Table of Contents
In this Episode
In the world of high-end residential architecture, few names resonate with the warmth, sophistication, and effortless cool of the Golden State quite like Grant C. Kirkpatrick. As the founding partner of KAA Design Group, Kirkpatrick has spent over three decades shaping the aesthetic of the California coast—and increasingly, the world.
In this episode of Titans of Trade, host Constance Studd sits down with the “contemporary OG” himself to dissect the philosophy behind his celebrated firm, the global obsession with the California lifestyle, and why beauty is as essential to human survival as the air we breathe.
The Architect as Archeologist
“I always feel myself instantly relaxing when I walk in.”
That is how one homeowner described living in a KAA home to Constance Studd. It is a sentiment that Grant Kirkpatrick hears often, and it isn’t an accident. It is the result of a rigorous, almost obsession-level dedication to what he calls “warm contemporary” design. But before a single sketch is drawn, Kirkpatrick views his role differently.
“I often say that in the beginning, we’re a little bit more of archeologists than we are architects,” Kirkpatrick explains.
For KAA Design, the process begins with digging. They mine the client’s story, unearthing the essence of their lifestyle and the unique “genus loci”—the spirit of the place. Whether it’s a 33-foot wide lot on the Manhattan Beach Strand or a sprawling estate in the Rockies, the goal is to create a script for the home before the set is ever built.
This narrative-first approach ensures that no two KAA homes are ever the same. “There is unfortunately no formula to what we do,” Kirkpatrick notes, distinguishing his firm from others that might rely on a replicable stamp. Instead, they treat every project as a unique puzzle where the variables—topography, client personality, and local culture—shift every time.
A Third-Generation Angelino’s Journey
Grant Kirkpatrick’s intuitive grasp of the California vernacular is in his blood. A third-generation Angelino born in Long Beach, he is what he proudly calls “an Angelino through and through”.
His origin story as an architect can be traced back to a specific moment at age 12, when his parents remodeled their 1,400-square-foot ranch house. Watching workers pour concrete into trenches, Kirkpatrick was captivated by the material’s transformation from “goop” to a permanent structure.
“Concrete’s always been this really amazing elastic moldable material,” he recalls. “It’s incredibly strong… and great here in Southern California for lateral loads or earthquakes”.
This early fascination led him to the University of Southern California (USC), where he immersed himself in the rich legacy of West Coast modernism—from the case study houses of the mid-century to the textile block homes of Frank Lloyd Wright. He earned his license at the remarkably young age of 24 and founded KAA Design just a few years later in 1988.
Since then, the firm has evolved from commercial projects for heavyweights like Hugo Boss and Christie’s Auction House to focusing exclusively on custom homes for clients ranging from Tom Hanks to The Pritzker Family.
Defining “California Sophistication”
For a long time, luxury architecture in the South Bay was dominated by what Kirkpatrick jokingly calls “Manhattan-terranean”—a heavy, traditional style that felt at odds with the beach lifestyle. KAA Design helped pivot that narrative, championing a contemporary aesthetic that remains warm, timeless, and deeply connected to nature.
This “California lifestyle” is now an export in high demand globally. Kirkpatrick notes that clients from Dubai to Japan are seeking that specific indoor-outdoor connection.
“All over the world, people desire that lifestyle,” Kirkpatrick says. “We have projects in Washington, D.C…. There might be two or three months of the year where it’s appropriate to have that California lifestyle, but that’s what they want”.
However, exporting this style doesn’t mean plopping a Malibu beach house onto a hillside in Costa Rica. It requires a deep respect for local materials and context. For a recent project in Costa Rica, for instance, Kirkpatrick immersed himself in the properties of the local Guanacaste tree to ensure the flooring was authentic to the region.
The KAA Toolkit: Levitate, Whimsy, and Craft
While KAA avoids formulas, they do have a “bag of tricks”—core tenets that define their work.
- Craftsmanship: In an era of machine production, Kirkpatrick insists on the “human element.” This is evident in their use of board-form concrete, where the wood grain of the mold leaves a permanent, tactile impression on the industrial material, capturing light and shadow in a way that feels organic.
- Levitate: To create excitement and maximize views, KAA homes often feature volumes that cantilever over the landscape. “It gets you that feeling of levitation,” Kirkpatrick says. “Our roofs soar like bird wings”.
- Whimsy and Imperfection: Perhaps the most surprising element of KAA’s high-end homes is their refusal to take themselves too seriously. Kirkpatrick calls it the “one eyebrow raise”—a touch of personality that takes the edge off.
He recounts a story of a client who owned a kitschy statue of three dancing pigs. While it didn’t fit the “sleek” aesthetic, the clients admitted it made everyone giggle. Kirkpatrick’s response? “That has to come with us.” They found a way to incorporate it, celebrating the family’s unique joy rather than hiding it.
