Lawrence Scarpa

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, is a principal of the Santa Monica-based architecture firm Pugh + Scarpa, along with Gwynne Pugh, AIA, and Angela Brooks, AIA. Pugh + Scarpa is an architecture, engineering, interior design, and planning firm founded in 1991. 

Scarpa received both his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Florida. He has taught and lectured at the university level at numerous institutions, including the University of California at Los Angeles, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Florida, Mississippi State University, and SCI-arc. He was the 2009 E. Fay Jones Visiting Professor at the University of Arkansas, the 2008 Ruth and James Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University, the 2007 Eliel Saarinen Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, 2005 Max Fisher Visiting Professor at Taubman College of Architecture at the University of Michigan, and the 2004 Freidman Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a co-founder of Livable Places, Inc., a nonprofit development and public policy organization dedicated to building mixed-use housing on under-utilized and problematic parcels of land.

Over the last ten years, Mr. Scarpa has received 48 major design awards, including 16 National AIA Awards, the 2005 Record Houses, the 2003 Record Interiors, the 2003 Rudy Bruner Prize, the 2006 and 2003 AIA COTE “Top Ten Green Building” awards, and was a finalist for the World Habitat Award, one of ten firms selected worldwide. In 2004, The Architectural League of New York selected him as an “Emerging Voice” in architecture. His work was recently exhibited at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. He has been Featured in NEWSWEEK and appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." In 2009, Interior Design honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010, Pugh+Scarpa was awarded the National and State Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects.

The National Building Museum provides biographies of speakers, program participants, and exhibition subjects. Learn more about our programs and lectures.