Lake/Flato (Contemporary World Architects)

Lake/Flato (Contemporary World Architects)

Winner of the 2004 AIA Firm of the Year Award, Lake/Flato has been designing practical buildings since 1984. These are buildings whose ingenuity and craftsmanship merge tradition with new technologies. Their work seeks a modern vernacular yet builds upon the traditions of regional architecture by adapting local materials and craft to build well-sited structures that recognize the need for comfort and a strong connection to nature.As William Turnbull wrote in his foreword for Lake/Flato?s 1996 monograph, "nothing sensual or exotic, no visual fireworks of fashion, just architecture that intrigues the mind, delights the soul, and refreshes the eye with its elegant detail and simplicity".About the AuthorTed Flato and David Lake grew up in Texas. David Lake received a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976. Inspired by professor Pliny Fisk's sustainable designs, he moved to the Texas panhandle and built modern sod-buster houses for farmers who enjoyed the notion of cows grazing on the roof. Ted Flato received a B.A. in Architecture at Stanford University where he was strongly influenced by William Turnbull's enthusiastic sensitivity to site and context. Ted returned to his ancestral home of Central Texas, where he began applying these principles in the design of goat pens, houses, and a small-town bank. David and Ted received their tutelage in regional design and the craft of architecture at Ford Powell & Carson in San Antonio, Texas.