The Beauty Switch: Why Aesthetics Matter
Beyond the technicalities of cantilevers and concrete, Kirkpatrick is driven by a profound philosophical belief: beauty is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
Referencing his TED talk, The Beauty Switch, Kirkpatrick argues that humans have an innate DNA-level response to scale, proportion, and beauty. “Without beauty, much like water, air, or love, we would cease to exist as human beings,” he asserts.
This belief drives his commitment to sustainability—not just through solar panels or geothermal energy, but through longevity. He tells his clients they are building “family heirlooms” meant to last 150 to 250 years.
“We’re going to build this house once,” he says. “That’s your contribution to this planet for the next couple of centuries”.
From Architecture to Viticulture
When he isn’t designing 100-year homes or lecturing at USC, Kirkpatrick can be found in Paso Robles, tending to his other labor of love: William Robert Wines.
“I am a farmer,” Kirkpatrick reveals. He sees a direct parallel between the vineyard and architecture. “If you think about a vineyard… we place a perfect grid… a perfect human-made grid. And the result is these vines that travel down and up… in this marvelous, enchanting way”.
This juxtaposition of human order and natural chaos mirrors his architectural work—structured yet organic, disciplined yet whimsical.
Grant Kirkpatrick’s career is a testament to the power of staying curious. After nearly 40 years, he isn’t resting on his laurels or his “Contemporary OG” status. He is still the 12-year-old boy fascinated by the “goop” of concrete, still the archaeologist digging for the story, and still striving to elevate the human spirit through design.
“The stuff in the book is terrific,” he says of his published works like Residing with Nature. “But the stuff that’s under construction right now, honestly, it’s even better”.
And for the fortunate future owners of those homes, that means there is a lot of relaxing left to do.
Takeaways
- Craftsmanship is essential in creating soothing and beautiful homes.
- The use of innovative materials can enhance the aesthetic and functionality of a home.
- California’s lifestyle has a significant global influence on architecture.
- Storytelling is a crucial part of the design process for KAA homes.
- Each architectural project is unique and tailored to the client’s lifestyle.
- KAA homes aim to blend indoor and outdoor living seamlessly.
- Balancing art and business is vital for success in architecture.
- The beauty of a home contributes to the overall human experience.
- Sustainability is a key consideration in modern architecture.
- Personal growth and continuous learning are important in the architectural field.
Sound Bites
- “We want a version of what you do.”
- “It’s a puzzle every time.”
- “Beauty is essential to life.”
Follow Grant Kirkpatrick
Website: https://kaadesigngroup.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grantkirkpatrick
Full Transcript
Constance (00:01.28)
Welcome to Titans of Trade. I’m your host, Constance Studd, and today we welcome a very notable architect whose works are synonymous with California sophistication. Welcome Grant C. Kirkpatrick.
Grant Kirkpatrick (00:13.281)
Thank you so much, Constance. Great to join you today.
Constance (00:16.33)
Yes, I have had the pleasure of writing about your works, walking through them. And it’s funny, there’s a homeowner who gave me a quote once and I always remembered it. And I just want to kind of bring it up. He was talking about how he lives in one of your homes. He’s been a purveyor of quite a few K.A. homes. And he always feels himself instantly relaxing when he walks in. And he said,
My theory on this is that there’s such an attention to detail and design, it results in a symmetry and a perfection that when you drink in the aesthetic visually, it calms you. So how many decades did it take for you to be able to pull that off?
Grant Kirkpatrick (00:51.455)
Mmm, wow.
Grant Kirkpatrick (00:56.855)
Well, that’s awfully nice. I think we ought to make a song out of that that has a right. It’s poetic at the very least. No, I love to hear stuff like that. You know, I’ve been doing this for a while and it’s you know, it’s just a labor of love and or or maybe it’s a love of labor. I I’m not quite sure because it’s just you know, when you get to do these things and people like that and trust you with you know what’s going to end up
Constance (01:03.348)
Exactly, exactly.
Constance (01:08.898)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (01:26.167)
being the largest after-tax discretionary expenditure of their life, more than likely, it’s important that that comes out on the other side with something that has that kind of effect, something that’s soothing and feels like you, feels like yours and home. And I think a big part of that is craftsmanship. It’s a little, I think all of us architects say,
Constance (01:33.09)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (01:55.608)
and craftsmanship, but the truth is it’s harder and harder to do and to find. And I think part of that’s because of being able to value it, right? mean, we sort of, it’s inert in us human beings to craft. We all have that deep within us. And in the art of homemaking in many cultures, it’s paramount. Our culture through the years has made other things
Constance (02:07.918)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (02:13.25)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (02:24.919)
Paramount and and craft is has I think fallen off the the priority list so I can’t do that for for whatever reason I’m sure goes of course back to mom and dad or something right, but whatever reason I these homes have to be crafted they have to have the the human element not just the machine element in in the you know buried within it and
Constance (02:36.014)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (02:53.865)
And I appreciate his sentiments or her sentiments. I’m not sure who that was, that’s a wonderful quote.
