THinc: Striving to create spaces that reflect the client's needs, goals, stories and dreams, while simultaneously conscientious about the environmental, societal and economic impacts of each project; bringing an intentional AND strategic mindset when considering the balance between innovation and convention.
THE SHORT STORY
Formed in 2005 by husband-and-wife team, Ben Thorne and Eliza Howard, THinc is a full-service architecture and design firm located in Los Angeles, California.
THE LOVE STORY
Having first met at Yale during their undergraduate studies, Eliza and Ben reconnected after college when Eliza was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Ben was on his way to begin Architecture School at Rice University, with a stop over at his relatives to break up the drive. He reached out to Eliza, who coincidentally, had just given notice at her job at an art gallery, and was soon leaving to take an internship with an architecture firm in Boston. Ben’s intended brief visit to Santa Fe turned into a three night stay, followed by several months of old fashioned letter writing and travel between Boston and Houston. Needless today, Eliza applied to Rice and ended up in the same architecture degree program, in the class a year behind Ben.
THE BACK STORY
Drawing on their combined experience from their work in architecture firms in Boston, Houston, Colorado, and California, Ben and Eliza are well-equipped to design across a range of building conditions and complexities. Having worked in construction, Ben brings deep industry knowledge to every project. He also had the rare opportunity to collaborate with artist James Turrell on two significant Skyspace installations in the years following graduate school. Eliza brings a strong foundation in the History of Art and Architecture, developed through her undergraduate studies and her time working in the art world before graduate school. Ben is licensed in California; Eliza holds licensure in Colorado.
THE MAIN STORY
THinc’s work reflects a commitment to the unique and specific needs of each client, and a sensitivity to site as it relates to both context and climate. With each project, THinc engages in ongoing consideration of how the work connects to the larger community in which it exists, understanding community in both its broadest and most specific terms. Eliza and Ben approach each project with curiosity, and consider it both a job and privilege to help clients understand how they want to occupy space and place, how clients’ values are reflected in each project, and ultimately, how the building takes on a life of its own once inhabited and animated by use.
We are problem solvers, art lovers, world travelers, tree huggers, dog people and we LOVE a good hardware store!
