Marmol Radziner + Associates: Between Architecture and Construction

If you design some of the most stylish and beautiful modern houses in the Los Angeles area, including many for celebrity clients, how do you ensure that the projects are built to the standards you, and your patrons, demand? If you’re the highly sought-after firm of Marmol Radziner + Associates, you do what an increasing number of practices are doing: become your own contractor and build your projects with the same rigor and beauty with which they were designed, and, in the process, remake your firm into one of the most visible and successful design-build firms in the country.

Praised as "modernist savants" by The New York Times, Marmol Radziner + Associates have redefined the indoor-outdoor California lifestyle made famous by legendary mid-century modernists such as Richard Neutra and Albert Frey. Their multifaceted projects include not only residential, commercial, and institutional buildings but also mid-century modern home restorations, furniture, and prefab home manufacturing. Whether building a Hollywood hideaway that floats ethereally over a lush garden or a childcare center for LAX airport employees, each project embodies the philosophy of the firm by integrating finely crafted details with technically inventive modern spaces. Marmol Radziner + Associates explains in detail how this pioneering design-build firm—one of the few led by architects—has managed to integrate the related work of building—installation, construction, and fabrication—into one seamless design process. Architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner give an open and honest account of the inner workings of their award-winning firm. Their personal perspectives combined with interviews with employees, clients, and collaborators highlight the synergistic nature of their work. This unique monograph takes the reader from the early stages of conceptual design all the way through construction with special attention focused on their innovative solutions to a variety of on-site challenges.