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Susan Lanier Interview - Page 5
SL- I think SCI-Arc does operate that way. I wouldn't say it's true
universally across the board, but at its soul, it has always managed to maintain that energy, not with in the student body, but also in the faculty. It's something that I have not found in other places. At USC, they have tremendous assets in terms of what they have access to! It goes without saying...
v5 - At a lot of different levels, at a political level...
SL- Oh, politically - yes, absolutely!
v5- The Mayor of Los Angeles will answer the telephone if USC calls him (laughing)!
SL- Oh yes!
v5- Right, so at USC there's a potential that is somewhat unique in the City and in the State!
SL- Oh, I think so and it really has that advantage. There are people that have come out of there who they can point to with integrity. Yet, I think the thing that is really its strength in this case, is the same thing that often gets in its way. Trying to take advantage of new ideas or new ways of structuring studios or allowing some of the young upstarts to come and run the program. They don't take risks that easily.
It is understandable given the kind of financial structure of the
institution. My feeling is that it's got so much available to it that it
would be wonderful to push that a little bit more. I think Timme has
been trying to do that. There has been a problem with space there and he's actually opened up a window with another facility that's near USC, to work on as a satellite studio. Have you heard about this? It makes perfect sense. They pay high bucks and high rent for the facility they have. So they are working on new opportunities.
v5- So, your studio is in El Segundo. This is the Internet, so people from India will be looking at this. If you say Los Angeles, they know where Los Angeles is, if you say El Segundo - so you have to explain it a little bit. It is just south of the Los Angeles International Airport, which is about a 30-minute drive from the downtown area, on a good day.
The airport is right on the coast, so you are very close to the coast in a kind of industrial area.
SL- Yes, actually the city was named after the oil refinery that is
here. It was the second refinery that was built by Chevron, so they
named the city El Segundo, which means "the second" city.
v5- Looking at the map, you see El Segundo to the north, where there is a grid of streets; then there's about the same amount of area to the south - it's just in very small type that it says "refinery." It is one of those deceptive marks on the map.
SL- That's right.
v5- You can see the refinery from miles away - it is enormous.
SL- We used to have our office actually right in front of the refinery
and yes, it was like looking at some sort of scene from Brazil (the
film, you know what I mean). There was really a drought then, but now things are looking up quite a bit and we've gotten a few smaller projects, most of them residential, but the clients seem to be game and interested in doing architecture.
v5 - How do you meet those people?
SL- We've been fortunate to have been published quite a bit for just a little bit that we've done. We have been really lucky that way, but it seems like the publications that yield the most in terms of clients have been the more consumer-oriented magazines. In this case for us it's been Los Angeles Times Life and Style section, or the L.A. Times Magazine. It has been terrific, so we haven't marketed ourselves, which is something we need to probably learn to do a little bit better. We haven't gotten involved in any kind of city work, which we would like to do.
v5- Well, good luck, and thank you, Susan.
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