Above: Bolander’s office is 100 feet across a driveway from his home in Malibu.

While studying architecture you also learned to build furniture. How do those skills impact the buildings you design today? I still design some furniture and every once in a while even build something.  I think that designing and building furniture gave me a better sense of both material and assemblage, details of how different pieces (small in the case of furniture and larger with architecture) unite.

Above: The Mosquito table  and Hoist stool designed and fabricated by Bolander.

For the Whitehouse Chicago office I designed the edit desks, the reception desk and also a table that we ended up using both in the lunchroom/café as well as in the conference rooms and other meeting areas.

It is a simple plywood table that is built with just a couple of sheets of plywood and simple tools.  It is made of a top and two base pieces that all just key together.  To illustrate the table to the client I built a rough prototype myself in a few hours.

Lots of the furniture pieces I built were basically assemblage pieces; I spent lots of time searching for interesting objects and materials.  Like many architects I continue to look for interesting materials and methods of detailing all of the time.  I am working on a house in Mammoth, CA right now where we are using timber that the forest service has marked for removal from the local mountains (as fire control/forest management) for the exterior siding.

Above: The house in Mammoth uses locally sourced salvage timber for the exterior cladding.

We are cutting and assembling it in an irregular pattern to create depth and texture on the building façade.  I feel like this idea and detailing were influenced by building furniture.

You are based in Malibu. An architect’s surrounds often impact their designs. How did the area around your home, which you designed, have an impact on the building? My own house was built 15 years ago and was primarily budget driven.

We spent very little money and so had to spend it carefully.  Since paint is about the least expensive way to decorate we ended up painting the house with about 20 different shades of blue and green.

My wife and I both like those colors of course, but we were definitely influenced by the green of the surrounding mountains and the blue of the sky.  The form of the house, a curved shed roof, was a reaction to the slopes of the mountains around us and the slope of our own site.

On your website you mention the well known diagram by Charles Eames (below) showing the overlap of the interests of a design firm, a client, and society, the overlap signifying a successful project. How has that influenced the way you work?

That idea influences every project. I can’t really work outside of my own interests, and if I listen to my client and consider their needs (which hopefully I do) then their interests are represented.  The influence of society is felt on every project by the constraints of zoning and building codes.  Trying to work outside of those restraints is sometimes possible (by getting variances for example) but is often costly both in the time and energy that can be taken from a project.

I’m essentially a modernist and so are my clients for the most part, but the most common phrase I hear from a client is that they don’t want a cold house.  Much of the color and texture that is brought into many of my projects warms a simple and open space.

Above and below: The Blair House. Bolander specified site-cast, board-formed concrete foundation and walls, aluminum windows and 2×2 wood slats on the interior walls and ceiling. The cabinets are clad in laminate with solid surface countertops.  The concrete was the first material choice and was basically chosen from necessity, both for fire resistance and strength.  The laminate colors and wood were really a reaction to the concrete.

Another value that is often present with all three interested parties is that of gathering, whether as family or friends, or in the case of a business with clients and employees.  The now very common open plan of kitchen, dining and living illustrates this overlap to me.

Above and below: Collier House. Here Bolander used board-formed concrete walls, concrete floors, structural steel, laminate and solid surface countertops.  ”This is a beach house and the client wanted ‘happy’, beachy colors.  I worked with them to develop the color palette.”

Environmental sensibility also is embraced by the three interested parties that Eames mentions.  Most of my clients want to create buildings with low impact.  In Malibu visual resources are very important.  We are working on a project right now where the client has asked that the visual impact of the house be very low, and the governing agencies have mandated similar restrictions.  We are working together (albeit with some friction from time to time) to accomplish a house that meets my clients’ needs as well as those of the greater society of neighbors and users of the Santa Monica mountains.

Above: This is a render of Birusingh house which is still making its way through the approval process.

