Ben has focused much of his career on blending craft-driven design with strategic project management. Working across typologies, he has contributed to the The Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall in New York, mixed-use developments in China, as well as an Arts and Humanities Building at CSU Monterey Bay with WRNS. Ben’s design approach is characterized by intellectual mobility. Moving between design charrettes and technical coordination, and incorporating the use of digital software paired with hand sketches, he brings a forethought to every problem to see the design concept realized in the built work. Ben spends his free time on smaller-scale projects, creating award-winning lighting and furniture design, something that began while pursing his Bachelor of Architecture at Cal Poly and Master of Architecture at UCLA. This work supports his larger-scale efforts at WRNS, providing an opportunity to explore materials and tectonics with manual and digital tools.
Ben’s career is diverse, spanning scales and market sectors and geographic regions, and he enjoys cultivating this breadth of experience. No matter the context, the search for innovation is his true North — the unifying theme that connects all of his work. He thrives on creating spaces that are authentic experiences, reflective of the communities they serve. Ben believes strongly in an inclusive process as a means of achieving contextual, environmental and regional authenticity, because a building’s users have much to teach. They help him to reimagine space and the ways people occupy it.