Eric Owen Moss
Eric Owen Moss (born July 25, 1943) is an American architect based out of Los Angeles. He is the father of American football player Miller Moss.
Also recorded as Eric Moss
Eric Owen Moss

Archit73 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Eric Owen Moss
- Born
- 25 July 1943
- Birthplace
- Los Angeles, California, United States
- Education
- UCLA, UC Berkeley, Harvard University
- Awards
- Austrian Decoration for Science and Art American Academy of Arts and Letters Jencks Award AIA/LA Gold Medal Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- architect · university teacher
- Honours
- Austrian Decoration for Science and Art · RIBA Charles Jencks Award
- Languages
- English
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Eric Owen Moss (born July 25, 1943) is an American architect based out of Los Angeles. He is the father of American football player Miller Moss.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q354854 · wikipedia · Eric Owen Moss
In this article
Biography
Biography
Moss worked across architect and university teacher. This article rests on 16 published texts and 9 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.
Eric Owen Moss studied at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Work by Eric Owen Moss is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Austrian Decoration for Science and Art and RIBA Charles Jencks Award.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Eric Owen Moss • Born — 25 July 1943 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, United States • Education — UCLA, UC Berkeley, Harvard University • Children — 2, including Miller • Awards — Austrian Decoration for Science and Art American Academy of Arts and Letters Jencks Award AIA/LA Gold Medal Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize • Practice — Eric Owen Moss Architects (EOMA) • Website — http: ericowenmoss.com/
Education
Education
Moss was born on July 25, 1943 in Los Angeles, California. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1965, his Masters of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design in 1968 and a second Masters of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1972.
Academics
Academics
Moss has taught at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) since 1974 and served as director from 2002 to 2015. He has held chairs at Yale and Harvard universities, and appointments at Columbia University, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
Career
Career
Eric Moss founded Eric Owen Moss Architects (EOMA) in 1973. The 25-person, Culver City-based firm designs and constructs projects in the United States and around the world. The work of the office is documented in books, monographs, and publications internationally. The most prominent work of the office is an ongoing urban revitalization project in Culver City, California. Since 1986, the EOMA team has been working with developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith to transform an abandoned industrial neighborhood into a campus for companies. Today, the Hayden Tract and surrounding neighborhood attracts prominent design, film, internet, and digital media companies. Paul Goldberger stated in a 2010 article for The New Yorker, "Slowly, one building at a time, Moss has managed to accomplish something that none of his fellow-jet-setters have ever achieved: the creation of a genuine urban transformation through architecture." In 2017 EOMA completed work on Vespertine, an experimental restaurant project with chef Jordan Kahn. In its first year Vespertine was named best restaurant in Los Angeles, and Time magazine listed Vespertine as one of the "World's Greatest Places to Visit in 2018". • Illustration — Samitaur Tower, Culver City, CA • Illustration — (W)rapper, Los Angeles, CA • Illustration — Umbrella, Culver City, CA
Major projects and competitions
Major projects and competitions
