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Wednesday, September 9, 2020
4 Ways To Transform Your Backyard To Be Summer Ready
Click the photo below to read our latest article in PV Magazine’s July/August issue, “4 Ways To Transform Your Backyard To Be Summer Ready.”
Neolith Design Showcase
Our Luxury Master Bath project is showcased on Neolith's website!
Click the photo below to see the full feature.
Women in Business, Women in Design, Trailblazers : Julia Morgan
Our July-August Design Trailblazer is Julia Morgan (1872-1957), California’s first licensed woman architect.
Julia Morgan (1872-1957)
Morgan is known for being one of the most prolific architects in American history who worked on more than 700 hundred buildings in her 47 year career. One of her most famous works is Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Though, we think Julia would say her other famous work would be overcoming gender barriers at home and abroad in a male-dominated profession, inspiring generations of women to follow their dreams.
Morgan was born into a wealthy family in San Francisco, California and lived across the bay in Oakland with her parents and four siblings. As a young girl, her mother’s cousin, Architect Pierre Le Bron, sparked Morgan’s interest in design.
In 1897, L’Ecole Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts finally allowed women to take the entrance exam. This decision was influenced by a group of persistent French female artists who had been petitioning for the school to admit women. Upon hearing the news, Morgan took the entrance exam. The school was only accepting the top 30 placements, but Morgan came in at number 42, and was denied. After studying and gaining more architect experience, she tried again and made it in the top 30, but was still rejected after the school falsely lowered her marks. The real reason they lowered her marks was that the school did not want to encourage young girls.
After Morgan completed her studies in Paris, she returned home, became the first licensed woman architect in California, and opened her own office in 1904 (after gaining work experience with architect John Galen Howard). Morgan paved her own path and opened her own office. Howard said, though Morgan was a great draftsman, he could get away with paying her peanuts because she was a woman.
Morgan’s most consistent and supportive client was the Hearst family. Phoebe Apperson Hearst, whom Morgan met through Maybeck, hired her in 1913 to transform 30 acres on the Monterey Peninsula into the Y.W.C.A. conference center. The conference center was renamed Asilomar or “refuge by the sea”. The Y.W.C.A staff, students, and supporters met periodically to discuss women’s issues of the time to find solutions, such as breaking into career fields dominated by men.
Morgan went on to attend college at the University of California Berkley as one of its first female civil engineering students. While studying at Berkley her passion for architecture flourished and after graduating in 1894 with a degree in engineering, Morgan pursued private studies under the local architect Bernard Maybeck. Maybeck encouraged her aspirations in architecture and suggested she enroll in the best architecture school at the time, L’Ecole Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. This prestigious school did not admit women at the time, but Maybeck heard rumors they would soon be changing the rules, so in 1896 Julia took a risk and travelled to Paris to begin the process for admission to the acclaimed school.
This didn’t stop Morgan, she tried for the third time and placed 13th out of 376 candidates and could not be ignored. She was accepted into the architecture program at age 26. Though, upon admission, Morgan was told by the school that she only had 3 years to gain her certificate, which would normally take 5. Morgan didn’t let this road block stop her. She persevered and received her architecture certificate just before her 30th birthday in 1902 after submitting a grand theatre design that was said to be outstanding. Morgan achieved her certificate in architecture and became the first woman to receive the qualification from the college.
From there, Morgan worked for herself and started getting commissioned for projects. Her reputation grew when Morgan's innovative bell tower for the all female Mills College was one of the few buildings to remain standing after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. This provided her the opportunity to design hundreds of homes and many churches, office buildings, and educational buildings in the Bay area, helping to rebuild the community.
Fun Fact: The first Y.W.C.A. conference was held at Mills College near Oakland, CA, where Morgan’s standing bell tower was built.
The Asilomar conference center grounds offered housing including educational and vocational classroom facilities, where young women could take classes in money management, sewing, cooking, and typing. Morgan went on to build 28 more Y.W.C.A. buildings across California, Utah, Arizona and Hawaii. Morgan’s Y.W.C.A. building in San Pedro, California is the last standing Julia Morgan building still used as a Y.W.C.A. today.
