Green Retreat

Walter Scott Perry studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania during the 1960’s and was influenced by the late modern master, Louis I. Kahn who taught and often pondered ‘what a place wanted to be’ and created a timeless architecture using traditional materials applied to modern construction in a thoughtful, inspired way. Another major influence during a period of heightened social and environmental awareness and upheaval was that of Buckminster Fuller whose “whole systems thinking” philosophy and his writings concerning Spaceship Earth had a major impact on Mr. Perry’s future work. During the late 1960’s Mr. Perry worked in New York City as the designer/project architect on many corporate and academic projects, including the John Hancock Building, Boston, MA, Campus master planner for the State University of New York, Old Westbury, The Fisher Theater, Phillips Exeter Academy, multiple urban theaters, as well as brownstone renovations throughout the city. Moving to Santa Fe, NM in 1974, he practiced residential solar design using recycled materials and indigenous adobe, as part of the emerging passive solar design movement taking place after the 1972 middle-east oil embargo, in addition to managing the construction of America’s first laser-fusion laboratory in Los Alamos, NM. Practicing architecture in San Francisco, CA during the 1980’s, Mr. Perry designed and managed major sports facility projects at academic institutions, such as U.S.F. and Stanford University, in addition to the cutting edge, performing arts center in Reno, NV, the Sierra Center. He managed and coordinated the construction of Biosphere II in Tucson, AZ during the early 1990’s after moving to Los Angeles, as well as teaching architecture and lecturing at U.C.L.A., Cal Berkeley and Cal Poly Pomona. He holds B.A. and M. Arch. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. His current architecture practice, Ecotech Design was formed in 2001 and has specialized in pre- fab, pre-engineered steel construction and the integration of shipping containers with residential architecture since. Mr. Perry has received considerable press and design awards for the recently completed Geneseo Inn, a BNB which integrates containers and recycled, eco-friendly building materials and systems at Cass Winery in Paso Robles, CA. He is currently working on several, container residential projects in CA and NY.

SAA Arquitectura+Territorio, is an office founded by the architect Sergio Araneda in 2008, with headquarters in Puerto Varas, Patagonia of Chile. His work is marked by the interest in remote geographies, natural spaces, and the study of landscapes, which leads to collaborative and multidisciplinary work, exploring the concepts of place, structure and material expression, seeking in their relationship, the order of design. The studio understand architecture as a means that provokes, transforms and transcends the scope of people and their context, through the dialogue between environment, program and constructive technique, and in the possibilities of friction and encounter between architecture and territory.

Sebastian Schmaling is the Fitzhugh Scott Distinguished Professor in Practice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and founding principal of Johnsen Schmaling Architects, a design and research studio widely recognized as an important voice in contemporary American architecture and dedicated to architectural innovations and environmental sustainability. Schmaling grew up in Berlin and holds degrees from Technical University Berlin, the University of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Harvard. Johnsen Schmaling received the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York and was featured in Architectural Record’s Vanguard issue as one of ten “exceptional global architecture firms to watch.” The firm’s critically acclaimed work has garnered over 100 professional design awards here and abroad and will be the subject of the forthcoming monograph Johnsen Schmaling: On Rigor, published this fall by ORO Editions.

Brian Johnsen is the Fitzhugh Scott Distinguished Professor in Practice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and founding principal of Johnsen Schmaling Architects, a design and research studio widely recognized as an important voice in contemporary American architecture and dedicated to architectural innovations and environmental sustainability. Johnsen grew up in Chicago and received his Bachelor in Architectural Studies and a Master of Architecture from the University of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Johnsen Schmaling received the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York and was featured in Architectural Record’s Vanguard issue as one of ten “exceptional global architecture firms to watch.” The firm’s critically acclaimed work has garnered over 100 professional design awards here and abroad and will be the subject of the forthcoming monograph Johnsen Schmaling: On Rigor, published this fall by ORO Editions.