12th Annual Mountain West Arts Conference

The 12th Annual Mountain West Arts Conference is happening this week at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City, Utah. It will be a day filled with performances, design exhibits, workshops, speakers and networking. Kevin Kling will be the keynote speaker addressing his audience on The Healing Power of Story.

We're proud sponsors of this event and are so happy to see members of Utah and the Mountain West's creative community coming together to form connections and help sustain the arts!

Art, Architecture, History + Identity: The Chicago Architecture Biennial

Chicago may be known as the Windy City, but for architecture aficionados, the metropolis is a veritable treasure trove of world-renowned architectural gems. From historic structures including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House (1910), Mies van der Rohe’s Federal Center complex (1974), and Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City (1964), to more recent structures such as Studio Gang’s Aqua (2009), Chicago boasts numerous architectural landmarks. Though our firm of Salt Lake City and Los Angeles architects are based in the American West, we nevertheless have closely followed the most recent incarnation of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, a showcase of over 140 architects and artists, exhibitions and events across the city, free and open to the public. Hurry! The events come to a close in early January, so if you find yourself in need of inspiration to start the new year, make haste to this cultural hub and take advantage of the truly breathtaking array of architectural wonders on offer.

Adrián Villar Rojas and Sparano + Mooney Architecture Create “Theater” at MOCA

Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our team of Los Angeles architects and designers have established a fantastic working relationship with The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, and we were delighted when the institution approached us to provide architectural services and interior remodeling for their latest exhibition of cutting-edge contemporary art, titled Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance. We have also collaborated with MOCA on acclaimed shows by Matthew Barney and of works from the 1990s at the museum, and were more than happy to partner on this occasion to bring Villar Rojas’ eclectic and boundary-defying art to The Geffen’s savvy audience.

For this show, Sparano + Mooney Architecture worked with Villar Rojas’ proposed layout for the exhibit, made modifications in order for it to comply with current codes, such as building and fire, and also collaborated with structural engineers to ensure columnar components of the space held up.

The Glorious Getty: Art + Architecture

Sparano + Mooney Architecture loves art and culture – and as contemporary architects in Los Angeles, we also adore examples of institutions in this great city that combine these passions and pursuits. Which is why we are crazy about the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center and the treasure trove it offers throughout its sprawling California campus. Housing an expansive collection of European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, photography, textiles and decorative arts created from antiquity to the present, the museum serves diverse local and international audiences and continually offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programming to the public. The Getty Center’s overriding mission is to “inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance”. Now that’s a mission we can support!

Announcing Design Week 2017 and a Sparano + Mooney Architecture Exhibition!

Now in its seventh year, the 2017 edition of Design Week is opening from October 16th-21st and we can’t wait to take part in this city-wide cultural showcase! As Salt Lake City architects deeply committed to producing, experiencing and inspiring great design, we are excited to check out the creative smorgasbord that this artistic city has to offer during what is sure to be a stellar event. And, we hope to welcome you to our studio on Monday, October 16th from 5:00-6:30pm, for an exhibition of work by University of Utah School of Architecture students, taught by our own Anne Mooney!

Design Arts '17 Exhibition at the Rio Gallery

Do you love arts, culture, design and architecture? Why not visit the Rio Gallery in downtown Salt Lake City, where our award-winning LOOP Bench is on display as part of the Design Arts '17 exhibition?

The Design Arts platform is an annual review dedicated to the promotion of excellence in the diverse fields of design in Utah. They strive to help community members see, experience, utilize and value the art of design that surrounds us.

Loop Bench

For Sparano + Mooney Architecture, great design at all scales is at the heart of our practice. We are urban architects based in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. As you may know we are engaged in developing architecture, urban designs and products and deliver these thoughtful, innovative and contemporary designs to accommodate our client’s vision and lifestyle. Yes, we design large-scale buildings – museums, performing arts centers, recreation and aquatic centers, mountain-modern residences, and centers of worship – but we also apply our creativity to smaller scale manifestations of our architectural mindset and are eager to continue developing this facet of our practice. This is why we were thrilled when a client contacted us about our design competition winner, the Loop Bench, and commissioned us to produce one as a memorial for installation in a specially-selected spot along the beach strand in the City of Manhattan Beach, California.

Fanatical about Form + Fashion: The Work of Cristóbal Balenciaga

Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972) left such an indelible mark on the world of fashion design that his contemporary Coco Chanel once described him as the “only couturier in the truest sense of the word. The others are simply fashion designers”. This is high praise from fashion’s grande dame, and a new exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, titled Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion, seeks to uncover why this virtuoso is universally regarded as the maestro of modern fashion design, haute couture, and architectural cut, shape and material.