Photos from Asilomar archives, Hearst Social Hall, 1920 © Lawrence Anderson/Esto
An interior from the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, Calif.
(1913–1929).
In 1919, the well known journalist, William Randolph Hearst (Phoebe Hearst’s son), commissioned Morgan to design his family ranch after his mother died in the influenza epidemic. The family ranch was named La Cuesta Encantada, but is better known as Hearst’s Castle today. Morgan was involved in all aspects of the design and worked closely with Hearst to incorporate his collection of antiques and works of art. In 1947, after Hearst’s financial woes slowed, he left the Castle for the last time and Morgan’s work was finished after 28 years. The Castle was never completed in its entirety.
Morgan in 1926 with William Randolph Hearst, with whom she designed a castle of fantastic, pan-European architecture.
Credit...Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives
One of Morgan’s original sketches for Hearst Castle, which became Morgan’s most famous work. Credit...Hearst Castle/Julia Morgan Collection, Environmental Design Archives, UC
© Lawrence Anderson/Esto
The Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif. (construction began in 1919).
&
© Lawrence Anderson/Esto - A bedroom in the Hearst Castle.
In 1951, four years after her work was completed at Hearst’s Castle, Morgan retired at the age of 79 and lived a simple private life until her passing in 1957.
Julia Morgan’s legacy continued:
- In 2008, Morgan was admitted to the California Hall of Fame.
- In 2013, Morgan became the first woman to ever receive the American Institute of Architect’s Gold Medal (AIA’s highest award). The award was established in 1907 and Morgan became the seventh California architect to be given the honor.
Though, Julia Morgan did not live to see her Hall of Fame and Gold Medal awards, she accomplished her dream of becoming an architect and supported women groups and colleges along the way. She was a true trailblazer of her time.
“My buildings,” she said, “will be my legacy. They will speak for me long after I’m gone.”
- Julia Morgan
Photos:
https://www.californiamuseum.org/inductee/julia-morgan
https://www.visitasilomar.com/discover/park-history/
https://womensmuseum.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/first-in-their-field-julia-morgan/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/obituaries/julia-morgan-overlooked.html
Article References/Sources:
https://ywcaharbor.org/julias-closet/
https://hearstcastle.org/history-behind-hearst-castle/historic-people/profiles/julia-morgan/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/obituaries/julia-morgan-overlooked.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julia-Morgan
https://www.architectmagazine.com/awards/aia-honor-awards/gold-medal-julia-morgan_o
https://www.californiamuseum.org/inductee/julia-morgan
https://womensmuseum.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/first-in-their-field-julia-morgan/
June & July Giving
The LCD Team gathered and donated women’s clothing, accessories, books, and furniture items to Julia's Closet at The YWCA in San Pedro. Since 1918, The YWCA has provided services to women, girls and their families through a variety of programs and has been a pioneer in the fight for racial and social change. Julia’s Closet Thrift Store is one of many programs The YWCA offers and their motto is “Empower Women, One Purchase At A Time.”
The YWCA Thirft Store is named after Julia Morgan because she is the first licensed woman architect in California. She designed over 30 Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) buildings! In 1918, Julia designed the YWCA in San Pedro, which is the last standing Julia Morgan building still used as a YWCA.
Her gift in architecture and support for women organization’s is why we chose Julia as our July/August Trailblazer. Read Julia’s full story here.
Click the image below to learn more about YWCA.
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
No-Sew Face Masks
LCD, Inc. contributed to the April May issue of the Palos Verdes Magazine themed "A Community Apart But Together". For this issue we were asked to come up with a DIY activity that everyone can do while at home during the pandemic.
To read the full article of the No-Sew Face Masks the LCD Design Team created, click the photo below.
To read the full article of the No-Sew Face Masks the LCD Design Team created, click the photo below.
To Our Amazing Clients
Your support during the pandemic has meant the world to us and has helped us continue during this time.
If there is anything else we can help you with, please let us know.
