Architecture and Writing, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1994

Features Work, Philosophy
  • Sherin Wing, Designing Sacred Spaces, Routledge, New York, 2015
  • Todd Gannon, A Confederacy of Heretics, Getty Publications, Los Angeles, 2013
  • Christopher Mount and Jeffrey Deitch, A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture in Southern California, Rizzoli International Publications, New York/ The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2013
  • Peter Cook, George Rand, Morphosis : Buildings and Projects, Rizzoli, 1994
  • Miller, Nory and Michael Sorkin, California Counterpoint: New West Coast Architecture 1982, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1982

Awards and honors

Among other honors and awards, Michael Rotondi received the Richard J Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence from Cal Poly Pomona in 2014[45][46], the AIA/LA Gold Medal for Presidential Honors in 2009,[47] and in 1992 was honored by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters with their Academy-Institute Award in Architecture.[48] Between 1981-1991 while practicing at Morphosis, the firm received 12 awards from Progressive Architecture magazine and 11 from the American Institute of Architects.[49]

gollark: Of the kind JS has about 12 million of.
gollark: Is there some kind of "bundler" for CC?
gollark: It has one for pointlessness reasons.
gollark: Maybe I should replace potatOS's very bad PRNG with that, then.
gollark: The other one is just that it seems pretty much unpointful.

See also

References
  1. Gluck, Marissa. "Architect Michael Rotondi Takes the AIA/LA Gold". Curbed LA. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  2. "DesignIntelligence 30 Most Admired Educators for 2013". DesignIntelligence. January 21, 2013.
  3. "L.A. Architect Selected to Receive Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence | PolyCentric".
  4. "Michael Rotondi - SCI-Arc". www.sciarc.edu.
  5. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press.
  6. Phillips, Stephen (2014). L.A. [TEN], Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s. Lars Muller. p. 130.
  7. The Design:Ed Podcast
  8. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press. p. 217.
  9. Phillips, Stephen (2014). L.A. [TEN], Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s. Lars Muller. p. 129.
  10. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press. p. 217.
  11. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press. p. 218.
  12. Phillips, Stephen (2014). L.A. [TEN], Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s. Lars Muller. p. 130.
  13. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press. p. 207.
  14. Lucking, Maura (2012). Design and Architecture. SCI-Arc at Forty: The Original “Alternative” Architecture School.
  15. Rotondi, Michael (1994). The 1994 Henrietta Johnson Louis Symposium on Architecture and Writing. Publisher:Graduate School of Architecture, University of Utah
  16. https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/a03c2624-ea2e-4d4b-b41c-df38d78713d3/Postmodernism_1965-1991_2.pdf
  17. Giovannini, Joseph (1997). The Future Pulls Into the Station. The New York Times.
  18. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press. p. 207.
  19. "L.A. Architect Selected to Receive Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence | PolyCentric".
  20. Korody, Nicholas. "Michael Rotondi Opens Up About the Faith Propelling His Life and Work". Archinect. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  21. The Design:Ed Podcast
  22. Phillips, Stephen (2014). L.A. [TEN], Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s-1990s. Lars Muller. p. 156.
  23. Paasonen, Aino (2001). The Architect, Poetry + The City, SCI ARC Faculty Interviews. SCI-Arc Public Access Press. p. 218.
  24. The Design:Ed Podcast
  25. Lubell, Sam. "Q&A". The Architect's Newspaper. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  26. The Design:Ed Podcast
  27. Ayyüce, Orhan. "Review: Carlson-Reges House, RoTo Architects". Archinect. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  28. Beale, Lauren (September 22, 2018). "Vintage SoCal: An artistic reuse in Lincoln Heights". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  29. Sywak, Ellie. "The Eye of the Teiger". Aspire Design and Home. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  30. Goldberger, Paul (March 1997). "Michael Rotondi - A Contemporary Villa Embraces the New Jersey Landscape". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  31. "Nathelyne Archie-Kennedy Building". Prairie View A&M University.
  32. "School of Architecture, Prairie View A&M". Architecture as Aesthetics. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  33. "Cite 66" (PDF). Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  34. Lubbell, Sam (November 17, 2014). "Honors> Michael Rotondi receives Cal Poly Pomona's Richard Neutra Medal". The Architect's Newspaper. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  35. "Michael Rotondi (April 9, 1997)". SCI-Arc Channel. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  36. Webb, Michael (August 21, 2009). "Madame Tussauds Hollywood". Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  37. Hawthorne, Christopher (August 9, 2009). "Architecture review: Madame Tussauds in Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  38. Schroder, Hannah. "Dancing Bricks". Building Design + Construction. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  39. Wing, Sherin. "Q&A: Michael Rotondi on Sacred Spaces". Metropolis. Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  40. Wing, Sherin. "Q&A: Michael Rotondi on Sacred Spaces". Metropolis. Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  41. Wing, Sherin. "Three Architects on the Most Valuable Design Skill—Listening". Metropolis. Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  42. Wing, Sherin. "Q&A: Michael Rotondi on Sacred Spaces". Metropolis. Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  43. "Michael Rotondi". Arid Lands Institute. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  44. Yang, Henry H. (2016). "Discussion with Henry H. Yang". Offramp. 12 (Offramp 12: Tolerance - Fall/Winter 2016). Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  45. "L.A. Architect Selected to Receive Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence | PolyCentric".
  46. "SCI-Arc co-founder Michael Rotondi to receive Richard J. Neutra Medal at Cal Poly Pomona". Bustler.
  47. Gluck, Marissa. "Architect Michael Rotondi Takes the AIA/LA Gold". Curbed LA. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  48. "Architects Mayne, Rotondi Cited". Los Angeles Times. May 3, 1992. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  49. "Architects Mayne, Rotondi Cited". Los Angeles Times. May 3, 1992. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
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