Brett Rhode featured in austin business journal

August 19, 2024

The firm’s Founding Partner and Design Director, Brett Rhode, recently sat down with Cody Baird of Austin Business Journal for an interview. They discussed Rhode’s background in New York working for I. M. Pei & Partners and Philip Johnson as well as his design philosophy. “We've got to look forward,” says Rhode, regarding his perspective on design. “I think the past gives us an allure of comfort that gets in the way of discovery and of having ideas and solutions that address emotional and practical needs.” Baird and Rhode discussed his earlier work in town with the Austin Convention Center and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, but also the key projects finished in the last few years – The Loren at Lady Bird Lake, The Independent, and The Linden— that highlight the firm’s approach to design in a rapidly changing city – using timeless materials and embracing new building technologies.

While Rhode looks to architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Louis Kahn, Jeanne Gang, and I. M. Pei for inspiration, he considers his mentors to be his children. “Hearing about their world just gives me a lot of hope but it also gives me a lot of guidance about what we should be doing,” Rhode says. “The world's changing, so I look to them.”

The interview with Austin Business Journal can be found here.