by Michael Bruntz
Michael Maltzan architecture is adding the Mashouf Performing Arts Center to an impressive portfolio that includes the Billy Wilder Theater at the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Harvard- Westlake Feldman-Horn Center for the Arts.
What three words best describe The Mashouf Performing Arts Center?
Progressive, accessible, interactive.
What appealed to you about designing this project at SF State?
It was the goal the University has of creating a new model for interdisciplinary education -- the idea that different disciplines do not exist in their own little silos but are integrated.
What first inspired your interest in architecture?
Growing up, my best friend's father was a product designer and I spent a lot of time at his house. My friend and I would comb through his father's books, catalogs and magazines and we would create drawings of rooms and then clip out images in the magazines and populate these spaces with the clippings. I was starting to imagine what architecture could be.
What's been the proudest moment in your career?
That I actually decided to start my practice. I didn't realize it at the time, but making that first step and having the courage to start in a creative enterprise is a real leap and instrumental to anybody who has ever done something significant in the creative arts.
How does it feel to finally step inside the finished product?
It's exciting the day that the doors open and you see every- body in the building, but the most significant moment for me is very often the day before the opening. When it isn't filled with people yet and you get a chance to walk through for the last time on your own and the building is filled with anticipation and possibility.
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