• Triplex Apartments, Playa Del Rey, California, US, 1976 • Morgenstern Warehouse, Los Angeles, California, US, 1979 • 708 House, Los Angeles, California, US, 1982 • Petal House, Los Angeles, California, US, 1984 • 8522 National Boulevard, Culver City, California, US, 1986 • UC Irvine Central Housing Office, Irvine, California, USA 1989 • Lindblade Tower, Culver City, California, US, 1989 • Paramount Laundry, Culver City, California, US, 1989 • Gary Group, Culver City, California, US, 1990 • Lawson Westen House, Brentwood, California, US, 1993 • The Box, Culver City, California, US, 1994 • Gasometer D-1, Vienna, Austria, 1995 (unbuilt) • Samitaur, Los Angeles, California, US, 1996 • SPARCity, Culver City, California, US, 1996 • 3535 Hayden Boulevard, Culver City, California, US, 1997 • Dancing Bleachers, Columbus, Ohio, US, 1998 • Umbrella, Culver City, California, US, 1999 • Stealth, Culver City, California, US, 2001 • Mariinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2001 (unbuilt) • Beehive, Culver City, California, US, 2001 • Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York, US, 2001 (unbuilt) • Caterpillar, Los Angeles, California, US, 2001 • Smithsonian Institution, Patent Office Building, Washington DC, US, 2004 (unbuilt) • Guangdong Provincial Museum, Guangzhou, China, 2004 (unbuilt) • Republic Square, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2006 (unbuilt) • 3555 Hayden, Culver City, California, US, 2008 • If Not Now, When?, Vienna, Austria, 2009 • Samitaur Tower, Culver City, California, US, 2010 • Cactus Tower, Culver City, California, US, 2010 • Austrian Pavilion, Venice, Italy, 2010 • Nanjing Master Plan, Nanjing, China, 2013–current • Termicas del Besos, Barcelona, Spain, 2013–current • Pterodactyl, Culver City, California, US, 2014 • Sberbank Technopark, Moscow, Russia, 2016 (unbuilt) • Vespertine, Culver City, California, US, 2017 • (W)rapper, Los Angeles, California, US, 2014– • Illustration — Pterodactyl, Culver City, CA • Illustration — What Wall?, Eric Owen Moss, Culver City, CA
Life and work
Life and work
Eric Owen Moss was born on 1 January 1943 in Los Angeles. Moss held the nationality of United States. Moss was educated at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, Harvard Graduate School of Design and University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Moss worked as architect and university teacher. Moss was employed by Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Moss worked in English.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1943–2016
The full dated record · 6 entries
1943
Eric Owen Moss born at Los Angeles.
1995
Eric Owen Moss the box is dated 1995.
2002
Eric Owen Moss Volume III (Buildings and Projects 3) is dated 2002.
2006
The PS Building By Eric Owen Moss (Architecture of Record) is dated 2006.
2011
Receives RIBA Charles Jencks Award.
2016
Receives Austrian Decoration for Science and Art.
Selected publications
Selected publications
There are twenty published monographs on the work of Moss' office. • Eric Owen Moss, Vespertine, AADCU and Idea Books, Beijing and Amsterdam, 2023 • Eric Owen Moss, Nanjing Charter, essays by Michael Sorkin; Stefan Al; Joe Day; Hernan Diaz Alonso; Zhongjie Lin; Brian McGrath; Catherine Seavitt Nordenson; Xuefei Ren; Shawn Rickenbacker; David Grahame Shane; Brett Steele; Peter Trummer; Aleksandra Wagner, Urban Research, New York, 2020. • The New City: I'll See It When I Believe It, preface by Frank Gehry, essays by Jean-Louis Cohen, Jeffrey Kipnis, Thom Mayne, Wolf D. Prix, Michael Sorkin, Rizzoli, New York, 2016. • Todd Gannon (ed.), Eric Owen Moss Architects/3585: Source Books in Architecture 9, Applied Research + Design Publishing, San Francisco, 2016. • Eric Owen Moss, Coughing Up the Moon, SCI-Arc Press + AADCU, Los Angeles and Beijing, 2015. • Eric Owen Moss: I Maestri dell'Architettura, Hachette, France, 2012. • Eric Owen Moss, Again, Who Says?, SCI-Arc Press, Los Angeles, 2012. • Eric Owen Moss, Eric Owen Moss: Construction Manual 1988–2008, AADCU, Beijing, September 2009. • Eric Owen Moss, Who Says What Architecture Is?, SCI-Arc Press, Los Angeles, November 2007. • Emilia Giorgi, Paradigmi Provvisori, Marsilio, Venice, 2007. • Paola Giaconia, Eric Owen Moss. The Uncertainty of Doing, Skira, Milan 2006. • Eric Owen Moss: Buildings and Projects 3, Rizzoli, New York 2002. • Eric Owen Moss, Gnostic Architecture, Monacelli, New York 1999. • Luca Rivalta, Eric Owen Moss, Edil Stampa, Italy, March 2002. • Preston Scott Cohen, Brooke Hodge (eds.), Eric Owen Moss. The Box, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 1996. • Eric Owen Moss. Buildings and Projects 2, Rizzoli, New York 1995. • James Steele, Lawson-Westen House (Architecture in Detail), Phaidon Press, London 1995. • Eric Owen Moss. Architectural Monographs, n. 29, Academy Editions, London 1993. • Eric Owen Moss. Buildings and Projects, Rizzoli, New York 1991. • Olivier Boissiere, Eric Owen Moss Architecte: Lindblade Tower & Paramount Laundry, Les Editions du Demi-cercle, Paris, Spring 1990.
