We create thoughtful, distinctive architecture by turning the specific challenges of each project into clear and unexpected solutions.
Approach
At its best, architecture changes how people live, feel, and relate to one another. In this sense, we believe all architecture is public.
PBLC is an architecture studio based in Los Angeles, practicing globally across residential, workplace, cultural, and speculative projects.
Founded on the conviction that form is most powerful when it emerges from the precise conditions of a site, a program, a client, or an idea – we have developed a body of work defined not by a predetermined aesthetic, but by a consistency of inquiry. Each project starts from the same place: finding the question worth asking.
Objectives
We treat every project as a research problem. Structure, circulation, material, and form are never resolved independently but developed as a single, integrated proposition – one that responds to the full complexity of its context without being overwhelmed by it. We embrace meticulous, holistic thinking that draws inspiration from the unexpected corners of everywhere.
This process, radical creativity applied to research, produces buildings that are uncommonly attentive to the specific, equally precise and unexpected. Our ultimate aim is architecture that is rigorous in conception, exacting in execution, and capable of offering richer spatial experiences over time.
Steven Christensen
Principal, AIA NCARB LEED AP
Steven Christensen is an architect and founder of PBLC. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he has taught design, construction, and representation at the University of Michigan and UCLA, and has served as an invited critic at institutions including Harvard, SCI-Arc, USC, Woodbury, Michigan, and Cambridge. Before establishing his independent practice, he worked on widely published and exhibited projects for Preston Scott Cohen, Gensler, and CORE. His work is shaped by parallel interests in architecture and psychology, and by an ongoing interest in how geometry, perception, and use intersect in the experience of buildings. His projects have been widely published, exhibited, and recognized through awards from The Architectural Review, Architizer, The Architect’s Newspaper, Architect, AZURE, Interior Design, and the AIA.
Awards
Honor
Project
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Contributors
PBLC could never have created the work that we have without the contributions of our incredibly talented team members. This list includes all of the people who have contributed their talent and effort to our projects, present and past.
Publications
