We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Quentin Parker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Quentin below.

Hi Quentin , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Several years ago I was confounded by the reality of lack of low cost, efficient housing here in CA. I decided to extend our design capability for an innovative solution which not only works under our current economic constraints, but one that will enhance the habitat living today. What we require immediately, is a smart angel investor partner and a qualified general contractor partner. (local to our area versed in component build CA housing construction). I arrived at the HomeModule unit as an immediate buildable, low cost, quick build, sustainable housing solution.
Design Concept October 15, 2022

HomeModule has been created to build modular homes with one trip used shipping containers, assembled onsite with interior finishes, appliances, plumbing, mechanical and electrical and exterior organic cladding for under $360k, (depending on each site condition in southern CA). We build the full scale prototype on a site I have available now, and market this house to individual interests on their land here in the central valley, only building to pre-qualified, individual purchase orders. With enough interest down the road, we switch over to a full scale component delivered/installation production line. I hope this sounds as lucrative to you as it is to me.
Construction requires a structural concrete slab on grade (@ 40 ft x 40 ft) with the assembly of four “high-boy” 9.5 ft. steel single trip shipping containers. These containers stack to create a central, glass enclosed, interior, two story ‘great’ living room. The containers are modified with high grade exterior insulation with new reinforced fenestration and door openings. The low E dual glass sliding glass doors and windows form an extremely sustainable, structurally approved, component pre-manufactured, residential low cost building. With 95% of the structure applied as recycled steel HomeModule seeks a LEED certified platinum rating. 2,460 sq. ft. four bedroom, 3 bath, turnkey ready within 3 months upon permit approval at a cost of $360k on your site, this is our goal.
This design is easy to permit, with quick to build-assembly and the reuse of recyclable materials with innovative, client-selected finishes. With great sustainability and rigid structural integrity, this design can withstand high fire resistive criteria, withstand hurricane wind levels and high seismic activity without any major structural damage. The concept is all about the functional design application in quick build production, which has unlimited growth potential, locally, statewide, nationally and later in an intercontinental scale.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Quentin Parker is a CA and FL licensed architect (with NCARB certification) who has shared his architect duties as administrator, principal designer, chief architect and construction manager for ArchWork.com on all of their commissioned projects. With over 40 years of management experience in a wide range of projects including luxury homes, housing development, hospitality, retail, churches, and medical offices, as a Harvard graduate (1980 HGSD Master in Architecture) he brings extensive experience to architecture projects from design, construction to project completion. Mr. Parker has provided over four decades seasoned leadership in design, training and mentoring aspiring draftsmen and designers with enhanced education and hands-on project experience.

His contribution as an architect results directly in design-induced savings for the clients, while maintaining a highly ethical work environment. Architecture is an extremely challenging professional service, and one which is certainly underrated. Specifically, what I see in built form today leaves me with great sadness, since copying old styles of architecture in building shows a lack of understanding in modern design.

My father, Alfred Browning Parker, FAIA, was one of our nations most prominent architects. He left us with a legacy of natural conservation, the application of creative design, and his search for meaningful application of the art in architecture. His “Aphorisms for Architects” is a guideline I use regularly. This approach requires excellent communication skills, adept negotiation talent and a thorough understanding of motivational psychology with our clientele
Aphorisms for Architects
– Choose your clients well.
– Design down to no one.
– If your work is worth anything, get paid for it.
– Once you have accepted an assignment don’t keep an eye on the office budget.
– Building codes, zoning, regulatory agencies, financing institutions, etc. should contribute to a design. If they hinder the proper
realization of a project, fight.
– Courage is when you do something you are afraid to do. With liability insurance rates on the increase such a quality is
required in our profession.
– A budget is an old friend and should be cherished as such. This does not mean to imply that one cannot upon occasion, differ
with a friend.
– Architects should be more loving, unfortunately many buildings appear as though the owner’s ‘wife designed them. She
usually does the interiors. (A joke! Humor is a true asset.)
– Seek in the problem for the answers, not in your ego. The “i” in architecture is a small letter.
– If you can’t be a great artist at least be a good carpenter, or a good mason, or a good plumber, etc. .
– Love humanity, it’s what you belong to, but don’t ignore life. It is larger and wiser than we are.
– Don’t make excuses. Emphasize your strengths, for our environment needs all the help it can get.
– Do not adapt too perfectly to your environment. You must be able to change, nature does.
– Live harmoniously but don’t underrate the shocks.
– If you have large environmental responsibilities move slowly and carefully. At best our hands are far too heavy and nature’s
balance is a fragile equilibrium.
– We should know enough of symbiosis to applying our daily work. Enough of heterozygosity to bless the variant among us-
and to look up words we don’t understand.
– Leave plenty of stones unturned. Earthworms are still our salvation.

