continued

"For a long time there was a little bit of a stigma that as an architect you don't get your hands dirty," Radziner continued. "Overall in architecture, we've become aesthetic consultants and considered not valuable to building, or even seen as a detriment. I think we're only recently beginning to break that down. In this office it's about the design process continuing through until it's done."

"We're better architects because of it," he adds. "You learn. Suddenly you're responsible for the project financially, aesthetically and practically. There's a different level of rigor that now goes into those drawings and specifications. I think the practice is trying to take back that control."

Do-It-Yourself Craftsmanship

Radziner and Marmol both attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. When they formed Marmol Radziner + Associates while still in their 20s, it was a conscious move to go their own way instead of moving up the ladder of corporate architecture firms.

Their influences include the architect-led design-build firm Jersey Devil, which began in Seattle in 1972 under the leadership of Steve Badanes, John Ringle, and Jim Adamson. But while the small Jersey Devil team has traditionally constructed its designs while living onsite in tents or Airstream trailers, Marmol Radziner takes more of a traditional approach. With 60 people on staff, the firm is bigger than the smallest practices while still smaller than a large general contracting company.

Other inspirations have come from other artists and craftspeople, such as mid-20th-century Bay Area ceramicist Edith Heath, who was already an acclaimed artist exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art when she founded Heath Ceramics to bring exemplary crafted pieces to a wider audience. (Clients can opt to install Health Ceramics tile in their Marmol Radziner Prefab houses.)

Radziner is encouraged by a new generation of designers who seem to have a stronger appreciation for the freedom and responsibilities that comes from constructing one's own work. "Architecture is still about shade and proportion and mass and shadow and light," he says. "But schools can teach a respect for building."

Many architects are becoming interested in acting as their own contractors, but negotiating both good design and the realities of construction is not within the capabilities of every firm.

Whether creating site-built or fully prefabricated architecture, Marmol Radziner is remains focused on producing pristine, disciplined design that responds to its landscape and environment.

Brian Libby is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance writer who has also published in Metropolis, The Christian Science Monitor, Architectural Record, and The New York Times.   More by Brian Libby

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