Michael Rotondi
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Michael Rotondi (born June 26, 1949) is an American architect and educator. He has been a member of two international practices (
Morphosis Morphosis Architects is an interdisciplinary architectural and design practice based in Los Angeles and New York City. History The firm was informally founded in 1972 by Michael Brickler, Thom Mayne, Livio Santini and James Stafford. Michael Rot ...
from 1976-1991, and RoTo Architects 1991–present, which he founded). He attended the Southern California Institute of Architecture when it began (SCI-Arc) in 1972 and, later, was director of the graduate program there.


Early life

Born in the Silver Lake/
Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
area of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
to Italian immigrants, Rotondi’s father was an executive chef (Italian cuisine), his mother a self-taught musician and seamstress. 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.” 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.” In junior high school, he took drafting classes, where he "fell in love with" isometric drawing and realized his affinity for precision. After high school he attended
Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campus of the U ...
, taking preparatory architecture courses. He then attended
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or Cal Poly) is a public university in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, - Cites the location of the university and shows that the university ...
, and Cal Poly Pomona.


Career


SCI-Arc

In 1972, Rotondi was one of fifty students to leave Cal Poly Pomona and attend the newly founded Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Since SCI-Arc would not become accredited until after his graduation, Rotondi, like all early SCI-Arc graduates, received a certificate of completion (in 1973) rather than a diploma. Since his initial involvement as one of the original SCI-Arc students, Rotondi has been active in advancing and improving the school. He was director of the graduate program from 1978-1987, then succeeded Founding Director Kappe as the second Director from 1987-1997. “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.”Rotondi, Michael (1994). The 1994 Henrietta Johnson Louis Symposium on Architecture and Writing. Publisher:Graduate School of Architecture, University of Utah


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. 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 joined the already existing firm
Morphosis Morphosis Architects is an interdisciplinary architectural and design practice based in Los Angeles and New York City. History The firm was informally founded in 1972 by Michael Brickler, Thom Mayne, Livio Santini and James Stafford. Michael Rot ...
as a partner with
Thom Mayne Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities po ...
, one of the co-founders of SCI-Arc, in 1976, where he worked through 1991. On November 1, 1991 Rotondi founded a new firm, RoTo Architects, with Clark Stevens and Brian Reiff. 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.”


Current

Rotondi is currently a Distinguished Faculty at SCI-Arc where he teaches design studios, thesis students and seminars on creative imagination. He also teaches at
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
, where he has been a long-time educator, 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. His practice also has a strong mentorship approach, where he is “trying to incubate the careers of the people that are here now.” 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.


Major projects

* Carlson-Reges House,
Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles Lincoln Heights is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was originally called "East Los Angeles" from 1873 to 1917. It is a densely populated, mostly Latino and Asian neighborhood that includes many histo ...
, 1992-onwards * Teiger House, Bernardsville, NJ, 1989-1996 * Prairie View A&M University School of Architecture (Nathelyne Archie-Kennedy Building) 2002-2005 *
Sinte Gleska University Sinte Gleska University (SGU) is a public tribal land-grant university in Mission, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. It is a Brulé Lakota Indian Reservation home to the Sicangu (Burnt Thigh). SGU has an enrollment of 828 full ...
* Madame Tussauds Hollywood, 2009 * La Jolla Playhouse, 2006 * Insight Meditation Society - Forest Refuge, Barre, MA * Xiyuan Monastery University, Suzhou, China * Ari Bhod, Tehachapi, CA * 100,000 Stupas, Soquel, CA * Wolf Connection, Acton, CA


Published works


Authored

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


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. EN 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, the AIA/LA Gold Medal for Presidential Honors in 2009, and in 1992 was honored by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters with their Academy-Institute Award in Architecture. Between 1981-1991 while practicing at
Morphosis Morphosis Architects is an interdisciplinary architectural and design practice based in Los Angeles and New York City. History The firm was informally founded in 1972 by Michael Brickler, Thom Mayne, Livio Santini and James Stafford. Michael Rot ...
, the firm received 12 awards from Progressive Architecture magazine and 11 from the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...
.


See also

* Southern California Institute of Architecture


References


External links


RoTo Architects - Official WebsiteSCi-Arc Faculty Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotondi, Michael 1949 births Living people 20th-century American architects 21st-century American architects Architects from Los Angeles Southern California Institute of Architecture faculty Educators from Greater Los Angeles Postmodern architects People from Los Feliz, Los Angeles