hughes umbanhowar architects (huum) is the creative union of Scott Hughes and John Umbanhowar, whose trajectories intersected while students at SCI-Arc in the mid-nineties. A full-service architectural firm with roots in South Florida and Southern California for over 30 years, huum responds to each project with extensive research in related architectural fields, material, craft, and environment for unique solutions as varied as the individuals or groups the designs were intended.
Excellence in design engages all the senses; beyond seeing excellence, you feel it when you are in its presence. Critics have come to appreciate that the architecture of Scott Hughes produces just such an emotional reaction. Despite locating his studio far from the media centres of the architectural community, awareness of Scott’s work has rippled out beyond south Florida to achieve national attention and the interest of architectural thought leaders on both coasts. His uniquely creative and imaginative designs, blending form with the program, have resulted in such widely documented projects as BEACH ROAD 2, recognized in 2012 as one of the 100 most important Florida Buildings of the last 100 years. The Wall Street Journal declared SKI HOUSE H2O as the “definitive modern Florida home”. Since the firm’s founding in 2000, Scott has been recognized over thirty (30) times for “Design Excellence” by his peers in the American Institute of Architects. Scott is quick to acknowledge the benefits derived from his exposure to some of the masters of 20th Century architecture. This experience includes working in collaboration with Phillip Johnson late in his career and completing his thesis at SCI-Arc under the direction of the office of Frank Gehry.
John Umbanhowar AIA, LEED AP, is the Los Angeles-based founder and principal of hughes umbanhowar Architects (huum). Umbanhowar was raised in rural Minnesota before arriving in Los Angeles in 1994, where he received his Master of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture/SCI-Arc.His design process reveals compelling ideas which produce robust solutions; derived through cross-field investigations in materials, technology, and the natural and social sciences. He has been the recipient of multiple AIA awards and furniture design awards.Umbanhowar oversees huum work and projects from beginning to end, schematic design through completion of construction and post-occupancy. Umbanhowar has been integral in several historically significant Los Angeles building projects during his career. He has collaborated with artists on projects that blur the line between architecture and art. He frequently speaks on architecture and design in Los Angeles and is actively involved in its cultural community.
