“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
– Albert Einstein
Since the dawn of time, humans have constructed structures for the purpose of shelter. Over time, as we evolved, we built more and more sophisticated structures embedded with meaning and memory beyond mere shelter. The architecture that developed thereon was inevitably a reflection of available materials, cultural nuances, economics, and the climate of the region. As the design and development of buildings became more than simple shelters. It became a representation and response to an individual’s self-perception, place in society, context, culture, technology, environment, and climate.
Civilization has placed it’s evolving signature on its architecture ranging from the Classic Orders found in ancient Greece and Rome to the most contemporary contextual architectural forms defining the twenty-first century. The architecture of every era reflects the dominant cultural ethos of its time, its physical environs, and its climate. Today we might argue that our focus has returned to the shelter. Sheltering not just ourselves but also our planet from carbon excess, toxic waste, and climate change.
Loope’s vision emanates from the growing ability to model and simulate each building’s design and resultant energy profile charting a path to ‘net zero’. His is a vision that goes beyond static building component performance estimates. It embraces predicting whole building performance by understanding its users and dynamically modeling and simulating design options and outcomes. Simulation and modeling allow for optimizing design performance and product performance against benchmarks chosen to reduce costs, emissions, and waste. Loope recommends selecting only design and performance benchmarks that are eco-friendly, sustainable, and resilient. “Then analyze the holistic design, build models, and run simulations to forecast and optimize the journey to net zero”.
Loope predicts AI will accelerate the availability and use of this strategy. He recommends the integration of sustainability action plans in your design, procurement, and build initiatives carefully selecting vendors, materials, and systems that align with the journey to net zero.
R. Nicholas Loope, FAIA is one of today’s architects with a vision to effectively design eco-friendly, sustainable, and resilient buildings for the future.
Loope has mastered the craft of designing and planning the architecture of buildings through his extensive experience in leading architectural firms. He served as the titular leader of Taliesin Architects, the continuation of the practice of architecture begun by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1893, as its principal architect and president. He played a crucial role in attaining NAAB accreditation for the Frank Llyod Wright School of Architecture while leading a revival of the architectural practice at Taliesin. He successfully secured gifts and grants to preserve its campuses in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and Scottsdale, Arizona. He has worked in leading positions in multiple large A/E practices, including the Durrant Group, Otak a Hami Global partner. He began his career in the offices of one of America’s most influential architects Charles W. Moore, FAIA.
Loope has engaged in over 450 projects in different parts of the world in the five decades of his service. He has worked with numerous clients in planning and designing buildings in a variety of countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Mainland China, the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Mexico, and Hong Kong. His expertise in designing projects is not limited to one building type rather he has addressed numerous types of projects ranging from large urban master plans to boutique hotels and. luxury custom homes
Loope’s creativity knows no bounds. He founded his own business in 2002, HL Design Build LLC., a real estate development, and design-build firm which focuses on designing boutique hotels, spas, luxury custom homes, and preservation work. He is also the founder of R. Nicholas Loope, FAIA, LLC, a consulting firm that deals with mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, ownership, management transitions, and turnarounds occurring in the design and construction industry.
Despite working in all these firms, he realized that there was something more that he could contribute to design, which led him to create, the STUDIO @ Westmoreland Farm.
Launching the STUDIO @ Westmoreland Farm is a sheer output of Loope’s creativity and imagination undertaken in collaboration with his wife, renowned Interior Designer, Lynne Beyer. The STUDIO is an integrated design practice with expertise in design, procurement, and building. He is the principal architect and CEO of the company Lynne is the principal interior designer. The company assists clients in finding their dream home location, designing and building that forever home. A one-stop shop for those with decerning tastes and a desire to have it their way. He is recognized for creating numerous notable projects, including Desert Arc, Jade Bar at the Sanctuary Resort and Spa, Faculty Club at Arizona State University, 420 Roosevelt historic renovation and adaptive reuse, Monona Terrace, Life Dream House 1997, and Lykes House restoration.
Loope’s excellence in architectural design and planning was a result of his interest and inclination toward it since childhood, his father was a carpenter and his grandfather a cabinetmaker. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Architecture and completed a master’s degree in environmental design from Yale University in 1975. In 1981, he completed the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School in order to augment his skills in business administration, operations, and management. He continued to learn different trends and the latest advancements in the field of architecture through attending multiple educational seminars, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Urban Legend Institute (ULI) symposium, National Association for Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP) seminars, Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) seminars, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Practice Design seminar series at St. Johns College, American Institute of Architects (AIA) Conferences and Forums, DPIC seminars, and AU.
Loope’s continuous dedication to the field of learning is one of the reasons behind his successful teaching career. He has taught architecture and design at multiple universities. He has been serving as Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University since 2011. His mastery in the field can be gauged by the fact that he has designed numerous real estate development programs and architectural courses. His most noteworthy academic contribution was the Master of Real Estate Development degree program at ASU. It was the first transdisciplinary program at ASU to integrate faculty and curriculum for the Sandra Day O’Connor Law School, the W. P. Carey Business School, the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering, and the College of Architecture and Design.
His works are a testament to his craft as an architect. They are representative of how design can be advanced and synced with current trends while offering a meaningful impression for the future. The progeny is not going to judge the architect for his skill in designing but for how much thought and consideration he put in while designing, just like we do in our times while looking at the buildings of the past.