Writings and published texts, 1985–2015
Catalogued output
Writings and published texts, 1985–2015
These are catalogued publications carrying the name — editions and printings, distinct from the works they contain and from writing about the subject. The 2000s are the densest part of the run, with 6 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself. They belong to a run of 16 titles in all, from 1985 to 2015.
15 editions carry dates between 1985 and 2015
The run opens with California architecture and closes with Coughing Up The Moon
The entries follow Open Library
California architecture
1985
Lindblade Tower & Paramount Laundry
1990
Eric Owen Moss the box
1995
Gnostic architecture
1999
Eric Owen Moss Volume III (Buildings and Projects 3)
2002
Sessions
2004
The PS Building By Eric Owen Moss (Architecture of Record)
2006
Zago Architecture And Office dA
2006
Who says what architecture is?
2007
Writings and published texts without a settled date
Catalogued output
Writings and published texts without a settled date
1 further edition are catalogued under Moss's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it.
Ince, Hayden, La Cienega
Teaching
Moss taught, and is recorded as university teacher. The work is documented at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q354854: Eric Owen Moss
General reference · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Eric Owen Moss”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards and honors
Awards and honors
Moss received an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. He was awarded the 2001 AIA/LA Gold Medal for his architectural work as well as the Business Week/Architectural Record Award in 2003 for the design and construction of the Stealth project, Culver City, California. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the Distinguished Alumni Award for the University of California at Berkeley in 2003. Moss received the 2007 Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2011, he was awarded the Jencks Award, given each year to an architect who has made a major contribution to theory and practice of architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2014 Moss was named a "Game Changer" by Metropolis magazine. In 2016, Moss was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art. Moss was awarded the American Prize for Architecture from the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies in 2020. Also known as the Louis H. Sullivan Award, the award is bestowed to an outstanding practitioner in the United States that has emblazoned a new direction in the history of American Architecture with talent, vision, and commitment and has demonstrated consistent contributions to humanity through the built environment and through the art of architecture. In 2020 Conjunctive Points – The New City was awarded the AIA Twenty-five Year Award showcasing buildings that set a precedent. The award is conferred on a building that has stood the test of time for 25–35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance. • Illustration — Vespertine, Culver City, CA
Honours and awards
Where the work is held
Honours and awards
They run from 2011 to 2016.
2 honours stand against the name
RIBA Charles Jencks Award
2011
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
2016
Literature
Further cited scholarship
3 scholarly and reference publications are cited here, each one identified by title and by the publication, publisher or institution that carried it, with its year where the register states one. The cited literature runs from 1999 to 2001, which is a measure of how long Moss has been a subject of scholarship rather than of how much has been written. The publications represented include Group Analysis. The Encyclopedia cites this literature and does not summarise the arguments of works it has not read in full. Commentary on `the Ones Left Behind: A Siblings' Bereavement Group' by Eric Moss and Avivia Raz, Group Analysis, September 2001, Group Analysis, 2001.
Commentary on Article by Eric Moss, Group Analysis, 1999
Authority records
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Eric Owen Moss wants to piece together L.A.'s fragments. The Los Angeles Times. August 2, 2009.
- 2.Southern California Institute of Architecture, May 2009. Eric Owen Moss Architects: If Not Now, When?.
- 3.Eric Owen Moss on Passing the Torch at SCI-Arc: "You Are Never Done" Design & Architecture. blogs.kcrw.com. 12 September 2015.
- 4.Eric Owen Moss. Designers & Books.
- 5.Eric Owen Moss: "I'll See It When I Believe It" – Harvard Graduate School of Design. gsd.harvard.edu.
- 6.Eric Owen Moss Construction Manual 1988–2008. ArchDaily. 2010-02-18.
