Annie Chu
Practice: Chu + Gooding Architects
Established: 1996
City: Los Angeles
Country: United States
www.cg-arch.com
[email protected]
Annie Chu is principal of the award-winning Chu + Gooding Architects, focusing on arts-related and higher-education projects. She received a MSc in Architecture & Building Design from Columbia University and a BArch from Southern California Institute of Architecture. In 2004 she received the First Place Award representing the US in RIBA's DiverseCity Competition and joined the delegation to China.
Annie Chu has lectured and taught at various schools of architecture across the USA for more than 16 years. She currently chairs the National AIA Interior Architecture Committee and serves as a Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles.
Her current work includes LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes - a Mexican cultural centre, the new headquarters for Southern California Public Radio, and an exhibition of the master printmaker Jacob Samuels at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Chu + Gooding Architects
Hammer Museum Exhibits
One of the challenging genres of exhibition design is that of flatwork requiring extensive reading. The Masters of American Comics and the Edition Jacob Samuels exhibitions used colours spatially to set an engaging atmosphere and support a contemplative experience. The Comics show responded to the humble newsprint medium with fixtures made of doors that were reused after the show. The Samuels exhibit showcased prints of world-class artists by providing a delicately balanced and metered spatial composition between objects and spaces.
| How does diversity of people reveal itself at work? | From variety of design methodologies to knowledge, management style and best practices, every combination of team members and projects yields a unique set of opportunities and collective resources that influences the project's success. |
| What do you find most rewarding in your area of work? | Every client who approaches an architect is in need of improvements to their environment. Once the need is established, the architect becomes in a sense a healer who can better the clients' lives by offering them unique experiences that transcend the basic function of shelter. We help clients realise better questions and raise their expectations. The ability to facilitate that uplifted experience is by far the best reward. |
| How have your clients and projects benefited from your involvement? | I grew up in Hong Kong and was educated and have practiced on both coasts of the United States. The meshing of these sensibilities between East and West, between architecture, landscape, interior and the arts is continuously interlaced in the design process, often yielding unique solutions that address more than just a narrowly focused need. |