Eric Owen Moss

American architect

Eric Owen Moss (born 1943 in Los Angeles) practices architecture with his eponymously named LA based firm founded in 1973.

Moss was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1943. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1965, his Masters of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design in 1968 and a second Masters of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1972. He has held chairs at Yale and Harvard universities, and appointments at Columbia University, the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Eric Owen Moss Architects, also known as EOMA, was founded in 1973. The 25 person, Culver City based firm designs and constructs projects in the United States and around the world. The work of the office has been thoroughly documented in books, monographs, and publications internationally, including the 1,568 page Eric Owen Moss Construction Manual published by AADCU in 2009. The most prominent work of the office is an on going urban revitalization project in Culver City, California. Since 1986 the EOMA team has been working with developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith to transform an abandoned industrial neighborhood into a campus for creative minded companies. Today the Hayden Tract and surrounding neighborhood attract some of the most successful design, film, internet, and digital media companies in the world. Paul Goldberger stated in a 2010 article for The New Yorker, “Slowly, one building at a time, Moss has managed to accomplish something that none of his fellow jet setters have ever achieved: the creation of a genuine urban transformation through architecture.”

In 2017 EOMA completed work on Vespertine, an experimental restaurant project with chef Jordan Kahn. In its first year Vespertine was named best restaurant in Los Angeles, and Time Magazine listed the EOMA designed Vespertine as one of the World's Greatest Places to Visit in 2018.

Moss received an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. He was awarded the 2001 AIA/LA Gold Medal for his architectural work as well as the Business Week/Architectural Record Award in 2003 for the design and construction of the Stealth project, Culver City, California. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the Distinguished Alumni Award for the University of California at Berkeley in 2003. Moss received the 2007 Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2011, he was awarded the Jencks Award, given each year to an architect who has made a major contribution to theory and practice of architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2014 Moss was named a "Game Changer" by Metropolis Magazine. In 2016, Moss was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art. Moss was awarded the American Prize for Architecture from the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies in 2020. Also known as the Louis H. Sullivan Award, the award is bestowed to an outstanding practitioner in the United States that has emblazoned a new direction in the history of American Architecture with talent, vision, and commitment and has demonstrated consistent contributions to humanity through the built environment and through the art of architecture. In 2020 Conjunctive Points – The New City was awarded the AIA Twenty five Year Award showcasing buildings that set a precedent. The award is conferred on a building that has stood the test of time for 25–35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance.