Los Angeles
The Los Angeles architecture and interior design firm Woods + Dangaran was founded in 2013 by Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran. Having established a reputation as torchbearers of smart, soulful contemporary design rooted in the principles of classic 20th-century modernist architecture, the partners are straightforward about their approach and ambition: “We create modern homes through dialogue and exploration. We design holistically and at every scale. Our projects are subtle and disciplined, pure in form, and focused on realizing a sublime experience of space and light. Each building is a carefully curated journey through indoor and outdoor spaces.” In addition to recently completing houses in LA and Bend, Oregon, the firm is currently working on residential projects across Southern California as well as Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Texas. A boutique hotel in Apple Valley, Utah, is also on the boards. woodsdangaran.com —Mayer Rus
Years
Los Angeles
Tyler Polich and Jessica Jimenez Keenan launched their Los Angeles–based design practice, Years, in 2022 with impeccable professional pedigrees. Polich’s résumé includes stints at the AD100 firms The Archers, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, while Jimenez Keenan cut her teeth at Elizabeth Roberts Architects and Studio Shamshiri (also AD100 stalwarts). Considering their deep immersion in design history and the wealth of artful, unexpected sources they reference, it’s no surprise that the partners describe their approach in poetic terms: “Years is a design studio in service to possibility, how rooms and buildings might cradle the experiences of people in them yet stay attuned—and permeable—to climate, light, whims, life. We believe that design has the potential to reach beyond the rational, the perfect photograph, winningly out of register with the status quo.” Following their debut with a sensational house in Costa Rica (AD, May 2024), Polich and Jimenez Keenan are currently finishing a gut renovation of a Brooklyn town house, a midcentury remodel in LA, and a barn conversion in Hopewell, New Jersey. years-studio.com —Mayer Rus
Young Projects
New York
“There is always something to react to,” says Bryan Young, the founding principal of this multidisciplinary firm, which works at the intersection of architecture, interiors, landscapes, and furniture. Alongside partners Noah Marciniak and Mallory Shure, Young challenges staid notions of a blank slate—drawing on client wishes and the idiosyncrasies of setting to create conceptually resolved buildings. Strong geometries predominate, whether the sweeping roofline of a Dominican Republic vacation home (AD, July/August 2021) or the internal grid of a New Orleans Creole cottage (AD, April 2024). So too do material experiments, among them concrete formed by felled palms, panels of pulled plaster, and tiles that conflate real and imagined shadows. “How can we construct productive ambiguity?” muses Young, cofounder of Verso gallery. The results, at scales large and small, are designs that dazzle the eye and stimulate the mind. young-projects.com —Sam Cochran
