Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne founded the firm Morphosis in Santa Monica in 1972 with Jim Stafford, with the aim of developing projects that would respond specifically to the multiple needs of each client, site, and program. In 1973, Mayne and Stafford were joined by Michael Rotondi. From 1980 through 1992, Mayne and Rotondi practiced as partners. Currently, Morphosis employs approximately twenty architects and designers directed by Mayne, John Enright, and Kim Groves.

Morphosis has participated in and won various international competitions, three of which are now under construction: the Diamond Ranch High School in California, the Alpe-Adria Hypothenkenbank in Austria, and the University of Toronto Graduate/Second Entry Residence in Canada. Morphosis has received sixteen Progressive Architecture awards and twenty-seven AIA awards among numerous other honours. Solo exhibitions of the firm's work have been shown at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; a major retrospective will open in Madrid in1999. The firm's work also has been featured in group exhibitions, including those at the GA Gallery in Tokyo, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, and the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, and was included in MOCA's 100 Years of Architecture, currently on view in Tokyo.

Thom Mayne received his undergraduate degree in 1968 from the University of Southern California, where he met the five other students and educators with whom he later founded the Southern California Institute of Architecture, or Sci Arc. In 1978, he received his masters degree from Harvard. He has served on many faculties, including those of Columbia University, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, and the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. He currently holds a faculty position at the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, while continuing to serve on the Board of Directors at Sci Arc. Each year he lectures at approximately fifteen international institutions and universities, while serving on architectural juries around the world. His honours include the Rome Pri ze Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome in 1987.

The work of Morphosis has been published extensively, including two KA monographs, two Rizzoli monographs, one GA Document, and two issues of El Croquis. Three additional monographs will be completed by the end of 1999:Morphosis Buildings and Projects 1993-1997 (Rizzoli), Morphosis Monograph (C3 Publications) and Morphosis (Electa).