Women in Business, Women in Design, Trailblazers : Norma Merrick Sklarek
Our April-June Design Trailblazer is Norma Merrick Sklarek (1926-2012), born in Harlem New York City, is known as “the Rosa Parks of architecture”.
Norma Merrick Sklarek (1926-2012)
Sklarek is highly praised and admired for her numerous pioneering achievements as the first African American woman architect in NY (1954) and CA (1962). Her intelligence, talent, and determination allowed her to overcome racism and sexism and became a prominent architect and leader in the industry. She is a woman of many firsts who paved the way for minority and women architects.
Sklarek was the only child of Walter Ernest Merrick, a doctor, and Amy Merrick, a seamstress, both of whom had immigrated from Trinidad to the United Sates. She was very close to her father and loved spending time with him fishing, house painting, and doing carpentry. During her schooling at Hunter College High School, Sklarek excelled in math and science, as well as showed talent in fine arts. Her father noticed her natural talent and suggested architecture as a career.
Growing up in New York (Harlem & Brooklyn), she attended predominately white schools. For college, this continued. She acquired prerequisites at Barnard College and transferred to the School of Architecture at Columbia University. At Columbia University she was one of two women in her class and the only African American. Many of her classmates were veterans of WWII, some had bachelor’s or master’s degrees, and they collaborated on assignments together, whereas Sklarek commuted to school and struggled to finish her work on the subway or at home alone. As she said later, “the competition was keen. But I had a stick-to-it attitude and never gave up.”
Upon her graduation from Columbia in 1950, with a Bachelors in Architecture, Sklarek faced discrimination in her search for work as an architect. She applied to nineteen firms and was rejected from all. She told a local newspaper in 2004, “They weren’t hiring women or African Americans, and I didn’t know which it was [working against me].” Continuing her job search, Sklarek took a civil service job at the City of New York’s Department of Public Works as a junior draftsperson, but felt her talents and skills were underused in the city position and it wasn’t challenging her skills. This prompted her to take the architecture licensing examination. Sklarek passed the exam on her first try becoming the first licensed African American woman architect in the state of New York in 1954.
She didn’t stop there. After becoming the first Black woman architect in NY:
- She was hired at a firm shortly after receiving her license, but was given menial tasks such as designing bathroom layouts.
- In 1955, she was offered a position at the architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merill. There she was given more responsibility on large-scale projects.
- While working at SOM, Sklarek took a second job and taught evening architecture courses at New York City Community College to support her two children as she was recently divorced.
- In 1959, Sklarek became the first African American woman member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
- In 1960, after five years at SOM, she relocated and took a job at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles.
- At Gruen she became aware of her Supervisors extra scrutiny, as she was the only Black woman in the firm. As a new employee without a car, she started carpooling with a white male colleague who was consistently late. Norma said, “It took only one week before the boss came and spoke to me about being late. Yet he had not noticed that the young man had been late for two years. My solution was to buy a car since I, the highly visible employee, had to be punctual.”
- In 1962, she became the first African American woman licensed as an architect in California.
- Norma rose to the position of Gruen’s director of architecture, responsible for hiring and overseeing staff architects and coordinating technical aspects of major projects.
- Like many women architects in corporate firms, for most of her career Sklarek served as a project manager rather than design architect.
- She oversaw major projects such as the California Mart, Fox Plaza, Pacific Design Center, San Bernardino Hall, and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
- She collaborated with Cesar Pelli on the California Mart, Pacific Design Center, San Bernardino City Hall and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.
According to Marshall Purnell, a former president of AIA, she was more than capable of designing large projects, but “it was unheard of to have an African American female who was registered as an architect. You didn’t trot that person out in front of your clients and say, ‘This is the person designing your project.”
Her son David Merrick Fairweather recalled how Sklarek considered the design of a building the easy part, but “she would make it real. What kind of concrete. What kind of nuts and bolts. What kind of glass. She was in production, and she would tell you production was the real work.”
Norma Sklarek, Gruen Associates, California Mart, Los Angeles, 1963.
