DESIGN COMPETITION | anthonypoon.com

#195: THE RHYTHM OF ARCHITECTURE, PART 1 OF 3 | THE MATRIX OF THE EGO

November 1, 2024

Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma (photo by Hudson Hintze on Unsplash)

On August 28, 2024, I participated in a podcast entitled, “The Rhythm of Architecture,” from the series, Doctoring Up Design. With host Josh Cooperman, here are edited excerpts from our episode S4/E36—to be presented over three segments. Please enjoy part one.

Death by Design at Alcatraz, by Anthony Poon, published 2022 by Goff Books (photo by Anthony Poon)

Josh Cooperman: I had the opportunity to catch up with longtime friend and an incredible architect, Anthony Poon of Poon Design Inc.; he happens to be an extraordinary talent. Keep listening and you’ll hear why. You wrote a book.

Anthony Poon: I wrote three books (here, here, and here) and working on the fourth and fifth right now.

Josh: Tell me about the third one.

Anthony: You’re talking about the murder mystery novel?

Josh: That’s the one.

Death by Design, illustrations by Anthony Poon, book interior design by Pablo Mandel (photo by Goff Books)

Anthony: Last year, I came out with my first work of fiction called, Death by Design at Alcatraz. My story assembles a group of architects competing to redesign Alcatraz Island into a museum of art. During the design competition led by a billionaire egomaniacal developer, architects start to die off. It goes into the psyche of architects and what we would do for our ego and arrogance. When people say, “Hey, I would kill for that job,” maybe one literally would! The reviews have been great. And I just recently adapted the book into a screenplay for a feature film called, Death by Architecture. I’m starting to shop it around.

Josh: I love that, and think about how design and architecture are so interwoven in everyday life. And I believe we’re in a golden age. I believe we’re in a renaissance of architecture and design right now, especially in a post pandemic world. Now that everything is clearing out supply chains, people are starting to actually think differently about design and architecture than they had in the past.

I was on a road trip with my son, and I found a book in Kansas City called, The Paris Architect. I don’t know if you’ve ever read it. Phenomenal story about an architect who is a Bauhaus devotee and finds himself in Paris during the occupation of World War II. He’s an unwilling accomplice or participant rather, who finds himself looking for and applying unique ways to hide the Jews from the Nazis. I love how the story of architecture and design is interwoven into real life, because I feel like many people don’t realize this. It’s almost like The Matrix. You don’t realize it’s all around you.

Anthony: Exactly. There’s an old essay I wrote a while back, Everything Is Design. People may not be aware of it and you’re right: There’s a search in the zeitgeist around architecture right now. You have TV shows about house design, you have housewives and homeowners designing their parties, choosing the right tablecloths, right wedding cake frosting, and you have fashion at its highest caliber.

Linda Way, Los Angeles, California, by Poon Design (photo by Hunter Kerhart)

Everything is being designed. Everything is being created. Everything is being curated and tailored. Architecture is no longer the building that we’re standing within. It could be the sounds that we hear, the music that’s being piped through the speakers. Architecture is everything from sustainability to the ideas of resilience. How does a building survive a catastrophe, say a fire, a flood or even a school shooting?

These are topics of architecture that didn’t exist a generation ago. The idea of DEI has become prominent in how we create our artistic teams. Architects are no longer the kind of superheroes of the past generation when Modernism was a singular force moving on a linear path. Today architecture is splintered into many avenues, not just a grid of roadways, but more of a three-dimensional matrix.

Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma (photo by Smntha.Mntsr on Pexels)

Josh: Having recently moved to Tulsa, you can see Modernism had sort of morphed from the Art Deco phase into the Mid-Century Modern architecture after. That’s the way architecture is supposed to be. You talk about it being splintered and fractured. Isn’t that how we grow?

Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois, by Frank Lloyd Wright (photos by Anthony Poon)

Anthony: For certain. Back in time, sometimes there were a shortage of ideas and a shortage of construction quality. They were building civic buildings clad only with cheap stucco! I recently visited, for the second time, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park. He was one of the first to not just use cast-in-place concrete, but also left the raw surface exposed. It’s not just beautiful, but a hearty structure. I think we’re in a “renaissance” like you say, because the idea of building to last is not just about 25 or 50 years anymore, but maybe a hundred years or more.

