Björn Schrader

Björn enjoys helping clients and colleagues find solutions to seemingly unsolvable challenges. He has honed his modernist architectural approach in Germany and the U.S. for more than two decades, but he leaves his “architect ego” at the door in favor of listening to clients’ ideas.

Specializing in commercial and healthcare projects, he designs ground-up buildings as well as tenant improvements. He defies the status quo by mixing typologies, like introducing elements of residential or workplace design into medical environments, for example. He also enjoys visiting sites to observe firsthand how spaces shape and respond to their occupants’ activities. “My primary driver is my client and the community I’m serving,” he says. “I’m not creating spaces for my personal satisfaction, but rather to improve the environments where people work and heal.”

One of his favorite built projects is The Platform, a boutique retail center in Culver City whose name and form evoke its setting near freight rail lines and its function as a showcase for unique offerings. And one of his proudest moments was a quiet one: During the pre-design process for a healthcare project, the client advised him to visit a nearby clinic to study how its thoughtful design benefitted patients and staff, not knowing that Björn himself had designed the space.