Eric Owen Moss Architects

For nearly three decades, Eric Owen Moss Architects has been at work transforming the former industrial area of the Hayden Tract in Culver City, California into one of the most highly concentrated centers of architectural experimentation in the world. ‘Eric Owen Moss Architects/3585’, the ninth volume in the ‘Source Books in Architecture’ series, offers a unique look into the mind and method of one of the most important architects working today through comprehensive presentation of three schemes his office designed for a single site in the Hayden Tract since 1991.
Beginning with an illuminating discussion of his development as an architect from his student days at the University of California, Berkeley and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Moss recounts the intellectual odyssey of his forty-year career, outlining his unique stance with respect to the theoretical complexities of literature, philosophy, and cultural sources, and the tangible complexities of bureaucratic and fiscal constraints of local and intranational politics, real estate development, and the gritty nature of the construction industry. His specific engagement of these diverse issues is revealed in a comprehensive presentation of Moss’s designs for 3585 Hayden Avenue over a twenty-five year period—the Hayden Tower of 1991, the Ten Towers proposal of 1999, and the recently completed Cactus Tower and Waffle, completed in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Each of these projects is presented with a wealth of sketches, drawings, models, renderings, and working drawings from the EOMA archive, as well as extensive photographic documentation of the construction process and completed buildings, providing valuable insight into the cultural and technical complexities at the heart of Moss’s provocative architecture.
‘Source Books in Architecture’ is a product of the Herbert Baumer seminars, a series of interactions between students and seminal practitioners at the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University. Following a significant amount of research, students lead discussions that encourage the architects to reveal their architectural motivations and techniques.