The glass portion in the foreground is a later addition. © Gruen Associates
Norma Sklarek, Gruen Associates, San Bernardino City Hall,
San Bernardino, Calif., 1973. © Gruen Associates
Norma Sklarek and Cesar Pelli, Gruen Associates, The U.S. Embassy,
Tokyo, Japan, 1976. © Gruen Associates
Norma Sklarek, Gruen Associates, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles,
1978. © Gruen Associates
- She stayed at Gruen for 20 years.
- During her career she also served on the architecture faculty at University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California.
- In 1980, Norma was the first African American woman elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects for her outstanding contributions to the profession, the first woman in the Los Angeles AIA chapter to be awarded this honor.
- That year she joined Welton Becket Associates firm as a vice president, where she was responsible for Terminal One at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), a $50 million project that she completed before the start of the 1984 Olympic Games.
- In 1985, she cofounded the first woman owned firm, Siegel Sklarek Diamond, with Margot Siegel and Katherine Diamond.
Norma Sklarek, Welton Becket, Terminal One, Los Angeles
International Airport, Los Angeles, 1984. © Map data: Google
Though her firm worked on large projects such as the Tarzana Promenade, a 90,000 square foot medical and retail center, remodeling the Lawndale Civic Center, and additions to schools and other institutional buildings. After four years, Sklarek left since her and her partners were not able to get commissions for large-scale projects, and she missed the income and challenges they brought. From there, Sklarek joined the Jerde Partnership as principal of project management. At Jerde, she worked on the Mall of America in Minneapolis and other significant projects. In 1992, she retired from the practice, but still continued working in other areas to pave the way for minority and women architects.
Norma Sklarek, Jerde Partnership, Mall of America, Minneapolis,
1992. Creative Commons
During the 1990’s, Norma was engaged with public and professional service, lecturing at Howard University, Columbia University, and elsewhere, and mentoring younger minority and women architects. While she herself had no mentor, she felt an obligation to mentor others. She coached aspiring architects for the state licensing exam, drawing on her own experience on passing the exam on her first attempt.
“In architecture, I had absolutely no role model. I’m happy today to be a role model for others that follow.” - Norma Merrick Sklarek
Sklarek also served on many professional committees:
- In 2003, she was appointed to the California Architects Board (CAB), of which she served on the Professional Committee and the Regulatory Enforcement Committee.
- She also served on the California State Board of Architectural Examiners
- The AIA National Ethics Council, and as juror for the National Council of Architecture Registration boards (NCARB).
- She was director of the Los Angeles American Institute of Architects.
In 2008, the AIA honored her with the Whitney M.Young Jr. Award, which recognizes an architect or organization embodying the profession’s responsibility to address social issues. This is where she was named “the Rosa Parks of architecture” by AIA Board Member Anthony Costello. In her honor, Howard University offers the Norma Merrick Sklarek Architectural Scholarship Award. Throughout Sklarek’s career, she didn’t let anything get in the way of her stick-with-it attitude and helped pave the way for minority and women architects in the industry.
Photos:
Article References/Sources:
April & May Giving
Quarantine Wine. 100% of the profits from this wine go to the charities listed below who are all doing critical and incredible work during these unprecedented times.
- GiveDirectly – giving cash grants directly to families on SNAP in areas highest hit by COVID-19
- Direct Relief – providing medical equipment / PPE to frontline workers and EMS workers
- Frontline Responders Fund — Buying and delivering PPE and ventilators to medical facilities
- America’s Food Fund – Collaboration between Feeding America and World Central Kitchen, ensuring reliable and safe access to food in the US
For more information about Quarantine Wine, click the images below.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Utilizing Zoom with Family & Friends
Zoom is beneficial for not only businesses working from home, but also for family, friends and neighbors to stay connected.
Some ways you can utilize ZOOM:
- Set up a video chat with local/long distance family/friends/neighbors to see how they are doing during this time or just to chat.
- Set up a virtual wine night.
- Set up a virtual date night with your favorite couple(s).
- Start a virtual bookclub from the comfort of your home.
