For the June 2015 issue of Azure magazine I profiled the Norwegian-American architecture firm Snøhetta. The article posted online earlier this week:
http://www.azuremagazine.com/article/snohetta-ryerson-toronto-san-francisco-oslo-new-york/
It seemed a perfect time to take a deeper look at the firm as it moves into its third decade. In the past year, Snøhetta opened its first two buildings in Canada – Queen's University's Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, in Kingston, and Ryerson University's Student Learning Centre, on Yonge Street in Toronto. I visited both buildings, and in February I also attended the opening of the firm's third office on 8th Street in San Francisco, joining an office in New York and the flagship in Oslo.
I had a fun time meeting the firm's two principals, Kjetil Traedal Thorsen and Craig Dykers. True story: Craig invited my wife to attend the office opening party in San Francisco, and I asked him what she should wear. "Tell her to come naked. That ought to cause a stir."
At the party, we drank a local porter on tap and ate Señor Sisig filipino-mex tacos from a food truck while a disco ball spun from the office's rafters. I heard from more than one Snøhetta staffer that their beloved leader Craig had a history of "losing" his pants at office parties. My wife, bless her soul, kept her shirt and pants on all night. It was a great party.