Exhibition Announcement: A Way of Working @ UMOCA

“A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, and in the end, be unmeasurable.”
- Louis Kahn

Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our team of Los Angeles architects and Salt Lake City architects is thrilled to announce its premier exhibition, “A Way of Working”, on view March 10 – July 15, 2023 at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA). Showcasing seventeen of our firm's exemplary architectural works located throughout the American West, the exhibition celebrates the conception of ideas integral to the firm's design process, reflecting Sparano + Mooney Architecture's unwavering commitment to concept-driven and finely-crafted design.

Sparano + Mooney Architecture, Wabi-Sabi Heuristic Device I. Plaster, wood, steel. Featured in “A Way of Working” at UMOCA.

The constructs exhibited are exemplary of those that guide the creation of projects throughout the region. Their formation springs from rigorous critical thinking and an unwavering commitment to a concept-driven design process in creating architecture. While anchoring each work in its specific circumstance, these constructs produce architecture that transcends convention. These objects ultimately become built, conceptual manifestations of core ideas guiding an exploration of scale, material, form and details. They serve as a point of departure through which a central, foundational idea is embodied. As stand-alone works, these devices are separate from – yet inextricably grounded in – the resulting architecture.

Founders Anne Mooney, FAIA, LEED AP, and John Sparano, FAIA, established the firm in 1997 and, to this day, maintain the ethos that the design process is critical to understanding the essential nature of their work – the relationship among environment and inhabitant and innovation – and that discovery is as compelling as the outcome. Anne and John’s shared passion for designing architecture within the rugged Western landscape has resulted in works across extreme topographies and multiple scales, from micro off-the-grid projects, to new-build work and adaptive reuse of existing structures, to new institutional, cultural and worship buildings, and mixed-use, master planning and urban design projects.

The exhibition takes inspiration from our recent monograph Sparano and Mooney Architecture: A Way of Working (Hatje Cantz: Berlin 2022), which details the firm's heuristic design process through imagery, drawings and essays. The exhibition at UMOCA further examines the heuristic devices the firm develops for new projects as a means to harmonize a regulating concept within the conditions of the site, program, inhabitants, and fundamental systems. These constructs produce architecture that transcends convention, ultimately becoming built, conceptual manifestations of core ideas. The works serve as a point of departure through which a central, foundational idea is embodied.

Sparano + Mooney Architecture, Alpine Meadow Heuristic Device. Photographic paper, copper wire, solder. Featured in “A Way of Working” at UMOCA. Photography by Lucy Call.

The opening reception for “A Way of Working” on Friday, March 10 from 6:00 to 9:00pm will also celebrate three new exhibitions at the museum – “Haimaz, Heimr, Hjem, Heem, Hām, Home”; “Boombox Benefit”; and “Matthew Sketch: FAM(ily)”.

For more information on the exhibition, please visit the UMOCA website. The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) believes in the power of the art of our time. Through programming, advocacy, and collaboration, they work with artists and communities to build a better world. UMOCA is six-time recipient of funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and a two-time recipient of the Art Works Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. UMOCA is a 501c3 institution that is supported by public, foundation, and corporate gifts. 

Sparano + Mooney Architecture is an award-winning collective of architects, artists and craftspeople in the American West with architects in Los Angeles, California, and architects in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our thought process is unique to our industry, as we strive to uncover the true essence of architecture through iterative research. We design sophisticated, bespoke mountain-modern architecture including arts and culture architecture, custom residential architecture, civic architecture and recreation and resort architecture for our clients, through a collaborative process that holds excellent architectural design as a core value.