SALAD DAYS

Step Inside Design, Sep/Oct 2007 by Walker, Alissa

Kara Bartlett and Michael Chung met while getting their Masters of Architecture at Yale, then both went on to work across the street at renownedarchitecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli. But even after founding their own firm, Lettuce, Bartlett and Chung never limited themselves to the built environment. A typical project might be something like the Sandwich Shop in downtown L.A., where they're designing the space as well as all the branding, signage and menu graphics. They were recently awarded a Spark Award for their Buffer House, an inventive urban residence that also acts like a living sculpture, designed to sprout green walls like a giant Chia Pet. The pair make furniture, they design buildings, and they even do feasibility studies for developers-work which they embrace as just another form of creative problem solving. www.lettuceoffice.com

ALISSA WALKER is a design writer, production assistant on the public radio show DnA: Design and Architecture and a design expert on the HGTV interior design show Small Space, Big Style. She lives in Hollywood. alissa@gelatobaby.com