Sam Lubell examines the U.S.'s trouble keeping top design talent

2014-01-22T18:09:00-05:00

In my own office, for instance, two firms, Synthesis Design + Architecture and Freeland Buck, are carrying out their only major projects in places like China and Thailand. A former office mate, Platform for Architecture and Research (P-A-R), is pursuing most of its work in Europe and Asia. If you move up to LA’s most established design firms, they’re doing the exact same thing. Where are Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, and Neil Denari doing most of their projects? The Middle East, China, and Europe.

American architects explain their appeal overseas

2012-10-26T15:18:00-04:00

“Why do they come to us? Because of 15 Central Park West,” Mr. Stern, 73, said earlier this month from his office on the West Side of Manhattan. The Chinese “don’t want to go home at night to their three-bedroom shelf on the 44th floor,” he added. “They want to live in a place. That’s what we do: we’re place-makers.”

“You used to look out that window and somewhere you would see a crane,” [Richard Meier] said a few days ago. “You go around New York City today and you don’t see that many cranes. It is just not happening at this moment.”

“Obviously,” he added, “if the economy in this country stays the way it’s been, we are happy to be working all over the world. I wish we had a project in New York City, but we don’t.”

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Sam Lubell examines the U.S.'s trouble keeping top design talent

American architects explain their appeal overseas