Constance (03:00.756)
Yeah, and it’s interesting that you’re talking about an emphasis on craft. It’s reminding me of the Bauhaus. You know how that school came out of there was so much technological innovation in the Bauhaus, the whole focus is we have to return to the craft and we can bury technological innovation with this emphasis on craft in detail. And it’s interesting because I’m thinking of your homes and your firm’s homes because they’re obviously
especially with the emphasis on contemporary luxury homes. There’s this kind of visual, it’s arresting, it’s beautiful, but years have to go beyond just looking sleek and eye-catching and interesting. There’s an inside-out approach that goes down to materials. For instance, on this home, this is 308, the strand we were talking about, but he was just talking about…
Grant Kirkpatrick (03:45.985)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (03:51.659)
Yeah, one of my faves.
Constance (03:53.679)
Yeah, one of your homes in general, but this was a conversation was about that home. And in that one, you used a board form concrete. Can you tell us about this? Because it had a lot to do with the home and the success of the execution. Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (04:05.609)
sure. Sure, sure. And just as a lead into that question, Constance, our client for that home, was amazing. She actually had this thing about creating a home where if a herd of elephants came through, it would be okay. And that speaks to craftsmanship. She was radar up on that from the very beginning. And the board form is a great example of that.
Constance (04:26.892)
Right.
Right.
Grant Kirkpatrick (04:33.611)
You know, I learned about concrete when I was 12 years old. My folks remodeled our house and it was just a 1400 square foot ranch house and they remodeled it and you know, these guys dig trenches and the truck show up with his goop and poured in these trenches and it hardens. And you know, I just thought that was so fascinating. ever since then, concrete’s always been this really amazing elastic moldable material. It also happens to be incredibly
Constance (04:48.947)
huh. huh.
Grant Kirkpatrick (05:03.703)
strong and it’s also because of its combination with both steel and concrete is great here in Southern California for lateral loads or earthquakes. And what we like to do in searching for a home with a timeless aesthetic, a timeless way to survive the decades as not being trendy or being of its time.
Constance (05:05.294)
Hmm.
Constance (05:23.426)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (05:33.036)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (05:33.207)
but for all time. Part of that is again the craftsmanship. Concrete, turns out if it’s crafted, if it’s formed right, is beautiful. And it’s especially beautiful because an industrial material against a warmer material like stone or wood, that contrast and that juxtaposition is really, you know, that’s part of the beauty that our eye picks up on and part of the permanence with that play.
So if you take the formwork, the actual wood forms that concrete is poured into, and you give them some craftsmanship, you give them some attention to detail, like using the right wood, sandblasting it so the various grain textures get a little bit more pronounced or less pronounced, and you can end up, when you pour that goop in there, it can turn out to be beautiful, textured.
the way it captures light in the afternoon, all different types of things can really be special. Uh-oh. You know, this is gonna be fun. Our light here fades out if I’m not moving. Sorry about that.
Constance (06:34.209)
Is he isn’t?
Constance (06:44.046)
Oh, oh, it’s okay. That’s cool. So what I find interesting, and when you mentioned that your parents had used concrete, you know, when you were just a wee lad, you’ve been doing this for a long time. You’re like a contemporary OG. you’ve been, you know, it’s, what, is it 35 years since you’re, like, you were doing, is it contemporary homes, as far back in the 80s or 90s?
Grant Kirkpatrick (07:09.686)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we actually did that triplex, the condominium triplex behind what used to be sunsets and now is the Strand House. That was 1989. So yeah, it’s been, I mean, I hate to say it, but it’s been 37 years, but it seems like yesterday, it’s all gone so fast. Like they say, time flies, right?
Constance (07:22.274)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (07:33.249)
Yeah, and it’s so neat to talk to you because you must have an interesting perspective because, again, contemporary California has become much more popular in the luxury realm and non-luxury realm, I assume, but you’ve been doing this for a long time. So do you have a certain perspective considering you’ve been doing it for so long? It’s kind of like a ballet dancer on point. You know what mean? You’ve been there for so long, so you…
Grant Kirkpatrick (07:46.645)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (07:58.09)
Yeah. Yeah.
Constance (08:02.464)
you just have this level of experience just because you’ve been doing it longer than maybe other people. Exactly.
Grant Kirkpatrick (08:07.798)
No, it’s true. Yeah, no, it’s true. And in our art industry, there’s no no substitute for experience. You know, it is what it is. But yeah, no, I, you know, I was doing rather contemporary work back in the 80s when, you know, it wasn’t a thing. And I think I’ve I’ve been pleased and proud and and and, you know, just being a part of what has become a
Constance (08:13.953)
Right!
