who we are
…or a little bit about us.
After completing their studies at SCI-Arc, Neil Henk and Kenneth Ford established Other Desert Cities as a multidisciplinary design collaborative. The company name was envisioned during a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Two road signs emerged on I-10 heading east, one clearly marked ‘to Palm Springs’ the other ‘to Other Desert Cities’. Palm Springs a likely and clear destination, the other an exploration of space and many destinations. The idea was simple, we wanted to be ‘space’ explores. Our attitude to doing work was to take on projects that would push the boundaries on what was typically defined as ‘architecture’ in order to expand on the idea of what architecture can be.
As a result, our projects range from residences and renovations, to large scale events and spatial branding strategies and take place ‘locally’ in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New Mexico, and internationally in Japan and Austria. The work itself can result in conceptually driven design strategies and tactics, working drawings and models, or actual hands on fabrication. This approach to our work also means that both partners are dedicated to the idea that education is a key and contributing component to the successful and critical implementation of design. Both partners currently teach in the graduate architecture program at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University.
For a closer look at the partners:
