Architects Mayne, Rotondi Cited

Architects Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi, former partners in the California-based Morphosis (each established his own firm in 1991), have been honored by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters with its Academy-Institute Award in Architecture.

The second annual $7,500 prize honors American architects “who show great promise through work characterized by strong personal direction.”

Practicing as Morphosis, Mayne and Rotondi received 11 awards from the American Institute of Architects between 1981 and 1991, including a national award in 1988 for the Kate Mantilini Restaurant in Los Angeles. Progressive Architecture magazine has given the firm 12 awards, the most recent in 1991 for the Yuzen Vintage Car Museum in Los Angeles.

Mayne, a graduate of USC School of Architecture with a master’s of architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design, is a founding member of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and since 1972 has been on the faculty there.

Rotondi was also a founder of SCI-ARC where he received his architectural degree in 1973. He returned to the school as a graduate faculty member and became director of the school in 1987, a position he still holds.