Small Firms Roundtable

GARY CUNNINGHAM, FAIA

Gary Cunningham is the founder and president of Cunningham Architects. He has worked as an architect since 1976. His interests range from the broad aspects of master planning to the details of architectural technology and interior design. Mr. Cunningham teaches, lectures on The Work of Cunningham Architects, and contributes work to many architectural publications.

“Gary Cunningham is a burly guy, a linebacker, lumberjack type, who works in a sprawling warehouse near downtown Dallas, surrounded by welders, engineers, landscape architects, graphic designers, and computer geeks. A loose, at times bewildering arrangement, as much repertory company as architecture office, it nevertheless reflects the open-ended, exploratory spirit of Cunningham’s work. We don’t design beautiful buildings,” he says emphatically… Yet even a cursory survey of Cunningham’s architecture shows that his contrarian, “take that” attitude is neither an affectation nor a marketing ploy, but a starting point and first principle. His range is impressive, from houses, schools, and office buildings to churches, theaters, and a tribal center for Southern Ute Indians. No two projects are alike, yet all express a set of basic convictions about materials, structure, and process that connect him to builder-architects of previous generations, as well as to the earlier Arts and Crafts movement.” David Dillon, Contract Magazine, July 2008

RIZI FARUQUI, AIA and BANG DAN, AIA

F A R   +  D A N G  is a multidisciplinary design office engaged in the complexities and multiplicities of contemporary life. Our research, our strategy, and our work focuses on transforming intangible ideas into spatial realities and physical form. We are interested in taking a project from its initial conception to its final built form. Our goal is to heighten the immaterial such as ideas, hopes, and space, by way of the material such as site, structure, and enclosure. Regardless of context, scale, and budget, this remains our goal.

F A R   +  D A N G  was formed in January of 2011 and has since been working on projects of all different types and scales. Together, Bang Dang and Rizwan Faruqui bring over 30 years of experience in the design field working previously with a variety of firms and a variety of project types.