Quentin fosters longterm relationships with prominent construction firms, accumulating a record of successful jobs under budget and on time, as his client testimonials define an extensive commission list. In the complex and sometimes very bureaucratic permit-processing applications, there are considerable benefits toward innovative solutions and understanding the reasons for difficult submittal and approvals. Good communication is the single most important aspect for successful architecture. Our services are about design excellence. My brand is understanding client and project requirements, which makes our work exceptional.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

A Day in the Life of an Architect

A while ago I turned down several small architectural commissions. Wow, we all need work! There are however, clear reasons to reject certain jobs, since Frank Gehry claims: “No architect ever has too many clients.” Despite enjoying most of our commissioned work, if there is a ‘virtuosity’ in architecture, with art as thge essential component. Many clients don’t understand architecture. With most commission fees not commensurate to the work effort, this process is complex, reliant on many different criteria and documenting existing site conditions. While this is difficult, every review approval is essential. Bldg. Dept. approvals are determined by many considerations other than design. Since every design engages numerous criteria for permit issuance, low design value is often transient with arbitrary compromises. Design is about a critical perception of conceptual negotiation for a creative solution. Yes, most architects do not engage in building the ART form we are capable of. This creativity requires significant negotiation skills, since any creative solution is a subjective application. For the most part, we fail miserably in our applications – look at what is being built today! Architecture is a complex process, since the hierarchy of determinations created is significant for every building success. T.S. Elliot reminds us: “…at the still point of the turning world there is a dance…”

What we have learned in the times we share? Every design lives, in principle, within our common observations. Little lies in dialogue are no different in the architect design process. In his book “The End of Suffering” Brent Phillips defines holistic choices as a personal mask. He believes the word “No” should be used often, without explanation. While our ‘communal tribalism’ is a sociological evolution, perhaps the desire to share is our appreciation of communication. Our need for evolutionary storytelling are the experiences shared which we learn from. So much logorrhea exists on the internet, in our media and in common conversation. Someone has to be the ‘King of Sarcasm’ so, why not me?

I am extremely good at design excellence, and this isn’t arrogance. While most people like being risk-aversive, this is exactly what adds spice to creating art. The economist of the “Pareto Principle” states eighty percent of all outcomes result from twenty percent of our causes. Pareto’s beautiful sarcasm, (1848-1923) was his intelligent observation, and I’d wager he too, he was a sarcastic Italian. In architecture the satisfaction of creating aesthetic appreciation requires synchronicity. Without this combined symphony of all parts (20%), the story told (80% of the time, according to Pareto) does not work.

Every stylized design represents a collective social experience in architecture. From post-modern to traditional movements, from Classic to Rococo, from Romanesque to Federalist, from relaxed Italian Country to California casual, the context of the ‘decorated shed’ as R. Venturi asserts, are just copies of styles that work in our social context. (My apologies to Ayn Rand). There is not one-single-best-solution in design, and I certainly do not fret over causal mistakes made. I believe in the organic aspect of design consideration in architecture. I love buildings adapted to each site by attribute, nestled into specific solutions that every individual site possesses. All prominent structures have this great-design-attribute, which is timeless in stylistic execution.
Life is not short, it is an exact, finite timespan of our personal interaction of shared moments. Nothing matters for understanding succinct brevity. Like so many words, the message itself may change us. While I may need clients I don’t like, I will enjoy our projects together. In building beauty that’s the fun part.

Wednesday April 17, 2025

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Learning from those we surround ourselves with is the highest reward. John Lennon once sang: “We don’t have problems- only solutions.” I agree with this sentiment, as today I find my fathers past lessons most valuable. Everything is about being creative, and no one has enough commissions to validate this. “It is not,” my dad said to me a while ago, “about the things we leave behind, but about that sharing we carry forward.”
While we celebrate the closing of one circle, I carry on this Alfred Browning Parker, FAIA within me, the artist and the builder. In so many circles of acquaintances, with so much to share, all greatness is followed by the tracks we leave behind. On his shoulders, in his footsteps I carry on my fathers belief.

Especially in this age of instantaneous access, architects exude stories of design quality throughout our careers. The ultimate pragmatist, I believe in to do what you love. Early success perhaps has come to me because I’m too busy looking for creative solutions. Simplify, simplify. My idealism fosters dreams with a fuel from rare, decisive talent. Insight, interpretation and high reference for nature provides the magnificence in drawing, in words, in materials, in form, in color, in texture, in the pencil-graphite line I have created. From painting to sculptural volume, from prose to poetry, from erudite builder to proficient enabler, the master architect provides great testimony. Walk confidently in the direction of your dreams. “Always share your talent and ability, it isn’t yours to gain, but ours to receive.”
The most important thing in life is what we choose to give each other. I am in awe of the beauty that surrounds us. I live in the dreams my pencils bring into reality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.archwork.com
• Facebook: Quentin Dart Parker
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quentinparker/

Image Credits

certification: all images credit to Quentin Parker.
Photo of Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne and Quentin Parker taken by Jessika Cardinahl