#168: SINS OF OUR PAST: THE 1871 CHINESE MASSACRE

April 14, 2023

It is often said that history is cyclical; when humanity disregards the lessons of the past, we are doomed to repeat it. Racism against Asians has been on the rise. Individuals continue to be under threat. As a society, we have not learned from past failures, and we are bearing witness to history repeating itself. Round and round, the past returns to haunt us. This destructive circle must be broken. If not, history has taught us nothing, and the past, which has become the present, will continue into our future.

It was the year 1871. In downtown Los Angeles, a mob of 500 people—driven by hate, racism, and a mere misunderstanding—lynched 18 Chinese men without hesitation.

In 2022, the Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs organized an international design competition for the 1871 Chinese Massacre Memorial. Poon Design Inc. proposed two design concepts to honor the slain individuals. Located adjacent to the Chinese American Museum, the proposed memorial would sit a few blocks from the entrance gate to Los Angeles’ Chinatown.

CONCEPT ONE: MOON GATE TO MEMORY

The traditional Chinese Moon Gate is a circular opening that is incomplete at the bottom, a passageway between two circumstances. In our design proposal, this gateway is transformed into a portal between the horrors of the past and the optimism of the future. As tradition suggests, the gate—inspired by the shape of the full moon—rises from the earth, symbolizing birth and renewal. Marking the passage of time, the lunar cycle can also signify memory and learning, sorrow and protest, perpetuation and tranquility.

Akin to a halo hovering above North Los Angeles Street, our circular memorial comprises 24 steel and aluminum frames forming a horizontal Moon Gate, a portal between city and sky, mortal and immortal. The frame holds 18 translucent glass panels, each representing a different slain man. The incomplete circle displays six empty frames alluding to the additional unknown murdered individuals. As further historical research identifies these currently unknown individuals, new panels can be added to complete the circle.

Perceived from within the neighborhood, day or night, standing beyond or within the memorial—integrated LED lighting and transparent holographic technology will present a visual display honoring the slain Chinese, as well as historically-themed art installations to be programmed in collaboration with the community.

CONCEPT TWO: 18 TOWERING FIGURES

At 20 feet tall, 18 steel plates stand in an incomplete ellipse, recalling a Moon Gate. Each steel plate represents a slain man and towers over the visitor like sentinels demanding recognition and acknowledgement. Like looming apparitions, the steel plates twist and contort, evoking the torture these men suffered. Additionally, the traditional circular shape of the Moon Gate has been intentionally misshaped into an ellipse, symbolic of how each individual deformed their spirit and identity in an attempt to conform.

Expressing the duality of identities that these men needed to survive and assimilate; the steel plates are finished coarse on one side and polished on the other. Visitors confront this unsettling past within their own reflection. Six additional steel pieces are set flush in the stone pavers representing unknown lynched individuals. Within this perimeter of ominous steel sculpture, an ethereal glow of light emanates through translucent glass under the feet of the visitor representing the enduring will of these Chinese men, as well as a more hopeful future.

Our two design proposals are not merely objects or monuments, nor are they representational statues on a pedestal, but rather abstract and open-ended experiences. As enigmatic compositions of experiential art, sculpture, and architecture, the designs honor those that have been lost, never letting us ignore the sins of humanity and telling a story of consequence, recovery, and courage.

#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 Ea t 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.”

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.

#32: HERMOSA BEACH FIASCO: ARCHITECTURE OF POLITICS

March 25, 2016

Suspended steel and wood fishing platforms offer a unique experience above the ocean, under the existing concrete pier, Hermosa Beach, California, by Lombardi/Poon Architects

My first public commission—I learned how difficult life as an architect would be. A decade-long saga of city politics, professional contradictions, and the theft of my intellectual property taught me to fight.

My design partner, the late Greg Lombardi was 30. I was 29. Calling ourselves Lombardi/Poon Architects, our shingle was barely even hung when we entered an international design competition organized by The American Institute of Architects (“AIA”). The city of Hermosa Beach sought an architect with a vision for the redesign of their waterfront and pier.

In contrast to the proposals for hotels, shopping malls and amusement parks, our design was simply a graceful open space that gathered together the city, beach, ocean, sun and horizon.

Greg Lombardi and me, first of hundreds of local and national articles, Daily Breeze, 1993

It was a miracle. Lombardi/Poon Architects won! We beat out everybody—competitors from around the world, architects twice and thrice our senior.

But this was just the start of a staggering journey, a trial by fire.

