More than 15 years ago, David Montalba launched Montalba Architects, which now has offices in Los Angeles and Switzerland. Since then, the company has expanded from three to 50 team members. Here, the architect discusses how his upbringing direct him toward his current profession, why he made the decision to branch out with his own practice, and the importance of wellness in hospitality and beyond.
Where did you grow up? Did it influence your career?
I spent my time between Lausanne, Switzerland, Carmel, California, and Southern California, which hugely influenced my path into design and architecture. Having spent most of my formative years in towns and cities full of new and old forms of architecture, history, culture of design, and the arts, the inherent need developed in me to infuse the craft with a humanistic approach and pursue a career in the industry.
What are some of your first design memories?
As a young kid, I would often reorient the furniture in my room and feel the impact it had on the experience and my day-to-day being. Although this was somewhat simple, it was extremely formative, and even as an 8 year old, I owned it.
I attended grade school at Carmel Missions and Junipero Serra School, which is within one of the original California Missions. Although not the modern building that we would typically craft today, its impact on my perception of design was profound. It was originally built in 1797 and was an amazing compound, with colonnades, massive walls, and courtyard gardens throughout the campus. Its spaces also had a very intentional play with natural light, which still drives a lot of our work today. The timelessness and clarity of intent was really impactful to me as I explored the campus. The result certainly integrated ideas of architecture, landscape, history, spirituality, and other concepts that, later in life, would influence me. Design is holistic and its presence is in almost everything we do.
Birdie G’s restaurant, designed by Montalba Architects, in Santa Monica, California
Tell us about your background: college, first jobs, early lessons learned.
During my first year of pre-architecture university in California, I had the idea to interview several architectural firms. I naively called each firm and requested to do an interview with the principals. My deeper motivation was to better understand the profession and decide if I truly wanted to pursue it in my life. I walked into the design offices with my small reporter’s notebook, which I still have today, full of questions about design, practice, and what life would be like as an architect. The last firm I met with, Fehlman Labarre Architects (a small eight-person company), offered me a summer job. I didn’t hesitate in accepting and was thrilled to have such a new unexpected purpose. I was 18 or 19 at the time and enjoyed every minute of the mentorship and exposure to graphic arts, architecture, landscape, and urban design. I learned how to listen, be thoughtful, and consider the context of design. It was very fortunate experience with a great group of people that I still cherish to this day.
Upon completion of my Bachelor of Architecture at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles, I worked for several design-driven practices in the area, including Frank Gehry, Rios Associates, and Pugh Scarpa, and learned varying perspectives in everything from large-scale corporate buildings to smaller design-oriented projects, which gave me a much better sense of the diversity of design and the need for us, as designers, to make things happen.
When did you decide to launch Montalba Architects?
I had started a prior practice with a partner, and we had different values as to what and how we should be practicing. There was a point where I felt it didn’t make sense to compromise my integrity, and it was clear that, sink or swim, it was important to take the risk. I was 34 at the time and started Montalba Architects with three staff members in 2004. With a newfound alignment and ability to move swiftly as a design value-based practice centered around developing a strong culture, we began to flourish within a couple years with 10, then 20, then 40 employees, and today we are in two offices, Los Angeles and Lausanne, with a staff of approximately 50 people. Ultimately, we are here today for the same reasons—to impact design, our projects, and develop our own design culture within the firm.
The 73-room Nobu Hotel Palo Alto in California’s Silicon Valley
Can you discuss some of your recent hospitality projects?
We’ve been working on one of Nobu Hotel’s latest urban outposts in Palo Alto, California. The eight-story project features restaurants and bar experiences, along with the lobby, conference rooms, and guest suites, and is focused on a unique garden space within an urban environment. It’s a future-forward business hotel that balances wellness and sustainability in the heart of Silicon Valley.
We also recently completed work on Whitepod, Zen Suite, an eco-luxury resort in the Swiss Alps, which has 18 individual geodesic domes, called pods, that borrow materials and forms of the natural world. The design of the Zen Suite was inspired by the concept of Zen, as well as Wu Ting movement theory, which postulates that ‘everything is connected, everything is energy.’ Additionally, we just wrapped on Birdie G’s, a new restaurant in historic Bergamot Station where our Los Angeles office is located. The space was once part of a railroad depot and formerly housed the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
What role does wellness play in your projects?
Wellness is woven into each of our projects, whether it’s achieving flow, balancing natural light, or crafting moments of pause. These core principles ultimately come back to elevating the experience of design—albeit those are our design principles. In the hospitality projects we are working on, wellness is also now being driven by program and unique interpretations of ownership groups and clients, which are also operational, such as mediation, awareness of outdoor contemplative spaces, and self-care initiatives. Now more than ever, design should emphasize moments of pause and simplicity to further elevate a sense of wellbeing within hospitable spaces.
The Zen suite at Whitepod eco-luxury resort in the Swiss Alps
What do you find are the most challenging and exciting aspects of your job?
They say time is a construct, but there certainly isn’t enough of it in a day. Whether that’s to connect with our teams, nurture one-on-one relationships, or ensure we have the impactful presence and guidance to projects, time is ticking. Of course, there’s a positive side to time being such a challenge, it means our impact is growing and our team is expanding their expertise, which is one of the most exciting aspects of our practice.
What is your dream project?
One of the reasons we love hospitality is that it folds programs of the home, escape, and food together. Ultimately, we see most projects as being a collage of programs that fuse ideas of flow, pause, collection, and simplicity. The idea of doing a museum campus or an art/gallery-driven hotel or resort that integrates ideas of residential, hospitality, and collections within a landscape is our dream project.
If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
Although there are people I have interest in better understanding historically—like JFK, Churchill, Matisse, Giacometti, Louis Kahn, and Donald Judd—it’s really as simple as my mom who passed away a few years ago and was, unquestionably, the most important person in my life.
If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing?
Stay-at-home dad, or perhaps a winemaker or living in the landscape.
