Common Works Architects and Katherine Hogan Architects

In this video, two of the winning firms present their work at the first evening of the 2023 Emerging Voices online lecture series. 

Asa Highsmith, founder of Oklahoma City’s Common Works Architects, presents his firm’s projects and his search for an aesthetic language that works within the budget and material constraints of the not quite Midwestern yet not quite Southern state. Highsmith briefly shares his research into the area’s architectural history, proposing the 1930’s and 1940’s kit homes as source material for developing a new vernacular for the area. 

Speaking about a variety of realized and ongoing projects, Katherine Hogan and Vincent Petrarca, the principals of North Carolina-based Katherine Hogan Architects, demonstrate their firm’s expansive approach to architecture, an approach that often requires them to act as the developers, fundraisers, and builders of their own projects. Hogan and Petrarca also share their recent work on large scale public projects, including Farmworker Housing Prototype, a transferable model of farmworker housing developed in collaboration with 30 seasonal workers in western North Carolina. 

The presentations are followed by a conversation with Marie Law Adams, a founding partner of Landing Studio. The conversation delves into the joys and pains each firm member experiences in the course of their practice.