ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
Site-designed. Built as drawn.
Robert Sawyer, AIA, is a Los Angeles architect practicing organic architecture: design driven by the site, the structure and the purpose of the building. Since 1993, his firm has completed more than 1,500 projects, including performance and studio spaces, medical clinics (OSHPD 3), light commercial, multi-family and community work. Trained at the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio Foundation and seasoned by 19 construction-trade apprenticeships, Robert treats engineering as part of design, not an afterthought. For public and institutional clients, that means problems in existing buildings get found early, solutions get engineered to budget, and the principal leads every phase in person.
Design Philosophy
Every project starts with its site, its structure and the people who will use it, and the design is solved from there. Four principles guide the work:
Structure as design. Robert designs the structural system himself, so structure and aesthetics are solved together. The result is lighter, stronger and more economical buildings, not engineering bolted on after the fact.
Shaped by the site. Light, landscape, climate and existing conditions drive the design, whether it's a hillside home or a decades-old public building.
Built for how people use it. Flow, comfort and function come first: the performer backstage, the clinician between exam rooms, the family in the kitchen.
Materials that last. Wood, stone and other natural materials are chosen for warmth, durability and environmental responsibility, and detailed so they get built as drawn.
The result is architecture that's beautiful because it works.
Project 01
The Ammon Residence started as a small, typical home that needed far more living space while still leaving room on the lot for a pool and storage. The design solved both by growing the house up as well as out: large, high-volume rooms open beneath exposed structural beams that carry the long spans and become the architecture themselves. Resort-style stone fireplaces anchor the center of the home. The result is a house that lives far larger than its footprint, on a site that still has room for everything else.
Project 2
Garrido residence
The Garrido Residence makes its own drinking water. Rooftop solar hydropanels from SOURCE pull water vapor from the air, powered entirely by sunlight, and deliver a fresh daily supply with no utility connection. The rest of the house is built on the same idea of working with nature. Large openings and sliding glass walls bring in light and air and let the open plan flow straight out to the landscape. Exposed wood beams, wood floors and custom cabinetry warm the modern surfaces, and locally sourced stone grounds the home in its place.
Project 03
Cullen Street Homes — One of the very first projects under Los Angeles's Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance, built for developer Cullen Street Homes. Robert Sawyer Architects re-engineered the original structural design to cut cost without compromising the architecture, then built it. With no precedent under a brand-new code, the project needed a team that could solve problems in the drawings and on site. Today small-lot homes are a major part of L.A.'s housing supply, and we helped prove the model early.
ABOUT US
Robert Sawyer, AIA
Robert Sawyer is a California-licensed architect (C-29302) and licensed general contractor with more than 40 years in practice. He trained at the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio Foundation, then did something few architects do: he completed 19 apprenticeships across the construction trades. He knows how a building goes together because he has built every part of one.
He became a builder for a simple reason: to make sure his designs got built the way they were drawn. Today his firm designs, engineers and builds under one roof, with more than 1,500 projects completed since 1993 and every one of them finished. He still starts each project the same way, with a clean sheet of vellum and the site in front of him.