Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary studio Built Inc. is a design-build firm founded by artist and designer John M. Sofio. With a portfolio of more than 400 projects throughout the country, the firm’s work spans commercial, residential, and branding realms. Here, Sofio talks about his artistic beginnings in New York, recent and upcoming projects, and the importance of executing a singular thought.
Did you always know you wanted to be a designer?
I was born an artist and a creator and was able to express my ideas through photography at a young age. This early adoption of a creative medium taught me how to visualize an idea prior to its creation.
What are some of your first memories of design?
My parents were originally from [New York’s] Lower East Side and Hell’s Kitchen and when they migrated east to the suburbs in the early ’70s, they instilled a sense of hope and potential in me through their newfound love of suburban modernism. Our living and dining rooms were the showcase of their modernist ideas and dreams. My father painted a large graphic stripe in orange, yellow, and white across the longest room in our house, while my mother slowly curated the rooms in Italian modern New York décor.
Did where you grew up influence your career path?
I was influenced by the energy of the Lower East Side in the late ’70s and early ’80s. It was a time of change and confusion and definition. High energy ruled the nights through this experience of confusion. I photographed my way through the New York nights discovering the people and social cultures that lived side by side, day and night. I have formed a critical thought process, analyzing the dualities of life and have focused my goals to be aligned with discovery and explanation.
Give us a bit of your background: college, first jobs, early lessons learned?
I have been working since my parents moved to the suburbs and purchased an Italian pasta shop on Long Island. My first job was mopping the floors at seven years old, wringing the mop out in the sink with my hands because they wouldn’t spend the extra money on a mop bucket. From here, I watched my parents grow a small business into a successful entrepreneurial venture. The ethic of work was instilled in me throughout these years, but the importance of art and creating never left me. Spending a few years between colleges on the Upper West Side in the mid ’80s exposed me to a growing urban art movement led by the original hip-hop graffiti writers and artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Determined to participate in this movement, I began my journey to become a commercially viable artist. I chose architecture as my medium; this choice has allowed me to use my skills of foresight, perception, and visualization that I developed as a photographer in my earlier life. Acquiring an architectural degree from the New York Institute of Technology in 1990, I emigrated west in search of New American Design.
Why and how did you start your own firm?
Surviving through the deep economic recession of the early ’90s, I freelanced my skills into an established structure: Built Inc. With this true design-build concept, I began to control a visualized environment from conception through execution, allowing me to create and design as I constructed.
Can you discuss some of your recent projects?
I recently built and designed the Nice Guy, an abstract concept of a social club for the “friends of ours” in Los Angeles. It has become a popular celebrity locale. We just completed the new Bootsy Bellows in West Hollywood, where we worked to refine and define the brand in order to allow us to expand this concept to other national and international markets.
I own a small artisan coffee roasting company called Cafecito Organico and have used this business as an opportunity to express branding and design ideas. With five locations currently, I have been able to explore retail design and the adaptability of the brand by connecting the diverse communities of Southern California intimately with the company. Our Malibu space has a clean and cool feel, while our Silver Lake location engages the bohemian hipster set. Our Costa Mesa space welcomes the indie SoCal mindset while our location at the vintage Anaheim Packing House is designed to pay homage to the historic nature of the building. The continuity of the brand successfully lives throughout each space.
Is there a challenging project that you are especially proud of?
Recently, I’ve been tapped by three development companies looking for a strong, independent thinker from the design world. Each is working on the development of shopping center projects located throughout Southern California. Being chosen by them to offer my ideas somehow feels like the apex of my journey to become a creator.
What are you looking forward to at your office?
The expansion of our hospitality work, including hotel properties in San Francisco and Chicago as well as nightclubs in Vegas and Dubai, which are in the works.
What do you find are the most challenging and exciting aspects of your job?
Hospitality projects require strict deadlines and, as the constructor of my own ideas, the poetry of creation and execution is tenuous, foreboding, and inspiring.
What is the most important thing to remember when designing a restaurant—both in terms of branding and interiors?
Executing a singular thought. The alignment of the brand, icon, logo, exterior, interior, and F&B culminating into the consumer’s experience is critical. Design through committee waters down a concept quickly. The singular thought must be protected throughout the execution of the project. The results are unquestionable and strong.
Is there an architect or designer you most admire? Why?
The organic modernism of Albert Frey and John Lautner has influenced the early years of my work in the temperate climate of Los Angeles. The desert modernism and minimalism of Frey’s work in Palm Spring showed me the possibilities of connecting man to his environment through design, while Lautner’s work in [LA’s] Silver Lake showed me the way to express a utopian hope for the future through design.
What would be your dream project and why?
I would like to create a destination far away from major cities, where creativity through art prospers.
If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
I would love to have a conversation between Ayn Rand, Edward Bernays, and John F. Kennedy. We would discuss man’s limitations and dreams.
Where would you eat?
We would eat at the top of the World Trade Center, overlooking the future of New York, in the year 1976.