Grant Kirkpatrick (08:37.622)
you know, a decade over decade movement of quality contemporary work in the South Bay. I think, you know, we went through our phase in the 80s and the 90s. It was all kind of what I call Manhattan Terranian or Manhattan. And I, you know, look, there’s nothing wrong with the more traditionally based work. We used to do a lot of that ourselves. But I feel like the ability for
Constance (08:53.176)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (09:06.922)
timeless warm modern architecture is it lies in a few critical tenants that we have managed to really home through the years. I’ve always said if you know if I’m going to do a home on the Strand or a home anywhere in you know in the South Bay, I live here and you know don’t want to walk by him in 10 years or 20 years and go. boy, what was I thinking right so?
Constance (09:31.548)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (09:32.81)
So it’s important, each project’s unique, each project is a marriage of that particular piece of property and our client’s lifestyle. But there are a lot of common ingredients to what we do. We have a bag of tricks or a toolbox. We’ve never done the same project twice, which is what gets you up in the morning. But nevertheless, there are some threads that our clients do want to ensure make it through in a KAA home.
And I think that that’s shown through the years. We’re continually honing our craft and what’s really beautiful in the last 10 plus, maybe 15 years, you know, there’s this crazy, interesting international focus on what is called the California lifestyle. And what I’ve learned it means is, you know, like in Australia, California is an adjective and it really talks about an indoor outdoor lifestyle.
Constance (10:09.708)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (10:26.402)
Hmm.
Constance (10:30.104)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (10:31.398)
And all over the world, people desire that lifestyle. They’ve seen it. Maybe they saw it on a show or in the movies or or visited or in the hotels that exude that that kind of thing. So we’ve been the lucky beneficiary of of having inquiries from all over the world to do what we do here, which is really explore and push that indoor outdoor lifestyle.
Even though here, of course, it’s a very appropriate climate for that, but we have projects in Washington, D.C., for instance. There might be two or three months of the year where it’s appropriate to have that California lifestyle, but that’s what they want. And in a lot of these places, projects in Caribbean, Costa Rica, London, Dubai, we just started a project in Japan. You know, these are places that they want that.
Constance (11:02.766)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (11:12.908)
Right. Yeah.
Constance (11:17.974)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (11:28.862)
It may be a shorter time of the year, but they truly desire to live in that kind of bleeding of the indoor and outdoor. I think COVID probably cranked it up a notch, right? You know, hopefully we’re learning the European restaurant that people like to dine outdoors and we’re leaving our dining terraces in the beach cities. But yeah, it’s…
Constance (11:28.908)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (11:42.508)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (11:57.522)
It’s a very interesting thing that all over the world people are looking to us. How do you live? What do do next? And by the way, it’s not just architecture, right? It’s food, certainly entertainment, it’s fashion. There’s a lot of creative industry and movement that people are looking to California for.
Constance (12:05.868)
Right.
Constance (12:20.494)
Yeah. And when your firm started building outside of California and maybe even going internationally, was it daunting to take the KAA protocol as it were and like, wow, all right, new landscape here.
Grant Kirkpatrick (12:30.857)
Hehehe.
Grant Kirkpatrick (12:34.25)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (12:38.901)
No, it wasn’t daunting because folks really want what we do, right? They want a version. They want their version, authentic version of what they do. What we’re always careful to do is wherever we work, we are really mining the local community, the local context, the local customs and traditions and making sure that this isn’t just a California house.
Constance (12:45.334)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (13:05.941)
plopped in on the hillside in Costa Rica or anywhere for that matter. So there is a research part of the process that sort of coincides, it runs concurrently to helping our clients tell their story. We have a very sort of proprietary process that we’ve developed through the years that we take our clients through to create the vision for the project before we ever start designing it.
It’s almost like creating a script for a movie before you start, you know, making the sets and then filming it. You know, there’s a, there’s a story to be told for every property and every client’s lifestyle that’s unique. And you want the eventual home to, to use that as its main pre, premise for development. And so that happens internationally. And it’s really fun. A home where just,
Constance (13:57.23)
Aww.
Constance (14:01.836)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (14:03.574)
completing in Dubai is using part of the petrified sandstone monuments that are just outside the city to the south. There are these really interesting petrified sandstone dunes and part of that was very influential in the form and the stone which is going to get mined from there. We’re into finishes now.
for the project. you know, not unlike Amman Resorts, Amman is Sanskrit for of the, you know, Amman Puri, the Indians, or Amman Geary, maybe Geary is the one with the Indians. But every Amman hotel that is developed is developed with its local locality and context in mind. And that’s what we’ve always been trying to do with these homes. You know, it’s really a, you know,
Constance (14:57.933)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (15:02.623)
hopefully authentic way to create something timeless.
