Tag Archives: ARROGANCE

#203: THE DESIGN ROUNDTABLE ASSEMBLES

March 21, 2025

Design Roundtable at BA Collective, Santa Monica, California (photo by BA Collective)

As a young architect, I didn’t find much mentorship, collaboration or community—nor much support, professionally or personally. Perhaps it was the roaring 80s and sluggish 90s, and the invasive competitive nature of our industry—the egos and ambition. Yes, even an architect of merely 25 years can carry an entitled, though misguided, bulk of arrogance.

Not long ago, I looked at my cohorts, and simply thought this: We are colleagues, not competitors. Based on this, I founded the Design Roundtable.

Design Roundtable at Poon Design Inc., Los Angeles, California (photo by Design Roundtable)

The Design Roundtable is an evolving forum of architects, a consortium that meets regularly to share industry insights, successes, even battle scars. Through communication and camaraderie, we build a community.

Realizing that our local heroes—Gehry, Mayne, Moss, etc.—are aging (Gehry is 95 and still practicing?!), the members of the Design Roundtable are the likely future of the industry. We are now the adults in the room. And “with great power comes great responsibility.”

left: 8 Spruce Street, New York, New York, by Frank Gehry (photo by Nextvoyage on Pexels); upper right: Waffle, Culver City, California, by Eric Owen Moss (photo by Anthony Poon); lower right: Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California, by Thom Mayne, Morphosis (photo by Anthony Poon)

For participants, my criteria is two-fold: design leader and business owner. The Design Roundtable, as the first word in the name states, is for Design Principals, Design Directors and CDOs—creative voices that drive the profession.

A participant must also own their company. For better or worse, an employee, even a senior one, will rarely understand the pressures upon a business owner, from putting up savings when payroll is not met to personally guaranteeing the office lease, from hiring and firing to ownership transitions, or from salary reviews to shuttering the studio.

Design Roundtable at EYRC Architects, Culver City, California (photo by EYRC)

Our group includes executives from mom-pop boutiques, medium-size studios, and corporate-y big names. Quarterly, we meet over pizza to discuss a myriad of topics. We begin our gatherings with a brisk roundtable discussion of diverse ice-breaking topics.

• Name something you like/dislike about being an architect.
• What advice do you have for your younger self?
• What is your architectural super power?

Design Roundtable at (fer) Studio, Inglewood, California (photo by Design Roundtable)

We then embark on an in-depth examination around a single theme per gathering.

business development, marketing and social media 
• ambition, mission statements and measuring success
• economic forecasts and networking

Members have often commented on the unintended but effective “therapy session” atmosphere—a “safe space.” The sharing offers a talk-therapy vibe, and yes, architects like to talk. Most are extroverted and not shy—and debates can arise. Such is the nature of our community, though grand standing is not. After all, our members are all prominent architects with award-winning portfolios, glowing client references and degrees from notable universities. No need for architectural braggadocio.

Design Roundtable t-shirt, designed by Anthony Poon (photo by Anthony Poon)

We use the acronym, DRt, with a lower case “t.” “Roundtable” as one word means a “forum of peers,” whereas “Round Table” as two words means a table that is round in shape. I didn’t want our acronym to be just DR, as in doctor.

A line from the 2015 movie, Green Room: “And remember…this is a movement, not a party.”

#150: EGO AND ARROGANCE

April 1, 2022

left to right: Pyramid at the Louvre Museum, Paris, France (photo by Michael Fousert; on Unsplash); Eiffel Tower, Paris, France (photo by Anthony Delanoix on Unsplash); Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York (photo by Dennis on Unsplash); Burg Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash)

(This essay comprises excerpts from my presentation, The Creative Process and The Ego, on February 18th at Modernism Week 2022, Palm Springs, California.)

Architects design homes, schools, skyscrapers, entire cities. Who has given architects this role and influence in society, and what have we done with it? From the Pyramid at the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower , from the Guggenheim to the Burg Khalifa in Dubai—architect’s egos are stamped all over cities, all over the world. Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels, even has drawings to literally redesign Earth.

Me presenting, The Creative Process and The Ego, Modernism Week 2022, Palm Springs, California (photo by Olive Stays)

Master builder, master designer, master creator—architects have been granted the responsibility to impact communities and cultural progress, through the flexing of creative muscles. The offering of world icons and or definitive works stems from both talent and skill, as well as confidence and ego. Consider Philip Johnson’s pithy quote.

But ego can lead to influence, influence to power, and power to arrogance. And arrogance can either drive a project into successful territory or regrettable disaster. For the latter, two projects come to mind.

At the University of California, Santa Barbara, a hotly debated project known as Munger Hall has every architect, student, parent, and community member up in arms. For this proposed $1 billion, 1.7 million square foot, 11-story dormitory for 4,500 students, there has been a very little support. For the amateur architect and developer, Charlie Munger (billionaire and partner to Warren Buffet) and Southern California architect-of-record, VTBS (yes, B-S), the wrath bestowed on this project approved is universal. To sum it up, there has not been so much loathing in recent history. There are many reasons for the abhorrence, but the main objection is that 95% of the dorm rooms will have NO WINDOWS. No natural light. No fresh air. No view to the outside.

Munger Hall (drawings and rendering from VTBS)

The arrogance of Munger comes from believing that: 1) Fronting the construction cost gives him the unconditional ticket to design whatever he wants, and 2) he and VTBS are convinced that windowless dormitory rooms are not just acceptable, but a creative success, even a bragging right. And everything from science to history, and real life to design guidelines, have proven this idea to be horrific.

