Hopson Rodstrom Design Co.
Cover: Hopson Rodstrom Design Co. | The Jagger, Los Angeles, CA, 2023. Image credit: Paul Vu, Here and Now Agency. Video editor: Darlena Chiem
The Architectural League’s biennial Emerging Voices program spotlights North American architects, landscape architects, and urban designers who have significant bodies of realized work and the potential to influence their field.
Nick Hopson and Klara Rodstrom of Hopson Rodstrom Design Co. are 2026 Emerging Voices winners.
Hopson Rodstrom Design Co. focuses on a wide range of housing typologies, including single-family, multi-family, transitional housing, and community spaces at a variety of scales. With each design, Hopson Rodstrom Design Co. aims to balance playfulness with sincerity through creative use of material, color, light, and texture. Founded in Los Angeles in 2015 by Nick Hopson and Klara Rodstrom and primarily working in Southern California, the firm’s work is shaped by local context and stakeholders and guided by the belief in “the power of dialogue, collaboration, and respect for diverse experiences and perspectives,” in the firm’s own words.
Projects include:
Project Legacy, a transitional housing complex incorporating a transformed collection of 1920’s bungalows, centered around a shared community garden and a community administration building with gym and laundry structures
The Jagger, a 74-unit mixed-use apartment building wrapped in a perforated facade that features a deep central courtyard and open common spaces at multiple levels, topped with a warehouse-inspired sawtooth roof
Mar Vista House No. 1, a private residence transformed from a small post-war bungalow, with timber beams running throughout the length of the building, wood and concrete finishes, and large expanses of sliding glass that open up the residence’s interior to the outside
Hopson Rodstrom Design Co.’s Mar Vista House No. 1 has been recognized with the AIA California Design Award and the AIA Los Angeles Residential Architecture Award in 2025; its Project Legacy received the Residential Architect Award from Architect Magazine and the AIA Los Angeles Residential Architecture Award in 2024.
Nick Hopson teaches at the California State Polytechnic Institute, Pomona. He holds a master’s of science in advanced architectural design from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and a bachelor’s of architecture from the University of Southern California School of Architecture.
Klara Rodstrom received a master’s of science degree in advanced architectural design from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and a bachelor’s of architecture from the University of Southern California School of Architecture.
