Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects - LA Office

Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects is internationally recognized for distinctive design, which extends the traditions of modernism through an approach that fuses new technologies with cultural and environmental sensitivity. Winner of the 2015 National AIA Architecture Firm award, the firm has been recognized with prestigious accolades including eight National American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards and was named California Firm of the Year in 2003. Embracing the convergence of complex global factors that challenge today's architects, the firm has evolved a unique approach to architecture and planning called Multicultural Modernism. Largely developed through the travels and experiences of founding Principal Steven Ehrlich, Multicultural Modernism centers around architectural anthropology and incorporates the following key elements: sensing place and listening to people; courtyards as an antidote to density and stress; and cross-cultural fusion. Multicultural Modernism is not a formula but a path towards an architecture that can respond sensibly, flexibly and with great exuberance to our increasingly urbanized world, celebrating both global aspirations and local cultural uniqueness. Led by Partners Steven Ehrlich, FAIA; Takashi Yanai, FAIA; Patricia Rhee, FAIA; Mathew Chaney, AIA, Ashley Richardson, AIA, Bryn Garrett, AIA; and supported by eleven Principals and Associates, EYRC Architects’ design philosophy starts with a profound respect for a building’s inhabitants. This humanistic approach, referred to as Multicultural Modernism, has permeated the firm’s culture since the beginning, informing every creation and every interaction. The seeds of this philosophy were planted during founder Steven Ehrlich’s six-year work/travel sojourn in Africa in the 1970s. Serving in the Peace Corps in Morocco, traversing the Sahara and later teaching architecture in Northern Nigeria, he studied vernacular “architecture without architects,” formed by the constraints of site and climate and the inspiration of culture.