Constance (15:05.966)
That’s exciting. can’t wait to see that project. So you’re a third generation Los Angeles citizen. tell me about that. Like growing up, it must have been fascinating if you were interested in architecture early and to be able to go and see all these fabulous, you know, kind of, kind of the founding fathers of of contemporary architecture. Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (15:28.927)
Yeah, yeah. Well, that is true. I was born in Long Beach. My father was born in Long Beach. My grandfather was born in year 1900 in Long Beach. we’ve, you know, I’m an Angelino through and through. I tried to go to college somewhere else. They wouldn’t let me in. I went to USC and couldn’t be more grateful.
And what’s interesting is that when my folks remodeled their house when I was 12, which I really found fascinating, they did it in a sort of modern ranch style. They did walls of glass instead of doors and windows in walls. And it was very influential for me. I then subsequently found myself at the USC School of Architecture. And the…
modernist program there is very strong. In fact, the case study movement, the original John Intenza Arts and Architecture Magazine case study movement, there were 22 case study homes that were built over, I think the course of 11 or 12 years, and 11 of those, exactly half of them, were either USC grads, alums, or professors. So there’s always been a very strong connection to the sort of pushing the envelope.
with technology and materials and living in a modern way. So I’ve always been a part of that thought process. We’ve had some, I think in Southern California, the modernist movement, you could go all the way back to Frank Lloyd Wright with the textile block homes and his protege, Noitra and Schindler.
Constance (16:58.04)
Yeah.
Constance (17:03.468)
Yeah.
Constance (17:18.89)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (17:19.413)
who were pushing that in the 20s. And it goes into the 50s with the case study movement and Pierre Konig and some of the Eames and some amazing architects. And in the later years, had Gregory Ane and then it moves on to Steve Ehrlich. And I think at some point in time, we picked up the torch and we’re carrying that
Constance (17:22.317)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (17:28.855)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (17:38.67)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (17:48.691)
modernist movement forward. And I suspect we’re handing it off to others at the very same time. There’s some wonderful architects that we’re lucky to have in the community now. They’re doing really, really good work. So it’s fun to be a part of that legacy and a part of that agenda and to feel as if you’re helping move it along for its next incarnations.
Constance (17:49.997)
Yeah.
Constance (17:59.125)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Constance (18:07.382)
Yeah.
Constance (18:13.974)
Yeah, and speaking of how are K.A. homes, how do they fit in? where have the threads been picked up and built upon? I’m so interested in this. You talk about those names you just mentioned, they’re exciting even to hear the names of those homes because you think about the homes themselves and just the innovation and how they were meant to be replicated often. know, many of the homes were meant for people of all budgets, modest budgets and just what they did.
Grant Kirkpatrick (18:35.7)
Sure. Yeah.
Constance (18:43.478)
It’s just very exciting. It’s always, it’s perpetually exciting. But anyway, yeah, exactly. And so I’m so curious about KAA picking up those reins and building upon that. And where do you see that, how that has happened?
Grant Kirkpatrick (18:45.15)
Thank you.
I’m 100 % with you.
Grant Kirkpatrick (18:59.73)
Yeah, well, I think that we operate with a certain playbook, if you will. When we start a project, again, the storytelling process is very, important to us. I often say that in the beginning, we’re a little bit more of archeologists than we are architects. We’re helping mine our client’s story, digging up the essence of why we’re doing this, what are we trying to achieve, what are the things that…
Constance (19:22.412)
Okay.
Grant Kirkpatrick (19:28.062)
you know, that influence you and we put this together and build this story and then it gets woven with a whole series of things. Certainly I’ve mentioned craft and I’ve mentioned indoor outdoor connection. Those are paramount to our work. But there’s some other things that might be a little more subtle. There’s something we call levitate. You’ll see in a lot of our homes that there are volumes that
Constance (19:41.752)
Right.
Grant Kirkpatrick (19:55.839)
cantilever, you know, that leap out over the view or over the beach or over something. It gets you that feeling of, you know, of levitation, right? It’s exciting. You’ll see that our roofs soar like bird wings. We’re always paying super careful attention to, you know, often our homes have a lot of glass. The glass needs cover. It needs shade and it needs protection.
Constance (20:03.288)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (20:12.567)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (20:22.77)
mostly from the birds, but also from the sand, the coastal sand and whatnot. So we pay very careful attention to that rim of the, the brim of the hat, if you will, that’s on the homes that the eye catches. There’s something we call whimsy and perfection, which is a tenant that you probably pick up on in our work where…
Constance (20:39.448)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (20:49.928)
You know, our homes are certainly sophisticated and elegant, but they don’t want to take themselves too seriously. It’s life. And we’re constantly integrating things that, you know, in some cultures you could call it wabi-sabi. There’s the perfect and the celebration of the imperfect. And a lot of times we’ll embrace that imperfection. We’ll actually pick up on it or push it to another level. Or we’ll involve some type of whimsy that, you know,
Constance (20:57.582)
Hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (21:19.348)
I often call it the one eyebrow razor. It just is sort of curious in terms of what takes the edge off, brings the home a personality and some character. And most of the time, those are things we’re picking up on from our clients. One of our clients had a, in their former home, they had a statue of the three pigs.
