Eric Owen Moss, the Builder

The architect Eric Owen Moss is well known as an artist-architect of highly idiosyncratic buildings, mostly in the Hayden Tract in Culver City. He’s also known as head of SCI-Arc…

The architect Eric Owen Moss is well known as an artist-architect of highly idiosyncratic buildings, mostly in the Hayden Tract in Culver City. He’s also known as head of SCI-Arc and as a provocative and voluble speaker with a gift for a witty turn of phrase. What doesn’t get much attention is the nitty-gritty of how he gets his buildings built, or how he anticipates building his projects still on the drawing board. His latest book lets us in on the secret. Eric Owen Moss: Construction Manual is a vast tome (1560+ pages) that on the one hand subverts the usual, dry manual for builders and on the other hand delivers fascinating dry information itself: the working drawings that actually confronted builders of Eric’s often tortuous details. In addition, every project is accompanied by insights into Eric and his work by luminaries and critics and by Eric himself. I’ll talk to Eric about this book tonight at SCI-Arc. See details here.