Peter Tolkin + Sarah Lorenzen Architecture (working under the moniker TOLO Architecture) design projects that are meaningful to the people that use them, and that are reflective of the time and place in which they are built.
We work out of a renovated warehouse at the nexus of the Arts District, Little Tokyo and Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. First founded by Peter Tolkin in 2000, our studio has designed and built projects of various types and scales, including creative workspaces, single and multi-family housing, mixed-use and retail, restaurants and hotels, and arts-based projects. As a collection, the work is formally and aesthetically varied given that we strive to respond to the particularities of a project’s location and given our emphasis on engaging clients as active participants in the design process.
TOLO’s designs draw from the rich material and cultural conditions that characterize the world we live in. Rather than conceiving our architectural role as primarily inventors of form, we also see our role as one that interprets and shapes relationships and situations. We believe that similar criteria apply to the design of a building as to the development of a visual concept for an exhibition. Design solutions in both are created to communicate a story through spatial and graphic means. The specific media and narrative device used depends on the intended audience and setting. Often our design process starts with us constructing a narrative about the project, which is then combined with relevant cultural, material, and aesthetic references (be they from the fine arts or from popular culture). This method of working allows us to connect site fragments, materials, textures, sounds, emotions, and images to arrive at an architecture that is representative of our multifaceted needs.