Do you bring your work home? How do you strike a life/work balance? Did you design a home office or does work just “happen” in your home? As odd as it may sound I really don’t.  I have a separate studio that is about 100 feet away from my house (below).  Every once in a while my kids pop in after school and sometimes some of them will spend the afternoon in the studio working on their homework, but once I cross the driveway and head back into the house I am home for the evening.

What inspires you in your work? Things like materials as we have discussed, and the sites themselves of course.

Above: Bolander and Kurt Birusingh at a site meeting for the Birusingh house.

I am fortunate to work on some pretty beautiful sites and more and more am trying to not get in the way of the natural beauty.

Above: Blair House sits on a steep site.

Also mentioned are families and gathering.  I think that creating spaces that people love does enable them to spend more time with the people that are important to them.  It’s cliché of course but we are more and more cut off from each other as our methods of communication get oddly more efficient.

There are other things I like, vintage bikes and being in beautiful natural settings for example.  I’m sure they influence my work somehow but I don’t know exactly how.

Lastly, an engaged client is by far the most inspirational element of a project.  That doesn’t always happen but when it does it really changes the project for the better.

Above: Corwin House at sunset.

Above: The Whitehouse’s updated Chicago office. Photo by Mike Schwartz. Below: The company’s partners – Rick Lawley, Matthew Wood and David Brixton. Photo: Jen Shelley

Whitehouse partners and editors David Brixton, Rick Lawley and Matthew Wood were deeply involved in the creative decision-making of the project. ”Often what’s missing on a commercial project is the client point-of-view. Rick Lawley took the time to fly out to Chicago with me several times,” says Bolander.  “We’d spend the car ride out discussing the project, and then I’d have the time on the flight to draw what we had talked about, Four undisturbed hours without the phone or computer to work side-by-side with the client is a rare creative luxury in this day and age.”

Above: The historic Courthouse Place building. The Whitehouse office is on the fifth floor. Photo by Mike Schwartz.

Light was important to the client, as the current space was very dark. The building, which had been a courthouse, was designed by architect Otto H. Matz and completed in 1893. Wood panelling featured heavily in the a recent renovation and small offices pushed up against the exterior walls blocked light coming into the central spaces.

Above: To lighten the sapce architect Bruce Bolander introduced pale wood paneling and white painted wood. The hallway floor was stripped of dark carpet and finished with white epoxy. Photo by James Dierx.

“I focused the design so that the light from the outside came all the way through, which was occasionally as simple as changing the blinds, wall and floor color.  In other areas, we cut out some of the perimeter offices to let light in along the large corridors,” said Bolander.  “The intention was to try to peel back and get back to the basics of the building, so we uncovered the brick and steel pieces. We also as integrated other stripped-down elements such as vertical wood-paneling as an an additional material that kind of bridges the old and the new.”

Above: The mix of old and new design pieces was a very conscious one. You’ll find Herman Miller’s Eames Aluminum Group chairs alongside Eames chairs with wood dowel legs. Photo: Mike Schwartz

Above: The wallpaper outside the main office is All of Us by Geoff McFetridge. The bench is a vintage find from Metro Retro and the receptionist sits on an Eames Aluminum Group Management chair. Photo: Jen Shelley

While most of the fabric, color, and furniture choices came directly from Bolander’s office, Jen Shelley, Manager of Operations at The Whitehouse, found herself scouting pieces for the office. ”Chicago has great vintage furniture finds because so many of the mid-century manufacturers were located nearby.”  Shelley scoured shops for the perfect pieces to represent The Whitehouse company culture, taking pictures on her phone and sending them to Bolander, Wood and Lawley for approval. She found the humorous and rather awkward portraits that line the credenza in the foyer at shops such as Broadway Antique Market and Edgewater Antique Mall – both north of the city.

You know a space is smart and well-designed when it is flexible enough to be used for more than one purpose. The Whitehouse partners will be hosting the wedding of Lindsey Zuercher and Todd Brusnighan, both clients from McGarry Bowen Chicago, in the new office space. Those white floors look perfect for dancing!

Photo: Jen Shelley