Interview with Susan Lanier

Interview with Mark Dillon.

Edit by; Jennifer Minasian and Joan Hacker         

Transcription by; Carol Estrada

Photos by; Han Hoang and Ed Einem

v5-  Have you seen the "New Blood - 101" exhibit on line?

SL- I'm going to have to do that. I feel like we are still have one foot in the dark ages you know, pushing graphite around (laughing).

v5- You are pushing it very well. Of all the "101" that we saw, the residential projects you sent in for the exhibit were very exciting.

SL- Thank you. I enjoy it when we get a chance to get in there and do it. I guess it's what you live for, in a sense. It's why you put up with all the other stuff, in terms of dealing with contractors that aren't always that workable and clients that have really tight budgets. It all makes it worthwhile when you have the opportunity to get in there and do something interesting.

View from the garden of theStringfellow residence.

v5-  What did you think of the exhibit?

SL- I was really excited by the fact that there was so much breadth to it in terms of the various disciplines that were exhibited. I think architecture embraces, for the most part, many different aspects of life, culture and politics. Everything - in the design world, was embraced as a whole, I thought it was really exciting.
We try to keep up with what's going on in the field, but there are so many people that come in and out of the profession now. I'm really excited to see people that I had no idea were out there doing great stuff.

v5 - There was quite a diversity of work.

SL - There were people that are just out of the box, and also veterans like Greg Walsh, people like that who have been around, doing stuff for a long time. So to me it was really gratifying. It was like going to a college reunion. I feel it's really important to somehow bring the work more to the ground where it is understood. I find that students with training in architecture are so flexible and easily adaptable to other disciplines. They can flow into them quite easily because of the quality of ideas and training. It touches on so much, so I think it's great.

v5 - You see Frank Gehry's picture upon the side of the building, eight stories high (laughing). The fruits of what architecture can offer are there, but there is also a hard story behind each one of those people once they make it to that level. A lot of the time those stories are not told.

SL-  That's right, I think it is important that it is told.

v5 - So can we talk about your path that led to the moment the opening of the "101" exhibit at the Pacific Design Center?

SL- Well, I came to architecture rather late in my life. Actually, I studied psychology, literature and art at the Claremont Colleges. Then I went to work in the school system with troubled kids. I was living in San Diego at that time, and I happened to have a group of friends that were involved in
the arts and in architecture. I got more intrigued by getting back into painting and drawing. At that point, environmental art was really coming into its heyday and beginning to make an impact, and I was completely smitten by that. I think that there was an expansiveness to the quality of works at that time. I grew up in the desert for a number for years and I never seemed to have left.

v5-  The spaciousness.

SL- Yes. There is this complete openness where you sort of lose your skin. You feel like you are just sort of a part of what is there. There is something about that in what was happening in a lot of the architects' work then. People were really beginning to stand up and take notice. I began to think, "Well, maybe this is where I can work." Then I met Jay Vanos, who was going to SCI-Arc and who, oddly enough, was a fellow San Diegan. So I went up to look at the school and he ushered me around. One thing led to another and I ended up there. I wasn't really sure whether it was the right career, or just something exciting. I guess I just had a tremendous response to it, and then when I got into school I was really committed.

v5- It just felt right?

SL- I had started taking classes from Eugene Ray, an architect up at San Diego State who was teaching; he was kind of out there into the sixties.
I really wasn't sure whether I'd made the right choice or not, but after I was there that first year, I completely fell in love with the process and it became a lifelong opening in education for me. I felt it was a good connection with things that I' ve somehow been doing all my life.

v5 - Who were the influential faculty at SCI-Arc for you?

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