Vietnam and Japan
There's an unmistakable international flair to Front Studio, a New York-based architectural firm owned by Yen Ha and Michi Yanagishita. And no wonder.
Ha came to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1975, when she was just a year old. Her upbringing in a strict Buddhist household was different from that of her peers, she says, so to some extent she straddles the line between the American and Vietnamese cultures. Similarly, Yanagishita spent part of her childhood in Washington, DC, and part of it in Tokyo. Her family presently lives in Japan, and she retains her Japanese citizenship.
Between them, Ha and Yanagishita speak four languages--English, French, Vietnamese and Japanese. That's a point in their favor when it comes to landing international clients.
In fact, Ha says, her fluency in French landed her the project that initially funded Front Studio. A client with a project in New York needed an architect who could speak to his decorators in Paris.
"It enabled us to set up office space and buy equipment," she says.
Yanagishita says that being bilingual also affects the way she thinks. She believes her facility with two languages opens her to more artistic possibilities. "Since the languages are so different," she says, "the way you think is different."
Certainly, Front Studio's projects have a unique stamp. For example, at the Badge Building, a residential condo in Long Island City, the pair designed a curvy, sky-blue wall that transforms the lobby into a work of art. In remodeling a Brooklyn kitchen, they paired Ikea cabinets with a crystal chandelier. Their work ranges from French Embassy diplomatic residences in New York to the overhaul of a pedestrian overpass in Poland--which won an international competition--and the renovation of a Harlem townhouse.
"We try and work on competitions a lot," Ha says. "It's hard to do because it's not paid work, and you do it after hours." However, she adds, "It exercises our creativity and allows us to think with [fewer] physical boundaries."
The two women met when they were students at Carnegie-Mellon. But they parted ways for a number of years before joining forces to create their distinctive partnership.
Ha studied in Paris, worked for a boutique architecture firm in New York, then started Front Studio in 2001 with another partner from Carnegie-Mellon. Yanagishita worked for several architectural firms before joining Ha at Front Studio in 2005.
Yanagishita appreciates the contrast between Japan and the United States.
"In America you can be anything or do anything," she says. "You don't have to be bound by things you think you're supposed to do."
The duo's goal down the road is a staff of 10 or 20 people, larger projects and plenty of variety. Although Front Studio does mostly residential work now, it's starting to get more commercial work, designing office and retail spaces, Ha says.
"It's important to keep the mind active by not necessarily doing just one type of architecture but as many types of architecture as we can," Ha says. The firm's sales totaled about $250,000 last year, and Ha estimates that 2008 will see $250,000 to $500,000 in sales.
Ha's advice to other entrepreneurs:
"To be flexible--to have a dream but not worry so much about the path of how to get there. Michi and I agree, as long as we're having fun with this and we look forward to coming to work, then that's worth doing."