#44 - Hold Your Values with Bonnie Bridges, Studio BBA

Bonnie Bridges is the founder and Principal of Studio BBA in San
Francisco. A strategic, clear thinker, perceptive listener and
creative dynamo, Bonnie leads Studio BBA with adaptability,
energy and fearless optimism. Drawing on deep expertise in the
skilled facilitation of decisions and processes, and an
intuitive, analytic nature, she guides the studio’s atelier of
designers in creating beautiful, enriching, successful spaces and
buildings for their clients.


Bonnie brings a keen awareness of place and purpose to her work,
with an approach to the design process grounded in human
experience, logic and thoughtful actions. This humanistic
methodology took form during her graduate and doctoral research,
which explored the relationship between being and
building—through contemporary architectural theory and the study
of phenomenology as interpreted and developed by Husserl and
Heidegger, Kenneth Frampton, and Juhanni Palassma.


Site-specificity and material simplicity are essential aesthetic
principles in Bonnie’s work, informed by growing up in California
and ten years in the Sonoran Desert. She was profoundly inspired
by these landscapes—imprinting within her a fundamental
experience of light and space.


Actively involved in the civic realm and the greater
architectural community, Bonnie is fueled by a deep, longstanding
dedication to advancing the profession—through mentoring,
teaching, advisory and Board roles. Bonnie founded the firm in
1992, preceded by working for award-winning firms in California
and Arizona.


In this episode Bonnie shares how her deep knowledge of
contemporary architectural theory enriches all projects at the
firm. Bonnie talks about how at the core of her work is the
belief that everyone who participates in a project actually
matters. She also shares her experience of starting her own
practice while raising a family, and that one can be dedicated to
their intellect, values, and what they bring to society, but
equally dedicated to their family.