URBAN OPERATIONS

Urban Operations is a full-service architecture firm located in Los Angeles, CA. We specialize in custom residential homes, and are experts in hillside construction and designing for constrained urban sites. Architect and principal John Southern founded Urban Operations in 2005. The firm specializes in architectural design and construction, from custom hillside homes to refined metropolitan interiors, and engages in cultural investigations and critical commentary through its research division, urbanops.org. Based in Los Angeles, Urban Operations has designed and built homes across the city, overseeing the process from site procurement though completion, and in some instances simultaneously acting as developer, architect, and builder. Southern’s design perspective combines modern aesthetic sensibilities with over ten years of hands-on construction experience. He understands the challenges of producing cost-conscious and visually elegant architecture in the contemporary world. The firm’s design approach balances minimalist interiors with expressionist building forms that are site-specific and highly functional. Natural light and carefully curated material palettes produce flexible spaces for any lifestyle and interiors are sculpted in order to produce visual effects that delight, but do not overwhelm the senses. Landscape and exterior environments play a central role in every design project, so that outside and inside blend together to form a singular spatial experience.