Constance (21:23.747)
Yeah.
Constance (21:31.678)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (21:47.797)
and the three pigs are dancing and they had it for a long time and it was right at their foyer and we said, okay, so where are we going to incorporate that? That’s fantastic. And they were saying, no, no, no, that we’ve had that forever. And I said, let me ask you something. When people come over, if they haven’t been to your house before, what do they say about that? And he said, well, mostly they just kind of giggle. I said, you know, that is so you guys, that has to come with us. That’s got to make it into the new house.
and we’ll celebrate it in a slightly different way. So you’ll see things like that. You’ll see, you know, swings or water elements or things that, you know, that we identify at a human level and a human scale to bring some whimsy, some imperfection into the picture. It also helps people, you know, homes are always, you know, we’re taking care of them, right?
There’s a maintenance factor to homes and a lot of times you want to bring the attention to things where you you don’t have to worry about it. Skylights that bring light in but that aren’t visible from the inside. Things that that don’t require as much attention that are built to last. I I often say to our clients, you know what we’re going to do here is sort of a family heirloom. We’re going to build this house.
Constance (23:03.414)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (23:11.86)
for your next gen and their next gen. It’ll look just as good. And by the way, that’s your green agenda. That’s your sustainability. We’re going to build this house once. It’ll last 150, 250 years, who knows. But this isn’t a 30 or 40 year house like all these others. This home is going to be built once and that’s your contribution to this planet for the next couple of centuries. We’ll use FSC certified materials.
We’ll use geothermal and solar and all the things that are reasonable to incorporate in these homes today. But the real way to make an impact on this planet, let’s do it right and let’s do it once.
Constance (23:58.617)
love that. That makes a lot of sense. It your most recent book residing with nature, which was done with a partner, Duan Tran, when you guys had to just shift through all the work that you have done collectively, what did you guys say, you know, we have this criterion, or was it just like, I love this one, I love this one, what was the the process by which you picked projects?
Grant Kirkpatrick (24:23.493)
Yeah, great question, Constance. I will tell you that, you know, at first it’s not easy, right? We’ve probably, I don’t know, we’ve done 35 Strand homes, you know, in the last 30 plus years. We’ve done dozens and hundreds of others. And, you know, each one of them is kind of your baby, right? We put our heart and soul into these things. eventually a published book is going to be
248 pages or maybe 256. There’s a whole set of rules behind it. We’ve done a few of them and that only leaves room for so many in residing with nature. That was 12. And we had to call down to 12 projects that we thought would, you know, would play nicely together in what we were trying to communicate about the work, which is its connection to nature and all things natural.
And you know, eventually, not even eventually, rather quickly, it became a really fun project. It did take us a couple of years. There were lots of sessions or lots of things pinned up on the wall that, you know, we’re looking at and starting to narrow it down. We did it both physically and digitally, but it’s kind of rewarding to sift everything down to some of the best of the best.
and package it up in a beautiful volume. I found it kind of an unexpected celebration of years and years of work. And of course, that stuff that’s in the book, let’s see, Residing with Nature was published a year ago, year and a half ago. And California Contemporary was published, I believe, in 2012. No, 15, I’m sorry, that’s not right.
Constance (26:07.363)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (26:18.163)
Both of those books, and we had a few before that, like Resigning with Nature has these 12 projects in them. Those projects we designed probably seven, eight, 10 years ago. They were built, you know, three, five, seven years ago. And then, you know, there are projects that are coming up, obviously, that are under construction and on the boards. I think what I’m always trying to communicate to our team here is,
You know, we’re super lucky that stuff in the book is terrific, but the stuff that’s under construction right now, honestly, it’s even better. And the stuff that’s on the boards that isn’t under construction yet, that’s better than that stuff. And I can say that honestly, because in our business, you’re constantly honing your craft. You know, you’re literally, if you’re diligent and you’re not resting on your toes and you’re pushing to keep, you know, the work relevant and
Constance (27:07.566)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (27:17.523)
pushing to go beyond, right? To have unique and prototypical types of ideas and things coming forward, ways to use materials and be sustainably conscientious and source locally and do all these cool things that are now more standard than not. You’re having to constantly hone your craft. And so it’s really rewarding to…
to think about it in those stages. We have things that we’re designing right now that I’m just so excited about. It’s really pretty amazing. And a lot of them are here, Southern California, but a lot of them are, they’re very prolific places like Montecito, La Jolla, Palm Desert in La Quinta, and the Rockies right now. have projects in Montana, Utah.
Yeah, the super fun, that sort of modern rustic, we call it dirty modern. And then elsewhere, as I mentioned, and you know, we’re, a little bit fortunate because most of the work we did in our first 20, 25 years was here locally and I didn’t have to get on planes. I got on planes for fun. Now it’s changed, but my kids are gone. We’re empty nesters and I don’t have to worry about tucking them into bed or reading them a story. And I’m able to travel a little.