- Set up a group workout
- Set up a virtual happy hour
- Set up a virtual game night!
Click here to view a brief intro to and demo of ZOOM
Sending Kindness & Positivity Your Way
We hope everyone is doing well during this time and wish nothing but good health, safety and kindness to all.
As an organization, we are making the necessary operational changes to both do our part in helping to flatten the curve of COVID-19 and support business continuity given state essential services guidance that commercial and residential construction is to continue. In support of this position, the LCD Team is taking the necessary precautions and is now operating remotely and will only be making virtual client meetings.
We understand that this is a very trying time. However, by working together we will support our clients, overcome this challenge, and help flatten the curve.
Be Safe & Stay Well,
The LCD Team
Women in Business, Women in Design & Design Trail Blazers : Zaha Hadid
Our March Design Trailblazer is Zaha Hadid (1950 - 2016), the famous Iraqi-British Modern Architect known for her futuristic and thought provoking structures.
Zaha Hadid
Photo: Zaha-Hadid
Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950. Zaha Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut and in 1972 she attended the Architectural Association School, in London. She taught at the AA School until 1987 and while teaching she founded Zaha Architects in 1979 which still remains open today and is known as one of the world’s most inventive architectural studios (and has been for almost 40 years).
Zaha Hadid’s structures are known for their distinct style and form. Her structures are characterized by beautiful curving facades and sharp angles using strong materials such as concrete, steel and stone. Her gift was using these strong materials and making them look effortlessly soft and sturdy at the same time. Some of her structures are described as frozen in motion and we can see why. The structures transform depending on the viewer’s perspective and ignite excitement, curiosity, and wonder at every angle.
Admirers and those who knew Zaha Hadid best said she had a determination, unwavering optimism, and belief in the power of invention (with advanced design), that can be seen in each of her futuristic structures. Her work and contribution to the architectural profession is celebrated and acknowledged by professional, academic and civil institutions around the world and is admired by everyone who experiences her structures in person.
"I don't think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think."— Zaha Hadid
Some of Zaha Hadid’s Accomplishments:
- Forbes List of the ‘World’s Most Powerful Women’
- Japan Art Association presented her with ‘Praemium Imperiale’, a global arts prize awarded annually
- UNESCO named Hadid an ‘Artist for Peace’
- Republic of France honored Hadid with the ‘Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’, a significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance
- 2004 - Awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is considered the Nobel Prize of architecture
- 2006 - Zaha Hadid’s work was subject of critically-acclaimed exhibition at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- 2007 - Zaha Hadid’s work was subject of critically-acclaimed exhibition at London’s Design Museum
- 2010 - TIME magazine included her in the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’, naming her the world’s top thinker.
- 2010 - Zaha Hadid’s designs were awarded the Striling Prive, one of architecture’s highest accolades, by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
- 2012 - Zaha Hadid was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II
- 2015 - Zaha Hadid’s work was subject of critically-acclaimed exhibitions at Saint Petersburg’s Stated Hermitage Museum
- 2016 - Zaha Hadid’s work was subject of critically-acclaimed exhibitions at London’s Serpentine Galleries
- 2016 - Received the Royal Gold Medal
Some of Zaha Hadid’s structures that appear frozen in motion:
Clad in reinforced concrete and polyester, the 619,000-square-foot Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, is known for its swooping façade.
Galaxy Soho, a retail, office, and entertainment complex in Beijing, comprises four spherical structures clad in aluminum and stone that are bound together by pedestrian bridges.
Photo & Caption: View Pictures/Getty Image & Architectural Digest
Michigan State University's campus was never the same after Zaha Hadid completed her design for the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. Opened in 2012, the contemporary art museum appears frozen in motion.
Photo & Caption: Hufton + Crow & Architectural Digest
The Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion, built in 2008, doubles as a pedestrian bridge across the Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain. The building’s exterior, comprising 29,000 triangles, is composed of fiberglass-reinforced concrete.
Photo & Caption: View Pictures/Getty Images & Architectural Digest
Article References:
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