Richard Landry: ‘Modern to Classic II’

At the heart of each of Los Angeles-based architect Richard Landry’s designs are his clients.

“There are so many positions you can take,” he says. “But it pays off as a business model if my clients are part of the process.”

The fact is, this is an architect who’s been on his own now for 31 years, and who’s learned to be prepared to take nearly any position – classical, traditional or modern, or a combination of them all.

“Today there’s an appreciation for classical work and also a more modern language,” he says. “People don’t want a big white box, but color, textures and detail and how they’re all merging together.”

Take the clients who’d looked long and hard at a French chateau on Cap d’Antibes. They loved the French traditional style but wanted something more modern. So Landry’s parti was a more traditional house, stripped down to the essence of its form.

“You take out the roof and details and have the same massing,” he says. “When you’re creative you can be inspired by the past and even create your own language and bridge the gap between the two.”

His newest monograph – it’s his third in 13 years – is called “Modern to Classic II” and is a follow-up to the 2006 volume of the same name. Like that one and 2012’s “Private Estates,” it features a forward from Vanity Fair’s Paul Goldberger.

“I saw him at a design summit and asked if he’d be open to do it again, and he said: ‘Yes,’” Landry says. “To me, the way he looks at our work touches on the way I’m feeling when I’m designing – I can do many things, not one or the other.”

Landry’s counts among his clients many of Hollywood’s stars – Rod Stewart, Kenny Gee, Mark Wahlburg and Eddie Murphy among them.

The latest two, though, carry special weight during this NFL playoff season. That’s right – Tom Brady and Giselle Bündchen are the newest to solicit Landry’s design assistance.

Which just might find the architect Super Bowl-bound in just a few weeks.

For more, go here.

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