Twenty-one Questions with Angie Brooks

By Danette Riddle

I’m not quite sure what has impressed me more over the years that I’ve known the Pugh + Scarpa team: the quality of their work or the quality of the people who work there. I guess it’s safe to say that the former is born of the latter.

One of the things I like to do with these brief and informal interviews is ask other architects what they think of the person being interviewed. They often say what I would in a more concise manner, and I have to admit I learn a great deal about a person or firm by how their peers describe them. According to Joey Shimoda of Shimoda Design Group who has known the Pugh + Scarpa team for over a decade, "I think some of the most innovative work coming out of Los Angeles is from Larry, Gwynne and Angela's studio. Each project surprises me with an adroit sense of materiality and a celebration of people and a genuine concern for the environment. They embody a design culture of passion, skill, and spontaneity, which is why they are one of the most significant firms practicing in today."

Liz Martin, the Paul Rudolph Visiting Professor at Auburn University, mentioned the following when asked about Angie’s work: “Since graduate school at SCI-Arc, Angie has been focused on working within the community and obsessed with environmental issues. She brings a dignity, balance of judgment, and intelligence to her projects and inspires and develops thoughtful, comprehensive designs for all projects of all scales and complexities. Her work with Livable Places pushing ‘smart growth’ and her work at Colorado Court are a testament to that.”

As a principal of PUGH + SCARPA, Angie is responsible for overall project and staff management. Her background is in both operations and design on a wide range of public and private sector projects. Prior to earning her master’s degree at SCI-Arc, Angie worked at SOM where she was a design team member on large commercial structures.

Most recently, Angie has served as project architect for Colorado Court, a 44-unit affordable housing project in Santa Monica that generates a majority of its energy on-site. At Colorado Court, Angie was also responsible for LEEDTM Certification, with the project earning a Gold rating. Angie also provides services as a sustainable consultant on various projects, most notably on the TreePeople Center for Community Forestry which is anticipated to earn a Platinum rating, the highest level of certification awarded.  Angie is on the Board of Directors for Livable Places, which promotes healthy communities through local policy reform and development of compact, affordable housing that incorporates a mixture of uses and income levels, as well as sustainable building practices in Southern California. (For more info: http://www.livableplaces.org/about/index.html)

In the past five years, PUGH + SCARPA has received twenty-seven major design awards including seven consecutive national AIA Honor Awards. This year, they captured three design awards in the “Decade Awards” category from the AIA/LA jury.

 

 


Q: What is your favorite building in LA?
A: Charles and Ray Eames' Eames House

Q: What’s your favorite building in the world?   
A: Paul Rudolph’s Cocoon House.

Q: If you could listen to only 5 CDs for the rest of your life, what would they be?
A: Jimi Hendrix: Axis: Bold As Love;  Al Green: Greatest Hits; U2: Achtung Baby; Cowboy Junkies: Black Eyed Man; and Prince: The Hits 2.

Q: What is your idea of bliss?
A: A pedicure or watching our 6 year old taking a nap in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

Q: What would your last meal be?  
A: A good steak.

Q: What's your most treasured possession?
A: My black boots.

Q: If you could change anything about the profession what would it be?
A: To make it more inclusive:  more sharing of knowledge and collaboration, more channels for architects to cross into other professions such as politics and to be encouraged and rewarded for making positive change in these other fields.

Q: If you weren’t an architect, what would be your profession of choice?
A: A photographer.

Q: What makes you smile?
A: Shaking hands with a 6 year old.

Q: What's your best skill?  
A: Listening.

Q: Do you think it's true that architects don't achieve real success until their 50s?  
A: No.

Q: What's your architectural age?
A: 12.

Q: What’s the most memorable moment of your career to date?
A: Listening to a person living in an SRO that we built who said she is healthier and happier living there.

Q: We live in L.A. so we have to ask, what’s your all time favorite movie?
A: Fargo.

Q: Montblanc or Mouse?  
A: Laptop.

Q: Dog or cat ?  
A: Koi fish .

Q: Who are your heroes today and why?  
A: LAUSD public school teachers: because they are struggling in a dysfunctional system and work for relatively little money in order to ensure our kids get a good education.

Q: What’s your favorite work of art?   
A: Painting:  David Hockney’s Mulholland Drive; Sculpture:  Alexander Calder’s circus animals

Q: What’s your favorite book? 
A: To Kill a Mockingbird

Q: What is the best vacation you have ever taken?  
A: A month in Europe traveling from Paris to Rome and back by way of Germany and Switzerland in a car called a ‘Twingo’.

Q: What is your favorite material to work with?
A: Play Doh.