Ordinary and Extraordinary: Brooks + Scarpa

Ordinary and Extraordinary tells the story of the

celebrated Los Angeles-based architecture and design

practice Brooks + Scarpa, recipients of the Cooper-Hewitt

National Design Award.

Working across disciplines including landscape architecture, planning

and environmental design, as well as furniture, graphic and interior

design, Brooks + Scarpa employs a rigorous research process and

technological prowess to produce iconic buildings that surprise and

delight in their ability to enrich the cultural fabric of our cities.

Equally dynamic and accessible is Ordinary and Extraordinary,

which charts Brooks + Scarpa’s history to date, methodology and

working philosophy through a selection of highlighted projects that

come to life through a narrative concerning the practice, penned by

ex-journalist and Wallpaper* contributor Tibby Rothman. Ordinary

and Extraordinary takes its readers on a journey from Brooks +

Scarpa’s origins in 1991 as Pugh + Scarpa to its current leadership

under Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa, who together steer the

25-person team from one successful project to the next, emphasising

a collaborative and client-led approach that is further lauded for its

sustainability-savvy design approach.

Their work ranges from high-density housing in Chengdu, China, to

Downtown Los Angeles boutiques like Aesop’s cardboard-coated

interiors; it spans the iconic, Corten-clad facades of the Adam

Aronson Fine Arts Center at Laumeier Sculpture Park near St Louis,

Missouri, and the futuristic canopy roof of the Contemporary Art

Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ordinary and Extraordinary

meditates upon the artistry defining Brooks + Scarpa’s unique

practice in a format equally engaging as an object and a book.