Constance (28:15.799)
Yeah.
Constance (28:19.5)
Wow.
Constance (28:33.678)
Mm-hmm.
Grant Kirkpatrick (28:44.595)
And it’s exciting. It’s always exciting to go to different places and to mine the history and the culture and do something that adds to that.
Constance (28:57.002)
Exactly. And I find it interesting after all these years, like it must be really, really fun because it’s like a jazz musician who’s a Mastro theorizing that at this point you’ve come up against probably there’s only a finite number of issues, right? And you’ve probably dealt with them and sweated it out all those years and now you can go and kind of just improvise. Is that how it feels or?
Grant Kirkpatrick (29:20.371)
Sure, no it does. mean, you know, after getting close to 40 years of honing the craft, there’s a lot of things that we have managed to create systems and efficiencies and economies with. yet, you know, things change constantly. I mean, I was just down in Costa Rica and we’re using the guanacaste tree as the wood flooring for this home. And it’s a beautiful wood. It’s very hard, very durable, but it has a
Constance (29:36.301)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (29:50.035)
completely unique characteristic in terms of how you cut it and how its grain shows up. So I’ve been learning all about that to make sure that we get it right, that it folds into the larger vision and goals for the project. And there’s something like that in every project that we do. The project right now in Japan is particularly fascinating. It’s just outside of Tokyo.
You know, as most of our clients say, we want a K a home. We want what you do and and you know, so well, absolutely. But it’s gotta be a K a home is something that speaks to its locale, right? It’s the genus loci. If you will, it’s about the place. It’s your lifestyle married to that place as we were talking about. So that’s always new and different. And and frankly, it’s a lot of fun. I feel really blessed. Then people say, well.
You know, you’ve done so many strand homes. Why do you want to do another one? You know, every time we do a home on the strand or the beach section, you know, it’s it’s a 33 foot by 100 foot lot and it’s a puzzle every time everyone’s different. I have to make sure they’re unique. I’m not going to do the same home that we did next door down the street. And so I think that’s that that never gets old. Figuring out the unique.
Constance (31:06.818)
Mm-hmm.
Constance (31:15.095)
I’m
Grant Kirkpatrick (31:16.076)
answer the unique puzzle, the design for a unique set of circumstances, even though it’s in a virtually the same place. It’s always challenging, and from the challenge comes something really terrific.
Constance (31:32.386)
That makes a lot of sense. It’s almost like there’s a formula and the variables change each time. But the variables are different. You’re working with a whole new set. It’s kind of like lifestyle, topography, but these are never the same. Okay.
Grant Kirkpatrick (31:41.009)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (31:47.875)
That’s correct, yeah. There is unfortunately no formula to what we do. There are some threads, as we talked about. There are some processes, but it’s so far from formulaic. There are a lot of architecture firms that operate much more formulaically, and it’s fine. mean, they help and serve a very relevant, important marketplace. I would often say that our work is…
Constance (31:53.112)
No.
Right,
Right.
Grant Kirkpatrick (32:16.26)
almost the exact opposite. We’re usually being challenged with a very unique property and unique desire for something more akin, more connected to our client and their lifestyle. So it’s…
Constance (32:35.938)
You know, that’s a good point. You get as they’re all so different and it’s fascinating having written about them. Like I remember seeing one in Palace Verdes and then once you dig into it and the homeowners talking to you about it, I’m like, KAA, but it doesn’t visually look like another home, but the quality there and the sensibility, the sense of how it embraces.
Grant Kirkpatrick (32:39.079)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (32:52.646)
Ha ha ha.
Yeah.
Constance (33:00.982)
the landscape, it’s like, and then there’s a certain level of execution that then you go, okay, yes, that’s a KAA. How do you, how do you, sorry.
Grant Kirkpatrick (33:07.578)
Yeah. No, no, absolutely. Please.
Constance (33:13.538)
I was gonna say, how do you keep your personal creative fires? Like how do you fuel that? Like are you off? You’re a winemaker? Or do you, are you a marathon runner? do you, is it, do you work that way? Where you just like…
Grant Kirkpatrick (33:28.722)
I ran a marathon once and practically died, just like the original guy. you know what, first of all, architecture and what I do, we only do homes. But we’re really blessed with some really terrific opportunity and challenges. And so for me, it doesn’t feel like work.
Constance (33:32.078)
Okay.
Grant Kirkpatrick (33:56.305)
you know, as architects, don’t turn the switch off. So everywhere we travel, and my wife and I do a lot of travel and I do a lot of business travel, but we’re always absorbing, learning, sketching, you know, doing different things. We do have, in answer to question, we do have a boutique vineyard and we are winemakers. We have a label called William Robert Wines out of Paso Robles, California.
