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Overview
Join us for Best Practice, a virtual fireside chat series dedicated to practice operations at architecture firms and beyond. From pain points to potential, hear how leaders in the architecture and engineering industry are innovating through new business models and managerial techniques.
We’re chatting with Rick Joy and Taylor Garcia Dickson of Studio Rick Joy.
Rick Joy is the founder and principal of Studio Rick Joy. He is considered an important contributor to the ongoing global discourse on conceptual and sustainable architecture. His work expresses innovation and exactitude in modernism and reflects a unique sense of place. Honors include receiving the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture in 2002 and in 2004 winning the prestigious National Design Award from the Smithsonian Institute/Cooper-Hewitt Museum. In 2015, Rick was vested into the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows and the Royal Institute of British Architects’ RIBA International College of Fellows. He was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in a Javits Center event in 2019. Other professional affiliations include The College of Fellows of The American Institute of Architects, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Tucson MOCA Advisory Board Member. Rick lectures internationally and periodically serves as visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Rice University, M.I.T. and the University of Arizona.
The studio’s first monograph, Desert Works, was released by Princeton Architectural Press in 2002 and the second, Studio Joy Works, was released in 2018. He is also the co-owner of CLL Concept Lighting Lab with his partner Claudia Kappl Joy. CLL provides full-service lighting design for all SRJ projects in addition to outside firms. Originally from Maine, he studied music and was a classical percussionist and rock/blues drummer until the age of 28 when he moved to Tucson to study Architecture.
Taylor Garcia Dickson joined Studio Rick Joy in 2020, with over a decade of experience as a director, project manager and consultant. She is highly skilled in PR & marketing, brand management, trust and archival work, project & event production, development, contemporary art, client relationships and community cultivation. Her work with artists, brands and institutions internationally includes projects in Los Angeles, Austin, New York, Miami, London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin. Prior to joining the studio, she was the Membership & Development Director at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona and the Director of the Hopper Art Trust in Los Angeles, California. She is a licensed real estate agent in the state of Arizona. Taylor was raised in Brownsville, Texas on the border of the US and Mexico. She is an indigenous Mexican American and a dual citizen of both countries.
Studio Rick Joy
Founded in 1993 by Rick Joy, Studio Rick Joy is an award-winning architecture, interiors, and planning firm based in Tucson, Arizona. The diverse team, originating from across the US and abroad, create a unique collaborative environment where different perspectives and experiences are brought together to create a culture of original thinking. Studio Rick Joy has realized architectural works throughout North America with extensive experience in lifestyle-based projects from numerous single-family residences to an ultra-lux resort and large-scale masterplans. Completed in 2018, the studio breathed new life into the campus of Princeton University through the Transit Hall and Market buildings, where it approached the brief with the desire to produce a thoughtful and orienting entry to the storied educational institution. SRJ also, in collaboration with two other firms, designed the famed Amangiri Resort and Spa in Utah, which continues to receive near-daily attention for its exquisitely careful blending of public and private spaces. The entire body of the studio’s finished work has been exhibited and published in over 150 publications worldwide and has won numerous awards and recognitions. Currently, the studio’s commissions include works in Baja California, Park City, Tucson, Tubac, Ibiza and Austin.
The studio’s work is an important contributor to the ongoing global discourse on conceptual and sustainable architecture. The foundational principles of Rick and his studio have always been deeply informed by the spirit and sensation of creating site-specific works – the sounds and rhythms, the play of light and space, the relationship between shadow and light. In doing so, spaces are created that are shelters for both the body, and the mind. The team’s shared values focus on lifestyle and experience of a space, while each project also celebrates materials and methods that express the local identity and spirit of the site, whether in the Bahamas or Mexico City, and aspire to elevate the emotional identity of that place. The studio’s first book, Desert Works, explores this unique vision and practice in desert surroundings. Studio Joy Works, published in 2018, reinforces the team’s commitment and ability to produce immersive architectural experiences in a variety of project sites around the globe.