Consider the residential estate in Bel Air, California, simply called “The One.” The conceit within that title alone reeks of egotism. Here, this spec house, with an asking price of $500 million, includes 105,000-square-foot, 20 bedrooms with a 5000-square-foot master bedroom suite, 42 bathrooms, a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, 50-car garage, and four swimming pools—to name a few details.

“The One,” Bel Air, Los Angeles, California (photo by Michael Leonard, The Society Group)

Bel Air is a community of wealth, where some of the largest mansions have been built over the years. As seen above, the two circled homes are such mansions of prestige and wealth. And between them is the out-of-scale, gargantuan vanity of developer Nile Niami and architect Paul McClean. The cautionary tale? No one wants such a home. The property recently sold for only $141 million, which is a mere one-third of the asking price.

Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy (photo by Guy Dugas on Pixabay); Medici family (image from historyhit.com)

Historically, architects were given such power by an omnipotent clients such as the Medici’s, but in today’s culture of individualism and self-promotion, such projects as Munger Hall and The One are fueled by confidence and salesmanship, perhaps even narcissism.

Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentices (photo from drtuesdaygjohnson.tumblr.com)

Author Meryle Secrest wrote of Frank Lloyd Wright, “If he had intended to live out his life in the columns of newspapers, he could not have acted any more effectively. . . again and again, courting the press . . . Wright’s appetite for whatever might further his career was gargantuan.”

Accusations of megalomania have been projected onto Bjarke Ingels and his company, BIG, with 550 employees in offices in Copenhagen, New York, London, and Barcelona. Ingels himself counters the Miesian platitude, “Less is more,” and instead proclaims, “Yes is more.”

Bjarke Ingels sketching (photo from youtube.com)

Check yourself. When does confidence become righteousness, talent become ego, and prowess become arrogance? How does self-assurance and pride become condescension and smugness? Who shall “inherit the earth”?

#135: WHO WOULD YOU KILL TO SATISFY YOUR CREATIVE EGO?

May 21, 2021

Book cover design by Anthony Poon (photo by Anthony Poon)

Here’s the pitch for my debut novel. “San Francisco cloaked in fog and secrets: Architects are being murdered as they compete for a new museum of art at the notorious Alcatraz Island. This mystery of death and intrigue examines ego, arrogance, and redemption within the creative process. Who will win and at what cost?”

Lands End, San Francisco (drawing by Anthony Poon)

Due to the quarantine, there was a slow down at my office. So, I decided to author another book, entitled Death by Design at Alcatraz. For this blog and other outlets, I have written about design, architecture, art, music, and life. I have published two non-fiction books  (Live Learn Eat  and  Sticks and Stones | Steel and Glass), and decided to take a stab at fiction.

My idea was this: an ‘architectural thriller.’ This 330-page novel with illustrations is a mystery of obsession exploring the heights and depths within the world of architecture. An editor once told me that if I were to try my hand at fiction, it would be best to write what I know. Here are the things I know:

 

 

1.  San Francisco
2.  Architects and clients (good apples and bad apples)
3.  Design competitions
4.  Ambition and ego

The book summary: On a fog enshrouded morning, a world-famous architect plunges to his death off a cliff. Yet, Magnar Jones, billionaire developer, does not allow death to interfere with his twisted agenda. He still has five architects competing for his prized commission: the redesign of Alcatraz Island, the notorious federal prison, into the World Museum of Abstract Art. Magnar’s devious plan? To turn his design competition into a spectator sport, where architects soon find themselves prisoners. Who will succeed—and at what cost?

Illustrations by Anthony Poon, book interior design by Pablo Mandel (photo by Goff Books)

The architects in my story are as follows.

–  The Neurotic Entrepreneur: university professor and Post Modernist
–  The Husband-Wife Team: Ivy League-educated
–  The Corporate Jerk: armed with the formulaic resources of a global company
–  The British Dame: pseudo-intellectual arrogance and trust funded
–  The Mid-Century Modern Fanatic: Los Angeles’ flamboyant designer
–  The European Starchitect: dressed in black on black, pretentious master architect

There is also the billionaire Oklahoman Narcissistic Developer Client—vain, egotistical, and talks too much. And of course, his Enigmatic Girlfriend—young “Blondasian” influencer.

Construction scene (drawing by Anthony Poon)

Excerpt, “The setting of Alcatraz is both solemn and beguiling. Surrounding the group sits remnants of old buildings, storied concrete carcasses. Cracks on the island’s tough surface show the arcs of beginnings and ends, both life and death. One fissure hiding under broken glass welcomes a tiny struggling patch of grass, a flourishing survivor in a vast surface of ruined asphalt and compacted dirt. Standing guard, the remnants of the taller buildings peer down upon the visitors and demand that the island is respected. Twisted corroded iron bars protrude from beaten stone walls, as if a child’s cow lick that won’t lay flat regardless of the amount of saliva. The counter balance to this, these disparate elements, is the surrounding icy-cold waters that extend until unseen within a silky veil of fog, which on a luminous enough day, provides a cryptic silhouette of the city docks.”

Published by Goff Books, Death by Design at Alcatraz is available at Amazon. Shana Nys Dambrot, Arts Editor, LA Weekly endorses, The Fountainhead meets Squid Game in this mystery of obsession and murder set in the fancy but cut-throat world of contemporary architecture.

Illustrations by Anthony Poon, book interior design by Pablo Mandel (photo by Goff Books)

Maybe my next project will be a screenplay about Frank Lloyd Wright. True story: An unfortunate 1914, while Wright was working, his servant set fire to Wright’s Wisconsin residence. The servant bolted all the windows and doors shut. Except for one. As the inhabitants exited through the only escape from the blaze, the servant waited at this open window with an axe. Seven people were brutally murdered, including Wright’s mistress.

(image from The Ogden Standard)
© Poon Design Inc.