We make a couple of different varietal wines off of our estate vineyard. And so I’m a farmer. So that’s probably the best answer I could give you to my other life. But you know, there are so many connections to what we do in the vineyard and what I do as an architect. The connection to nature is obviously very clear.
But you may, if you think about a vineyard and you think about this idea of these natural rolling hills and over it, we place a perfect grid, right? A perfect human-made grid. And the result is these vines that travel down and up and they do it in this marvelous, enchanting way.
You see it in the, you know, as you’re driving through wine country or in the paintings or on wine labels. But I just, for many years, I found that so attractive. And even though my brothers and I were always into wine and food pairing, you know, the vineyard bug just bit me back in 2008. And we happened to have a property that was really, I think, sort of begging for it.
So I will admit that I think we make very good wine. In fact, we’ve been told we do. But I got to give credit to the to the aesthetic element of the of the of nature and and humans interacting in a vineyard. It really is kind of the turn on for me. It always has been so. It’s a fun. It’s a fun operation. I’m the farmer. I have to deliver the fruit.
Grant Kirkpatrick (36:18.034)
My wife runs the business. It’s an alcohol business. It’s not easy. And my eldest son works with the winemaker to make the wine. So it’s family operation. We enjoy it really, truly enjoy it.
Constance (36:32.14)
Congratulations, that’s wonderful. That sounds really very exciting. And I am curious about something. When you think about there’s the architect as artist and then there’s the architect as someone who has to run a firm. And how do you, for people who struggle with, you know, I’ve got a…
Grant Kirkpatrick (36:34.332)
Thank you.
Constance (36:55.202)
get into the aesthetics, I’ve got to be into this project and really just focus. And then there’s maybe some noise over here with running a business. Any tips that you can share about making sure that the architect stays the artist and the business stays operating and segmenting these out?
Grant Kirkpatrick (37:11.314)
Yeah, that’s great. No, that’s a great. Yeah, beautiful question. Actually, I’m on a panel with that exact theme at West Week that’s coming up at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. But anyway, the answer to your question is, you know, through the years, I always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. I knew pretty early on that I wanted to
create my own business. In fact, in college, my brother said to me, said, look, if you’re going to be an architect, you need to take business classes. So I did that and I could speak the language. I, you know, look, mean, it I’m lucky enough to know that through the years, as the business started to evolve, I would always get people who knew what they were doing to do those things.
Constance (38:08.364)
Okay.
Grant Kirkpatrick (38:09.49)
So I’ve, you know, to this day, you know, I’ve been able to stay focused on, you know, my strengths, which is working with our clients and, and the visualization and conceptual design work. And I’ve got a managing partner, Duann, who is amazing. And he allows me to, do what I do best because I’m so confident that he
and his, our leadership team, they run this business better than I ever did. Truly better. So, I would say that the key to a lot of our success is first of all, having a vision that’s bigger for a company than yourself and or profit or things of that nature. We always firmly believed that
Constance (38:40.194)
Yeah. That’s great.
Grant Kirkpatrick (39:05.851)
good architecture, good design, raises the human spirit, elevates the human spirit. I think again, most cultures recognize that easily. Our culture is younger and I think it’s gonna happen. I think it’s very much happened in the South Bay in the last 20 years. But the idea that beauty is an essential ingredient to life is really important and we know beauty.
they often will say is not objective, not subjective, what have you. Look, we know when we look at something, know scale, proportion, we understand the relationships. We find beauty in an amazing flower vase or beauty in a violin in the curve or the human figure.
We are, you know, deep in our DNA is an ability to appreciate things that are beautiful. And we do the same thing with buildings. We do it with homes. We know instantly if something is pleasing to the eye. We also know instantly with something isn’t. There’s a lot of stuff in between and they could be very subjective. There’s no question. But the fundamentals of scale, massing, proportion are inert to us. And I think that it’s
it’s incumbent upon us to create beautiful objects. So when we look at a home, we often look at it as a sculpture, as something. And we look at it as proportion and scale, materiality and being authentic and genuine with the materials. These are the things that survive the test of time. These are the things that make these homes something that
Constance (40:58.766)
you
Grant Kirkpatrick (41:02.793)
know, decades and decades from now will still be pleasing to the eye. And, you know, so I think it was a great question. I love that. actually did a TED talk called the Beauty Switch, where I talk about that in a little more detail. You only have about 12 minutes in that platform, but that allows you to condense it down to to get the point across quickly. But I do argue that beauty is essential, that
Constance (41:08.418)
Yeah.
Grant Kirkpatrick (41:32.165)
without beauty, much like water, air, or love, we would cease to exist as human beings.
Constance (41:41.336)
That’s very exciting. So your work is beauty and beyond, and then it’s legacy. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. And we appreciate all the beauty you’ve added to our different environments. Thank you so much, Grant Kirkpatrick.
Grant Kirkpatrick (41:58.107)
It’s been my pleasure. Thank you.
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