- 7.Eric Owen Moss Los Angeles Conservancy. laconservancy.org.
- 8.Goldberger, Paul. Neighborhood Watch. The New Yorker. 2010-12-12. 0028-792X.
- 9.Jonathan Gold asks himself why Vespertine is No. 1 – and whether he even likes it. Los Angeles Times. 2017-10-27.
- 10.Vespertine: The World's 100 Greatest Places of 2018. Time.
- 11.SCI-Arc, Building a Future with Eric Owen Moss. Other LA.
- 12.Furuto, Alison. 2011 Jencks Award: Eric Owen Moss. Arch Daily. 21 September 2011.
- 13.Eric Owen Moss, the Architect Behind Culver City's Rebirth – Metropolis. Metropolis. 2014-01-07.
- 14.Eric Owen Moss Honored with Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art. SCI-Arc.
- 15.The American Architecture Awards. www.americanarchitectureawards.com.
- 16.Conjunctive Points-The New City – AIA. www.aia.org.
- 17.Eric Owen Moss MoMA. moma.org.
- 18.Filler, Martin. LA's Alternate Realities. The New York Review of Books.
- 19.708 House Los Angeles Conservancy. laconservancy.org.
- 20.BETSKY, AARON. In the Petal House, Construction Materials Come Into Full Flower. Los Angeles Times. 1993-03-11. 0458-3035.
- 21.Muschamp, Herbert. ARCHITECTURE VIEW; An Enterprise Zone for the Imagination. The New York Times. 14 March 1993.
- 22.Deconstructing Eric Owen Moss' 'Construction Manual'. LA Times Blogs – Jacket Copy. 2010-03-11.
- 23.Satzman, Darrell. Livable modern art in Brentwood. Los Angeles Times. 2010-06-27. 0458-3035.
- 24.Eric Owen Moss: The Box – Harvard Graduate School of Design. gsd.harvard.edu.
- 25.A Tale of Two Culver Cities in Los Angeles, Reshaped by Architect Eric Owen Moss. Untapped Cities. 2014-10-27.
- 26.Sotiria. Αστικός Ταμιευτήρας Urban Reserve: Reused Industrial Cylindrical Deposits – Reserves. Αστικός Ταμιευτήρας Urban Reserve. 22 March 2011.
- 27.Muschamp, Herbert. ARCHITECTURE VIEW; Lifting the Sights of a Neighborhood Tired and Low. The New York Times. 15 October 1995.
- 28.artnet.com Magazine News – NEW THIS MONTH IN U.S. MUSEUMS. artnet.com.
- 29.V., Senkevitch, Tatiana. Reflections on Projecting Petersburg. Journal of the International Institute. 10. 3. 2003-07-01. 1558-741X.
- 30.Public Art Culver City, CA. culvercity.org.
- 31.Queens Museum. queensmuseum.org.
- 32.Eric Owen Moss. lacma.org.
- 33.A Surface of Points. architectmagazine.com. 22 August 2008.
- 34.Guangdong Provincial Museum Proposal – Eric Owen Moss (2004 competition entry).
- 35.Republic Square / Eric Owen Moss Architects. ArchDaily. 2009-05-05.
- 36.3555 Hayden. architectmagazine.com.
- 37.Eric Owen Moss – MAK Museum Vienna. mak.at.
- 38.Eric Moss Cactus Tower Turns Things Upside Down – Archpaper.com. archpaper.com. 19 April 2011.
- 39.Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. ArchDaily. 2010-09-20.
- 40.Eric Owen Moss Bids "Not Farewell But Fare Forward" at SciArc. Archinect.
- 41.Pterodactyl. architectmagazine.com. 15 January 2016.
- 42.Gallery of AIA LA Showcases Award Winners After Surge of Submissions – 28. ArchDaily.
- 43.Vespertine. architectmagazine.com. 8 August 2017.
- 44.Culver City's Vespertine Restaurant is Defined by its Grille Work. Azure Magazine.
- 45.How Architecture and Design Shaped Los Angeles's Vespertine. Vogue.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Institutional witnessinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q354854: Eric Owen MossWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Eric Owen Moss studied at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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