Firm: Darin Johnstone Architects

Website: www.djarch.net

Education:

Columbia University, Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design, 1995.

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Bachelor of Architecture, 1993

I’m one of those people who always knew what they wanted to be. At 10 years old, I would have said—an architect. Of course, I didn’t know what that meant, and I’ve happily spent my life trying to figure it out.

After earning my BArch from Cal Poly Pomona in 1993, I worked with Coop Himmelb(l)au and Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, then earned a Master’s from Columbia. I continued my career in New York with Bernard Tschumi and Gaetano Pesce, and later in San Francisco with Holt Hinshaw. These formative experiences in design-driven studios shaped my lifelong commitment to architectural experimentation.

In 1999, I returned to LA to teach at Cal Poly Pomona and serve as resident director at the Neutra VDL Research House. I founded Darin Johnstone Architects in 2002 and began teaching at SCI-Arc, where I’ve now taught for over 20 years. In 2014, I began a decade-long collaboration with ArtCenter College of Design, resulting in 17 award-winning renovation projects totaling over 165,000 SF.

Whether in the studio or classroom, I view architecture as a process of discovery—where building becomes a tool for learning and transformation.

SCI Arc gallery installation ‘drop’ | 2004

 Mullin Transportation Design Center (MTDC) at ArtCenter

One of several defining projects in my career is the recently completed Mullin Transportation Design Center (MTDC) at ArtCenter College of Design—an adaptive reuse of the historic wind tunnel into a state-of-the-art facility for the school’s world-renowned Transportation Design program. This project reflects my design ethos on both practical and conceptual levels. Environmentally, we employed a “building within a building” strategy that preserved the original structure and envelope, achieved LEED Gold certification, and significantly reduced material waste and embodied carbon. Conceptually, the wind tunnel’s identity as a vessel of space and motion inspired a composition of expansive voids and sculpted functional zones.

Why I joined AIAPF:

After decades of AIALA membership I switched to the AIAPF chapter after the fires. Quite simply, after a decade of mostly building in Pasadena and attending many AIAPF events I already felt the Pasadena Foothill chapter was my home. (I live inside the region, and my office is right on the border of LA and Pasadena) Then after the fires, I joined the remarkable ‘ask an architect’ program and moved over my membership to AIAPF. It felt like the right thing to do, and the best way for me to pitch in and help.