ROOTS, DEEDS, and FEATS
James Brown, FAIA
James Brown is Principal of Public Architecture and Planning. His career spans the fields of furniture making, public and gallery art, architecture and design/build. James feels that these fields “complement, inform and cajole each other as well as ultimately strengthen the design solution.” He believes in the credo of Roots, Deeds, and Feats: Roots — remember your history and build upon it … Deeds — give to your community and colleagues … Feats — attempt the improbable from time to time. These ideals are keenly reflected in his work.
One of James’s numerous projects, Bread & Salt, is located in Logan Heights, near downtown San Diego. The 40,000-sf building, which dates to 1896, was formerly Weber’s Bread Factory. The name “Bread & Salt” represents a nod to the building’s history, and is considered a traditional welcoming of guests. Central to the scheme of Bread & Salt is providing workspace for the area’s craftspeople and artists. This is a space where artists move in to showcase their work as a part of the Bread & Salt project. It is a design hub where artists, architects, and designers come to experiment and understand the artspace.
In the Little Italy Neighborhood Development (LIND) project, the City of San Diego selected a group of San Diego architects including James, Rob Quigley, Ted Smith, Robin Brisebois, Lloyd Russell, and Jonathan Segal, to envision what a city block could be at its best, setting a model of development for future projects to emulate. The project divided the whole-block parcel into micro-lots. The six different architect/developer teams worked together to allow views, sunlight, and open interior courtyards to emerge. The project won a Directors Award for Housing Development Excellence through the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development.
In 2008, James was one of ten candidates selected to receive the prestigious Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. The Loeb Fellowship is a one-year program designed for civic leaders, journalists, architects, technologists, urban planners and designers, activists, landscape architects, policymakers, and public artists, who come to Harvard from around the world with the purpose of study and exploration to make the world a better place for everyone. During his year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, James wrote about and designed a bi-national city and park set on the Pacific Ocean at Friendship Park on the border between the US and Mexico, where San Diego and Tijuana meet. At the end of the year, the Loeb Fellowship expects its participants to return to their home cities and take on a leadership position in initiating change. The work James prepared while a Loeb Fellow was featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla. This coming week-end (October 2019), James will be hosting past and current Loeb Fellows on a Study Tour that will both highlight the San Diego/Tijuana Region and focus on experiences and opportunities.