Five Minutes: Johnson Favaro's Steve Johnson

Johnson Favaro, an architecture firm based in Culver City, has recently snagged a $1.2 million design contract to renovate and rejuvenate the Manhattan Beach Public Library. With projects across the Greater Los Angeles Area, several notable ones include the Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Yerkovich Production Studios and the Beverly Hills Library. A founding member of Johnson Favaro, Steve Johnson agreed to answer several questions about the firm, its style and its future.

Culver City Patch: What initially attracted you to architecture?

Steve Johnson: I have wanted to design buildings since I was in elementary school. Probably a typical story, but I was drawn to drawings of buildings, particularly three-dimensional drawings. I remember in grade school seeing a cut-away axonometric of the White House in a magazine, cut it out and spent hours comparing photographs of the building to this view, trying to figure out the plan of the building.

As I grew older, I was certain I wanted to be involved with making things and making things that stayed around for a long time. And gradually as all architects do, you come to love cities and how buildings and streets and parks form cities and that the shape and quality of our cities is one of the best ways to ensure individual happiness and prosperity. Architects are central to making that happen.

Patch: Your website features more cultural, civic and educational projects than any others. Why is that?

Johnson: Schools and libraries are building types that have the most profound impact on communities and neighborhoods. When I think back as to what formed me from the beginning, my interests and my point of view, the quality of buildings or sometimes the lack of quality has played an enormous role in civilizing me or guiding me. My partner Jim Favaro and I can think of no better way to spend our time than repairing or putting in place for the first time these significant community landmarks that have such a huge impact on people of all ages.

If you look at the Carnegie Libraries at the turn of the last century, I think what is remarkable about them is that while small in stature they had an enormous presence in the towns they were built in. I think the best evidence of that is that even though many of those libraries have been succeeded by larger libraries built later, those Carnegie buildings without exception almost always remain the most beloved building in the community. That is because they did more with architecture than house books and desks and librarians. They actually were probably the finest buildings built by the community for the community.

Patch: On your website alone, you have more than 35 projects—some in progress, some finished. Are there any special projects that you hold especially dear?

Johnson: The Pasadena Museum of California Art—we are very proud that out of humble beginnings the building has played a part in forming a now well-regarded institution with a very long life ahead of it. 

The Price Galleries: For an architect it is like red meat to a lion to have the opportunity to work with a client who is both a patron of artists and a perfectionist. These buildings are small jewels on a remarkable site.

Los Angeles Trade Technical College: Most gratifying to place a new landmark for a long overlooked community college/trade school. The buildings have been a catalyst for neighborhood re-development and perhaps most important the new buildings have made students proud of their school and happy to be considered important enough to deserve good architecture.

Patch: Many of your designs feature sweeping white walls and large windows to match. Why is that? In general, how would you describe your style?

Johnson: We are interested in architecture that is neither "modern" nor "traditional," it neither waxes nostalgic about yesterday nor pretends to determine a future over which we have no control. Our projects have been crafted to project civility, hospitality and durability in a way that nevertheless reflects the way that we aspire to live now—relaxed not formal, tempered not hysterical, dignified not pompous. We oblige ourselves and the community we serve to create an architecture that is of its time and that will stand the test of time.

For those reasons, we are drawn to the architecture that is historically prevalent in a dry Mediterranean climate like southern California– broad white simple surfaces that change in the California light and are memorable against the often brilliant blue sky. We believe in the substance of those buildings and so are very careful in composing openings that are indeed large, but do not destroy or break up too much the surface expression. It really is the old-fashioned balancing of solid and void, certainly a time-honored tool of composition.

Patch: Do you have any upcoming projects in the Culver City area? If yes, what are they? 

Johnson: We do not have any upcoming projects in the Culver City area, but are always looking. We are certainly very interested in the area of our office at the eastern edge of Culver City near the new transit stop. This area has been an area of remarkable change in the last few years and we think that is going to continue. We would love to be a part of something here. 

Patch: I have noticed that you have many library projects in your repertoire. Why is that? Do libraries hold a special significance for you?

Johnson: Libraries are in some circles seen as irrelevant or unnecessary. We do not for a second believe that and are out to prove that libraries should be compelling places to be. I think the Brave New World idea that we can all telecommunicate from our homes in our pajamas is a fallacy.

I think the evidence of the popularity and evolution of large library systems in the world support that view. Few other building types in our cities can represent in physical form the maturation of a city, the culture of a city.

There really is no other kind of place in a very diverse, wealthy, intelligent, creative city that you can gather together as a community without shopping or eating as the primary activity. What better way to gather than around ideas and thoughts and words and community action?  Libraries support and nurture that.