After the celebration presenting Greg and me to national media outlets, before we got to bask in my triumph, the city council of Hermosa Beach stripped us of our win. The council proclaimed that they themselves should choose the winner, not the AIA. That the city’s public dollars were being spent, it seemed logical that the council should have a say in the winner.

It was a devastating blow. How would we win a second time? The council members were politicians from various business backgrounds—not architects of the AIA. The original competition was reviewed by experts who were qualified to assess abstract design concepts and read technical drawings.

In the end, Lombardi/Poon swooped up my second miracle, against hundreds of competitors. We won, again! We shook hands all over again, stood for press conferences again.

But.

Development of our design could not start. The citizens of Hermosa Beach rumbled—wanted their vote for the winning architect. Understandable, it’s their waterfront and pier. Our design was to go before a public vote by the town.

Public plaza sloping down to the beach and up to the horizon, with renovated lifeguard tower, palm trees in an elliptical arc, bike path, and ribbon-like metal canopy

Stripped once again of the win, I now witnessed my future: the ups and downs of a rollercoaster journey to come. The destiny of the project moved down the line from a professional AIA jury, to a layperson group of elected officials, to now, people who were even further from understanding architectural drawings.

A third miracle. Lombardi/Poon won once again! The people of Hermosa selected us as the architect, one year since our initial victory.

However.

With how state funds are to be spent, Hermosa had to validate their fiscal responsibility. Legislative requirements forced Hermosa to invite any and all architects to interview for the job—for our job that Greg and I already won several times—on which we were already working.

We now had to interview against senior companies, and the city council’s job was to look at credentials, not creativity. I could feel that the outcome would swing to a firm who, on paper, would be more qualified to develop our project.

I had to fight for my opportunity as I would have to again and again over the long architectural haul of a career. My plan? Engage a structural engineer who had such depth of experience that he would make my inexperience go unnoticed.

Public space, new palm trees, pier canopy, and optional glass skin for renovated lifeguard tower to reflect the water, sky and sun (watercolor by Al Forster)

This idea failed horribly. During the public interviews, my saving grace of retaining an engineer of age and gravitas proved to be my worst mistake.

He took to the microphone, presented himself, stating in his best salesperson-like booming voice: “We are so excited to be considered by HUNTINGTON Beach.”

Greg and I cringed. Hermosa Beach, you idiot!

This was akin to a rock band thanking Milwaukee, when they were on stage in Cleveland. Like shouting “Go USC” at a UCLA game. Calling your spouse by the wrong name. You get the drift.

Our misguided engineer continued, live on television: “We would love to work with Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach would do so well to have our skills.” Huntington this and that.

No surprise, Lombardi/Poon Architects loss the project that we created and won several times over.

And it got worse.

New fishing platforms and ribbon-like metal pier canopy

A large corporate company from Irvine won the contract to develop Greg and my project. And in an unethical turn of events, this company sought to steal our design and credit its creation as their own. I received a letter that had a legal tone to it. The company’s founding partner declared that the Hermosa Beach project now belonged to him. Furthermore, he asserted that he might mention our names in the future, “if he so desired and at his convenience.”

This arrogant asshole was steamrolling over us, two fresh young architects two years into their first public commission. The senior architect’s malicious actions constituted theft—shoplifting of Lombardi/Poon’s intellectual property.

I took the first step of a ritual that so many adults do through out their life: I called a lawyer. It would be my first time, but not my last. Unfortunately, my attorney assessed that this Irvine architect could legally do everything he claimed.

I decided to visit face-to-face with this self-important jerk of an architect. Presenting the recognition from Hermosa Beach, the hundreds of articles crediting Greg and me, and our recent AIA design award for this project, I made clear his unethical actions. I don’t know if he felt guilty, or if he no longer cared, or maybe he was impressed with my tenacity. He apologized for his nasty letter.

Year three: here is where the end begins. The project loss its funding, due to the political delays. Only the first phase of our vision was developed and completed. By me.

Lifeguard tower renovated to bring in maximum natural light and ocean breezes, as well as allow views and access to the beach for safety

EPILOGUE: I ran into the horrible founding partner ten years later. Of course, he did not recognize me. I re-introduced myself, and his posture displayed embarrassment. Looking worn and exhausted, he appeared as if architecture defeated him. For this little man, I had no feeling one way or another.

As I drove home that afternoon, west towards the ocean, I acknowledged my ambition and resolve. And I buckled my seat belt for more challenges to come in this career of lunacy called Architecture.

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