MEET OUR TEAM: Scott Briggs, AIA
This series will highlight a different SKOLNICK team member each month, offering readers a glimpse into our process, office culture, and the people who make it all possible. Below is our first interview with Scott Briggs, AIA, Associate Principal.
Why did you join SKOLNICK?
I liked the diversity of the firm’s work. The mix of architectural work and exhibition design work was immensely appealing to me in terms of the types of work I want to do and the direction I wanted my career to go.
What is the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?
Say “yes” to things. As an introvert by nature, I often find it difficult to say yes to business and social event invitations, but find a way to go anyway. Say yes to new project opportunities or tasks that may be out of your comfort zone, yes to travel, yes to meet new colleagues, yes to learn something new. But also know when to say “no”!
How did you get started in this field?
My first job in NY was working for a large architectural firm that did a lot of cultural work (museums, performing arts centers, libraries, and the like). I liked the work, but realized that these kinds of projects may take 10 or more years to be realized. The interiors and exhibits for these projects was, and remains, of great interest to me. I realized that moving into exhibition design and museum work was going to allow me to tell a lot more “stories” over my career than sticking with a singular building type. After about 2 years with the large firm, I moved on to a small firm that did only exhibition design and that, combined with the impatience of youth, started me on a career in the cultural design sector.
Of all the projects you’ve worked on at SKOLNICK, which one are you most proud of and why?
Muzeiko, the children’s science center in Sofia, Bulgaria. Working in a place and culture completely foreign to me was challenging but exhilarating. Being given the opportunity to work on design for a “total” project – site design, architectural design, interiors, exhibitions, graphics and identity – was thrilling. I think the project manifests the best of what SKOLNICK can offer our clients. It was not an easy project to realize in many aspects, but I did enjoy the exchange with some very talented Bulgarian specialists, architects and engineers, and craftspeople in realizing the building and exhibitions.
Muzeiko - America for Bulgaria Children’s Museum, Sofia, Bulgaria
What motivates you?
What motivates me is knowing that the work I am doing has an impact, especially for children, who are just beginning a lifetime of experience and learning. I hope their experiences in our museums, libraries, and exhibits inspire them and give them lifelong memories of when they first discovered their love of nature, science, art, or history. And they continue to find joy in all of it.
Tell us a surprising or a fun fact about you.
I’m a word game junkie. I do the New York Times crossword puzzle and their Spelling Bee game every day. Anyone for Scrabble?
What is your favorite building of all time and why?
Pompidou Centre, Paris. It is more than a museum – it is a social and civic gathering space both indoor and outdoor on that enormous plaza, with changing exhibitions, galleries, cinema, theater, library, cafes – all in one. I love the jarring contrast of its colorful mechanical pipes and ducts with the largely 19th c. buildings around it. It reveals the early tenets of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s work, expressing the technological and engineering function of architecture, and how this would develop over their respective long, prolific careers. It’s the manifestation of British architect Cedric Price’s “Fun Palace”, his visionary concept for a multi-functional, plug in, “laboratory of fun”.
Favorite NYC building – Flatiron Building. For its innovation as one of the first skyscrapers, and it looks like the prow of a ship that in its time is proudly steaming up Broadway toward a new era of American progress.