Let There Be Light: The Art of James Turrell

“My art is about your seeing,” states the enigmatic artist James Turrell (b. 1943). Although one could argue that most art is intrinsically about the experience of the viewer “seeing” it, this is not art as we know it – art that asserts itself as a singular entity on a wall or polished concrete floor. Rather, Turrell’s art is pure, otherworldly, and intended to affect profoundly the viewer’s experience and perception when encountering the works crafted solely with light as the medium; light, not as a medium for looking at other things, but as “an architecture of space created with light”. As architects working in the American West, an area that possesses a unique quality of light, we are fascinated with Turrell and his tireless obsession with the effect that light, both celestial and manufactured, has on an occupant in a space.

The Los Angeles Design Festival: Celebrating L.A.'s Design Culture

It's that time of year Angelenos! The Los Angeles Design Festival kicks off this week, and will take place from June 8 - June 11 across the metropolis. Honoring L.A's status as a global design capital, the festival celebrates the city's rich design culture, with a purposefully broad definition of the term "design" in order to reflect L.A.'s diverse and exceptional talent.

Searching for Beauty, Meaning and Truth in Architecture and Museums

It should be no secret that, as architects specializing in arts and culture projects in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and the American West, we adore museums. Their hallowed galleries contain priceless paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings and objets d’art, but they also possess the residual stories of the artists themselves, countless visitors who pass through, talented curators who bring the exhibits to life, and architects who have helped realize those storied spaces. It is a pleasure and a privilege to roam the creative displays and learn from some of the most influential museum designs in the world, just as Anne Mooney and John Sparano did recently on their European tour of London and Paris where they visited Sir John Soane’s Museum and the Tate Modern in London and the Louvre, Picasso Museum and the Rodin Museum in Paris. The inspiration drawn from these stalwart institutions absolutely helps inform our own design process, and we are excited to incorporate new ideas into our own museum projects, such as the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA) at Utah State University.

Uncommon Modern (Architecture)

Does the thought of mid-century modern architecture put some pep in your step? Do you long to surround yourself with glass and concrete assembled when the Rat Pack were roaming, or perhaps come home to an architect John Sugden-designed space each night? If so, you might want to check out Uncommon Modern Salt Lake! This event will celebrate mid-century modern architecture (buildings constructed between ca. 1945-1970) and kick off an inventory of period buildings in Salt Lake City. Stop by cityhomeCOLLECTIVE at 645 E South Temple tomorrow, February 9th from 7pm, to take part in this important project.

Exhibition Highlight: Imagining UMOCA

We are pleased to announce the opening of an exciting new exhibition titled Imagining UMOCA, which will be on display at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art from January 24 - April 15, 2017.

Led by our own Anne Mooney in the Senior Design Studio course at the University of Utah's School of Architecture, students imagined possibilities for expanding the museum to serve its diverse and growing audience. They began by researching contemporary artists, and then developed their analyses into 3-dimensional designs for one of three downtown sites, attempting to capture the essence of the artist they selected in their proposals. These final concepts by six students will be exhibited in the museum's Ed Space Gallery. The concepts meet UMOCA's programmatic and functional requirements, while also creating a spatial experience that unfolds gradually for the visitor and engages both body and mind.

It's Here and It's Happening! Design Week, October 17-22

That’s right – Salt Lake Design Week is officially underway, and we are beyond excited to be a part of this city-wide cultural extravaganza! As Salt Lake City architects deeply committed to producing and inspiring great design, we can’t wait to sample the artistic cornucopia that this creative-minded city has to offer this week. So get ready to sharpen your creative edge and join us for what is shaping up to be a stellar event…

Reflections from the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016

At Sparano + Mooney, we are mad about architecture. For us, great design is at the heart of our Los Angeles, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, based practice and our architects are wholeheartedly focused on delivering thoughtful, innovative, sustainable and contemporary design solutions to each and every client. We explore hyper-specific cultural cues and strive to construct a meaningful relationship between modern architecture and the experience of its inhabitants. Which is why we were so excited to visit the mothership of international architecture – the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016. We were eager to explore visionary architectural creations from architects from around the globe and to be inspired by the plethora of architectural delights on offer. Do other firms share our core values? Does an architect in Ireland approach design in a similar manner to an architect in the American West? How can we continue to progress the cause of research-based conceptual design and architecture to solve the real problems we confront each day? What can we learn from our peers around the globe? Below is a snapshot of the incredible installations and exhibitions we discovered during our trip.

From Venice Beach to the Venice Architecture Biennale: the “Wayward Eye” of Denise Scott Brown

Every two years, the international architecture community comes together for a truly inspirational presentation: the Venice Architecture Biennale. Held in Venice, Italy, the 2016 edition runs from May 28th until November 27th, and includes 88 participants from 37 countries, as well as 62 national participants and a curated selection of associated events. The Biennale is truly THE place to engage with cutting-edge, thought-provoking architecture – which is why, when Anne Mooney and John Sparano recently visited Venice, they understandably made the Biennale the focus of their stay. Here, we present a blog series about their architectural discoveries…

SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE