00:02
Michael Møller Pedersen
I chose a picture, Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor by Vilhelm Hammershøi.

00:09
Michael Møller Pedersen
One of the things that spoke to me about the painting is the simplicity of the setup and the excellence of execution.

00:17
Michael Møller Pedersen
Really focusing on a simple motive that's not in itself necessarily noteworthy, in this case, a woman sitting by a table in front of a window. It's not something you would even take a picture of today with your phone. But spending a long time capturing that on a canvas and highlighting a scene and making something that's everyday commonality into something unique and special, that speaks to me.

00:45
Michael Møller Pedersen
By elevating it into something that's noteworthy and grander with perfect lighting and perfect technique, I think that was something that really relates to the work that I do.

01:02
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
My name is Tina Jøhnk Christensen, and I'm the host of Danish Originals, a podcast series created in partnership with the American Friends of the National Gallery of Denmark. Our goal is to celebrate Danish creatives who have made a significant mark in the US.

01:18
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Today, our guest is Michael Pedersen, a Danish architect. Welcome Michael.

01:24
Michael Møller Pedersen
Thank you so much.

01:25
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
We're at your workplace in Downtown Los Angeles. It's an architecture firm called Gensler. You are a senior associate. What is your job here?

01:35
Michael Møller Pedersen
We have associate, senior associate, and principal, those are the three tiers within our firm. I'm a project architect and a technical director, so basically I'm in charge of getting stuff built. The design part, I'm usually involved in that, but I'm also very much involved in the process of documentation, working with city officials, working with engineers and contractors, and figuring out how to build the vision that was created initially and the client bought off on.

02:09
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Maybe we can talk a little bit about the building itself. You just did some renovation and some redesigning and it looks amazing. How would you describe it?

02:18
Michael Møller Pedersen
This was an existing bank building. It's part of a large urban complex of two highrises and then a building in the middle, which we call The Jewel Box. We like to say that we hacked the bank building, created to represent authority, into something that's inviting, added skylights to bring daylight into it and making it open and available to everyone. We open it up to the city as well, to invite people in, to show that we are for everyone and we are part of the downtown community.

02:51
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
You also added some color to it.

02:53
Michael Møller Pedersen
We added color. We are architects and we like to show people something that has a little bit of a color, a little bit of a warmth, to it as well.

03:01
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Yes. The color red, it looks amazing.

03:04
Michael Møller Pedersen
It's the Gensler red.

03:05
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
It's the Gensler red, of course. We are in Downtown Los Angeles. It is not exactly the center of Los Angeles, but it's a unique part of our city. How would you describe Downtown Los Angeles? I'm looking straight at the old library building, which is amazing. I'm assuming it's some Art Deco mixed with something else, but you describe it.

03:28
Michael Møller Pedersen
Downtown LA is a mix of a lot of things. It has a rich history going back to some of the first settlements in Los Angeles around the pueblo. So there's obviously a lot of Spanish / Mexican heritage in the city that's part of the history. And then, Downtown has really evolved. Had a big boom in the '70s and '80s. So a lot of the highrise office buildings were built in that period.

03:52
Michael Møller Pedersen
And then it was quiet for a while. It then evolved into more of a residential area. Especially south of here, a lot of residential buildings were added in the last 10–15 years. And that's been obviously a positive development for the city. It's still an area of LA that's struggling to find its identity. It is a mix of that residential fabric, and then, very much the business fabric of highrise office buildings.

04:23
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And you and your company have added to it, I believe.

04:27
Michael Møller Pedersen
We've certainly added. We, as a large company in LA, do a lot of projects here, including some highrise residential buildings. We did the Metropolis project, which is just south of here, close to the Staples Center. And we've done a lot of smaller renovation projects. We do a lot of the interiors for large office tenants here.

04:47
Michael Møller Pedersen
And we also do repositioning of buildings for landlords to attract new tenants, to increase their attractiveness to tenants. And then we've done some historical renovations, also here in Downtown, again, south of here, the old Hearst building, the Herald Examiner Building, which we restored. A couple years ago, we completed that project. So we've certainly added to the fabric of downtown in many different ways.

05:13
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
If you were to describe this very vast city from an architect's point of view, how would you describe it? There are many different areas in this city. They have very different identities and there are pockets with architectural gems here and there. So maybe you can make your picks and describe some of your favorite parts of Los Angeles.

05:35
Michael Møller Pedersen
To me, that's what makes LA really interesting, but also challenging, especially if you're visiting. We certainly have a lot of people that visit LA. They've maybe been to LA before. They didn't really like it 'cause they never really found it. Los Angeles is the size of Zealand in Denmark, the whole island.

05:53
Michael Møller Pedersen
And so trying to find the pockets that are interesting takes a little bit of digging and takes some local knowledge. I think that's part of the fascination that you can find every culture, every style and type of architecture within the city fabric. You just have to know where to go and look. And it takes a little bit of time.

06:13
Michael Møller Pedersen
It's not like a European city where you go to the center, anywhere around the train station, you're gonna find all the interesting parts of the city. That is not the case for Los Angeles. It's a more advanced city to really understand, and to find the essence of Los Angeles takes some time. But then once you do, you will find that it's probably the most multicultural city in the world, and the most diverse architectural city in the world as well.

06:43
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
If you were to highlight a few of your favorites in Los Angeles, what can we find?

06:48
Michael Møller Pedersen
I certainly have my own favorites. A classic example would be the Bradbury Building here in Downtown. It's featured in movies like Blade Runner, a great example of some of the early architectural styles of Los Angeles, of Art Deco. Another favorite would be the Getty Center both for its architecture, certainly also for the art collection.

07:08
Michael Møller Pedersen
It's perched on a hilltop, built over a long period of time. And one of those classic examples of a stubborn architect and a stubborn client, trying to find a perfect match. And the result is pretty spectacular.

07:23
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And marble from Italy.

07:24
Michael Møller Pedersen
Travertine from Italy, yes. And no compromises, basically. That's another beauty. You find a lot of little odd buildings as you drive around the city. And to me, that's the real gems. It's not necessarily somewhere you would take a tourist to show off, but it's something that pleases me as I go to a new part of the city.

07:44
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
There are some famous architects who have made iconic buildings here in Los Angeles, like Frank Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright, and John Lautner. Do you have role models here in LA or are your role models completely different people?

08:00
Michael Møller Pedersen
I grew up in Denmark. I studied architecture in Denmark, and a lot of my initial exposure to architecture was in Europe. So I would say probably a lot of my personal heroes, architecturally, are European and Danish. Of the Americans, John Lautner is definitely one of my favorites, just for the sheer expressionism of the architecture, the boldness.

08:23
Michael Møller Pedersen
One of the things that always impresses me with architecture is when someone takes something that's technically benign, but you elevate that experience to something that's grander. And I think John Lautner does that to the extreme.

08:36
Michael Møller Pedersen
My other architectural heroes — Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect, Utzon, Danish architect. It's a sensibility, it's a focus on the human experience, a lot of texture and hierarchy, and really understanding light and materials.

08:53
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
When you look for inspiration for your own work in Los Angeles, where do you look?

08:59
Michael Møller Pedersen
Working with some of the clients, we're always trying to enhance their experience but also the people who are going to use their buildings. So that's usually our starting point. So it's more of an experience starting point than a stylistic starting point. We certainly also are very aware of the location of the projects, the surroundings, the scale.

09:22
Michael Møller Pedersen
So a lot of our initial studies really have to do with program scale, getting the best result out of what's available to us, and looking for those opportunities to enhance the experience. And then of course we go out and we find other inspiration as well.

09:39
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Let's talk a little bit about what brought you to Los Angeles, but with a look into the past to explain the beginning. You grew up in Århus. Your parents, they were both professors.

09:51
Michael Møller Pedersen
Yes. My mother was a professor in the history of mathematics and my father in the history of physics. Both very heavy subjects, not super exciting, not necessarily something you share with all your buddies, it is a little dry. But very helpful when you're in gymnasium and you need help with your math or your physics exercises. It comes in really handy.

10:15
Michael Møller Pedersen
They did give me a sense of focus and seriousness about work. They both got to travel all over Europe to study the history of science, meaning going to libraries all over Europe — Paris, Holland, London — and dragging the kids along with them. That gave some advantages as well.

10:35
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Did you always dream of becoming an architect when you were a little boy? Or did you daydream about something else when you were in school?

10:44
Michael Møller Pedersen
I obviously wanted to be a firefighter and a pilot, but I loved to draw when I was a kid. And I think I always had sort of an eye for solving issues, solving problems. Problem solving was big for me.

10:57
Michael Møller Pedersen
One of my first experiences that probably shaped my direction was, my mother was spending three months at the Danish Academy in Rome, and my brother and I went out for a week to visit her at the Danish Academy building by Kay Fisker, 1967.

11:15
Michael Møller Pedersen
And just living there on that property for a week, and understanding that a main interest doesn't have to be just a door, it could be a huge staircase; a view doesn't have to be to the outside, it can be to the inside with a sculpture and some nice lighting. I think some of those things really resonated with me, that things were done extremely well.

11:40
Michael Møller Pedersen
And I think from that point on, I started to notice things that I thought didn't make sense. And I remember having conversations about how I could do this better.

11:51
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What period in your life was this?

11:52
Michael Møller Pedersen
I was probably ten when I was in Rome. And so in my early teens, when I started to have these conversations with myself and with my family, certainly. And traveling through Europe, looking at architecture, visiting churches or libraries or grand buildings, you get inspired.

12:09
Michael Møller Pedersen
I like the awe that a building can bring you just by its presence. I think that always fascinated me. And so that's some of the things I try to bring into what I'm doing now, taking something that's fairly straightforward and trying to bring that wow moment to everything we do.

12:28
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Do you still experience that wow moment?

12:30
Michael Møller Pedersen
I do. I do. I'm not a religious person, but whenever I'm traveling, I always go to churches, 'cause that's usually one of the spaces where you will find some of that. They're designed to make you feel humble and impressed.

12:43
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
A lot of effort went into that. You went to architecture school in Århus. Which kind of foundation did your education and maybe also the tradition of Danish architecture give you?

12:59
Michael Møller Pedersen
The Danish tradition, both in terms of architecture and the teaching at the school, which is very much based in theory and history, more so than nuts and bolts. Some architecture schools are very technical. Certainly at the time, the architecture school in Århus was very philosophical.

13:16
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What does this mean?

13:17
Michael Møller Pedersen
There's a lot of focus on writing, on the concepts of architecture, the perception of architecture — the purpose of architecture is supposed to move people in a certain way. This was in the era of discussions around deconstruction taking away from postmodernism. There was a lot of discourse surrounding challenging the status quo.

13:38
Michael Møller Pedersen
So, really a lot of conversation was about that more than about how do you put two pieces of wood together in a beautiful way. That, I would say, probably came later. But having that background of being able to understand the history of what it is you're doing, how it fits into the history of architecture, the history of space, certainly gave a strong foundation for a career in architecture.

14:05
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Fun point of reference. Christian, who is our director on Danish Originals, used to go to school with you, I believe. Was he a good student or not so good student?

14:15
Michael Møller Pedersen
I'll hold my judgment on that. We not only went to the same school, we went to the same department at the school, Department D, which was probably the most forward thinking. And so I think that's part of the reason why we connected very well back then and still to this day know each other and connect very well.

14:34
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And both based in Los Angeles. And you studied in New York for a semester.

14:38
Michael Møller Pedersen
I did. One semester, yes.

14:40
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What did you specialize in when you were studying there?

14:43
Michael Møller Pedersen
I think for me it was more about trying a different study culture and getting exposed to that.

14:49
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
It was at bachelor level?

14:51
Michael Møller Pedersen
Bachelor level, undergrad, at Pratt Institute in New York. Incidentally, our CEO at Gensler is a Pratt alumni, and I'm the only other person in the company who went to Pratt, so we have a good connection. Again, architectural school in Denmark was very free. It was very focused on a lot of theoretical discussion.

15:11
Michael Møller Pedersen
And I think having an experience of something that was a little bit more structured, a little bit more focused, was the prime reason for wanting to try something different. And then the opportunity to live in New York for six months was certainly also a huge draw, and a big part of my experience there.

15:29
Michael Møller Pedersen
But I certainly had an awakening in terms of the level of seriousness, the amount of work required, to follow the curriculum in a school of design in New York. Probably spent more time in my little studio apartment than I anticipated. And less time roaming around the streets of New York.

15:47
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Did it give you a taste of the US?

15:49
Michael Møller Pedersen
It certainly did. I lived in Boston as a kid with my mother for six months, which gave me the American sense of the language, and a part of that sense of adventure is probably kindled there as well.

16:02
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
You graduated and you entered the Danish job market. What was your first job interview like?

16:10
Michael Møller Pedersen
Actually, my first job interview wasn't in Denmark. It was in Holland. One of my professors had a contact with an architect in Holland, Wiel Arets, and so he set up an interview. I went down to Maastricht in the south of Holland. I had an interview. On my way back, I got a call that I got the job. So that was the first interview.

16:31
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
First interview?

16:32
Michael Møller Pedersen
First interview, first job.

16:33
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Okay. Impressive.

16:36
Michael Møller Pedersen
My professor spoke very well of me and gave me a good head start.

16:41
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And so what was that like working in Holland?

16:44
Michael Møller Pedersen
It was definitely inspiring. This was an architect who was also very much focused on the grand, the experience, the light, the material, and didn't compromise. And he was in a position where he didn't have to, being able to spend a lot of time figuring out the right detail, the right mix of how to experience a building.

17:07
Michael Møller Pedersen
I think that set the groundwork for even today, saying there's always a better way. A problem can always be solved if you spend enough time on it. And you can always enhance the experience if you are willing to put some effort into it.

17:21
Michael Møller Pedersen
That is also the downfall of our trade, that you can always continue and if you continue, the product will be better. But we have limited fees. We are driven by the hours of the day, so we are limited by that.

17:33
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
By the client's budget.

17:34
Michael Møller Pedersen
By the client's budget, our own budget.

17:37
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
How did you then make the choice to move to Los Angeles? You were in Holland. What were the next steps to here, where we are sitting in Downtown LA?

17:47
Michael Møller Pedersen
It's a long journey. It's a lot of years. I was a couple years in Holland, came back to Denmark, worked in Denmark for six years, and met my wife in Denmark. And we both had a sense there's something else out there that we wanted to explore. Life in Denmark is beautiful. It is safe. It is also predictable. And I think we wanted to explore the unpredictable a little bit.

18:12
Michael Møller Pedersen
We both had a great fascination with the United States. I studied in New York, she had been to Los Angeles. So we went to Los Angeles to convince me that we should stay in Los Angeles and not New York. And the trip did that. And so I started applying for jobs in Los Angeles and was successful, and that allowed us to move to the United States in 2005.

18:36
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And when you finally made that choice that you were gonna go for the unpredictable, as you say, and that you wanted to move across the Atlantic and also the USA to Los Angeles and create a new life, how did you practically realize it? What were the things you needed to consider in order to realize that dream, so to speak?

18:59
Michael Møller Pedersen
The good thing was we didn't really know what we were getting into. But we knew that in order to have a chance of being successful, we had to really commit to it. We sold everything, packed a few lamps and nice pieces of furniture, some knives and personal items, and basically went here. So we didn't leave anything behind.

19:18
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
So you shipped a container.

19:20
Michael Møller Pedersen
We shipped everything over, and committed to it in that way and said, we're gonna give this a ten year trial period. Because if you come here with the expectation of being successful within six months or a year, that's gonna be hard. And you likely will be disappointed and more likely to give up and go home.

19:39
Michael Møller Pedersen
And we've seen that certainly happen. By having that commitment, I think that gave us the foundation of even when things weren't going as we were expecting, even when we were facing challenges — we obviously always had that discussion, is this it, are we going back? But we had the foundation of no, we're committed to this. And so we stayed and we made it through. And here we are still.

20:02
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
20 years later, you are still here.

20:04
Michael Møller Pedersen
20 years later.

20:06
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What kind of advice would you give young architects who have the same dreams that you have to make the process easier for them? In other words, what were the mistakes that you made that you wish that somebody had told you, hey, you gotta watch out for that.

20:23
Michael Møller Pedersen
I don't know if there's any specific things. I think just having an open mind, be aware that things are not gonna go the way you planned. And that's a good thing. When you make such a big move, things are just out of your control sometimes. And you'd have to just adapt to that.

20:39
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Can you mention an example of things that didn't go according to plan?

20:42
Michael Møller Pedersen
Well, we came in 2005. In 2008, there was a huge financial crisis in the world. Everyone got laid off. My wife had a business that we had to close, and we were on a visa that was tied to the job that I no longer had. That's a challenge, but we managed to find a way through that. I managed to find another job, and we were able to stay.

21:07
Michael Møller Pedersen
But that's nothing you can really prepare for other than understanding that with a background in a Danish education, as a Danish architect, or really any kind of Danish creative, whatever your background is, you have a very strong foundation and you meet a lot of goodwill with that background over here.

21:30
Michael Møller Pedersen
Danes, Scandinavians, probably especially in the creative world, are met with open arms, understanding that we do have a different background, we have a different outlook on things than probably people from the United States or other places in the world might have. So lean on that foundation, trust that foundation, and challenges can be overcome.

21:53
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And I have to tell the listeners that your wife had this clothes store called Danmark. I think it was on Melrose. Am I right?

22:01
Michael Møller Pedersen
It was on Third Street.

22:02
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
It was on Third Street, close to Melrose, so I'm not completely off. And it was a great store. I bought a few items there from her.

22:09
Michael Møller Pedersen
Thank you.

22:11
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Yes. You'll be pleased to hear that, Lehang! Would you say that your dream has been fulfilled and if yes, in which ways?

22:21
Michael Møller Pedersen
Yeah, I think it has. I think we've accomplished what we initially set out to do. I'm also always very cognizant of not reaching a goal. If I'm close to reaching a goal, I'll set a new one. I think it's something I learned when I was younger. I saw that if you have one goal in life and you then achieve it, then you're a little bit at a loss because now what?

22:45
Michael Møller Pedersen
So I do have goals and I would love to achieve them, but I also always want to have new ones. To answer your question, we have found what we came here looking for, which was new experiences, challenges, and adventures. And we certainly got all of that, which is why we're still here.

23:05
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
More dreams that you want to fulfill?

23:08
Michael Møller Pedersen
Always, always.

23:10
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What are they? Are you gonna reveal just one of them?

23:12
Michael Møller Pedersen
Well, some of them are career-related, work-related. One of the things that I love about being here, working here, working for a large company, like Gensler, is the opportunities are almost limitless. We work all over the world on some very large and complicated projects, and I love those challenges.

23:35
Michael Møller Pedersen
I love working with extremely professional people, trying to achieve some very high goals. And there are certainly some project types I would still love to be a part of. I'm fortunate I'm part of some rather large projects, and I get those challenges certainly fulfilled. So from a career standpoint, yes, there are still some things that I think I can achieve here.

23:58
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And maybe we should just mention that you talked before that there are about 500 people working in this building alone, which is not a small amount.

24:07
Michael Møller Pedersen
We're a large architectural firm. We're globally around 6,000 people with offices in 50 cities. We do airports, stadiums, very large residential projects, projects for governments, cities, counties. So there's a lot of things still to be done. I love the challenges of those large and complicated projects.

24:31
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
There's a library here and sustainability is an important issue when it comes to what you have in that library. Maybe talk about why sustainability is important.

24:41
Michael Møller Pedersen
As one of the few individual companies that signed the Paris Accord, sustainability is hugely important for us as a firm in general, always very high on our list of priorities. Understanding that the building industry is one of the large culprits in terms of CO2 emissions, volatile emissions of materials, one of the things we've done is to really go beyond what the law requires and try to tell vendors that if they don't meet certain sustainability criteria that we set, we will not use their materials.

25:17
Michael Møller Pedersen
The volume of work that we do is large enough that vendors will pay attention when we say that. And so we help drive that industry in a direction where we can actually put our fingerprint on sustainability aspects of some of the materials that are the biggest culprits.

25:36
Michael Møller Pedersen
Things you don't probably think of as huge polluters or issues, like carpet, drywall, paint, insulation. Those are some of the biggest culprits in terms of sustainability. And we can push that envelope and we do.

25:51
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Which part of town do you and Lehang call home and why did you pick this particular place to be your home base?

26:01
Michael Møller Pedersen
When we moved here, we didn't know the city. We didn't really understand the complexity of it. I think we were just lucky. We got some recommendations that the area around The Grove in Mid-Wilshire would be a good place to open a business.

26:15
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Maybe explain what The Grove is.

26:17
Michael Møller Pedersen
The Grove started as a farmer's market where people would come in and sell their groceries, and it grew into a place that now also has food vendors and restaurants, but then also a very large upscale mall with boutiques. And it's an experience and it's a destination.

26:34
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
It has a European feel to it.

26:36
Michael Møller Pedersen
It has very much a European feel to it. The outdoor experience, it's like a pedestrian street in a European city. And then the area around it is really nice. It's very walkable. It's one of the few places in LA where you feel you can leave your car at home and not get back in it until Monday morning. So you can have a weekend where you're just walking around and seeing restaurants, galleries, museums, all that.

26:59
Michael Møller Pedersen
So that's where we ended up by chance and that we love. And I think that happens a lot for people in Los Angeles, that you land somewhere and then that's the place you get to know and love and that is home. I think a lot of people are fairly loyal to the neighborhood in LA that they live in and work in.

27:19
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What are the downsides of living in Los Angeles?

27:22
Michael Møller Pedersen
Certainly in the beginning, traffic was something that you noticed. I think being here a long time, you work around that, you factor that in. You just deal with it. And you understand that that's just something you have to do.

27:34
Michael Møller Pedersen
The distance from Denmark is certainly a factor, but it's something you get used to. We've gone home to Denmark for a weekend party. It can be done. It's ten hours, but you often waste ten hours doing something else. So why not spend them on a plane going somewhere where you'll meet your friends and family?

27:51
Michael Møller Pedersen
I don't see a lot of downsides to being in Los Angeles. Obviously there's a reason we are still here. There are certainly things that don't function as efficiently as they would in Denmark. Some aesthetics, some socio-political things, are not in line with how we think. But the upsides outweigh those. In general, I don't think there's a lot of downsides to it, but you have to be just aware that things are done differently in good ways and bad.

28:20
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
You have a wonderful little daughter, Grace. You speak Danish to her. Why is it important to you that she speaks Danish?

28:30
Michael Møller Pedersen
It's our heritage, right? It's our roots. We're both Danish, we have family still in Denmark, and even though we've been here 20 years, all three of us are dual citizens, Danish and American. We very much feel like Danes in the United States, not Americans with a Danish background.

28:47
Michael Møller Pedersen
We celebrate that. And we want to make sure that that heritage, and language is a big part of that heritage, is part of Grace as well. So she spends a lot of time in Denmark with her mom, around her grandparents as much as possible, to really enhance that and make sure that that Danish is part of her background.

29:07
Michael Møller Pedersen
When she gets old enough, she'll start school in the United States. And if we don't give her that strong Danish background, Danish will probably be a secondary language to her. So now is the time to give her that backbone.

29:20
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And Michael, I have to ask you a question that people often ask women. How do you juggle family and work? America's known for long work hours and I'm sure you're stuck here sometimes late. How do you juggle it?

29:34
Michael Møller Pedersen
One of the advantages of becoming a parent late in life is that I've established a certain level of credibility within the firm. So I have flexibility in the way that I work, and it's actually something that this company really enhances and tells the stories of our founder who did the same.

29:52
Michael Møller Pedersen
I'll be at work, I'll leave early, so that I can spend time with Grace and my wife. And then when Grace is in bed, I will go back and work for a couple hours in the evening and catch up. That's maybe not something you do if you're early in your career and you feel pressured to stay long hours and show that you're here. But with my tenure, I certainly understand that I have that flexibility and I take advantage of it.

30:18
Michael Møller Pedersen
And that's part of my Danish background. Family is important. Work life balance is something that we not only teach, but practice.

30:27
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
As an architect, are you constantly redesigning your own house, your own home?

30:33
Michael Møller Pedersen
I constantly have ideas. We've certainly done a lot of work to our home. We bought a house three years ago and did some extensive remodeling right off the bat. And we are still tinkering with things. There's always new ideas, new projects and things we want to do. So yes. I can't help myself.

30:52
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Being a Danish architect in LA, what have you learned that makes you particularly Danish in your approach to architecture?

31:04
Michael Møller Pedersen
I think a lot of the values of what architecture and architects in Denmark have, are starting to spell out and become more universal. I think the focus on the human experience as number one is one of the strong traits of being a Danish architect. Materiality, yes, craftsmanship, certainly as well. Those are things that we are known for.

31:28
Michael Møller Pedersen
That unique focus on this is the human experience — Oftentimes you'll see projects here in the United States that are really crafted out of a spreadsheet: a client has some performance numbers that need to be met, and then architects scramble to meet those goals. And the actual architecture, the actual experience, becomes secondary.

31:52
Michael Møller Pedersen
And certainly my background, my focus, and what we do in the studio that I'm in is turn that around and say, look, if we are doing things the right way for the people that use the building, that own the building, that are part of this building, all the other things will fall into place, and your spreadsheet might actually improve at the end of the day.

32:15
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What are you the most proud of career-wise? What are your biggest achievements? Michael, and now you can leave the Danish Jante Law behind, which is that law that you are not supposed to be bigger than anybody else.

32:29
Michael Møller Pedersen
I'm proud of a lot of the things I've done. Starting from when I worked in Holland, I worked on the University Library in Ultrecht, which to me still is one of my favorite buildings in the world. That was a great experience to be part of that vision.

32:45
Michael Møller Pedersen
And then here in the US, probably the last two large projects that I've done, the Metropolis here in Downtown LA, the residential high-rise tower, and The Landmark on the west side, also a large 35-story residential tower. Both of those I'm really proud of.

33:02
Michael Møller Pedersen
They're game changers in terms of the residential experience in Los Angeles, the perception of what it means to create large multifamily housing in Los Angeles. From our client standpoint, they perform very well, but from our architectural standpoint, I think they're also great examples of what can actually be done that's not typically American.

33:24
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What are the main qualifications of an architect? What does one require to be a good one?

33:31
Michael Møller Pedersen
To become an architect in the first place?

33:33
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Yes. If you look at an architect who's a role model to you, what qualities does he or she have?

33:40
Michael Møller Pedersen
A lot of it's really about personality. Yeah, personal relationships. Typically, we're the center of a lot of things, right? We have a relationship with clients, with contractors, with the city, with everyone, and a lot of that communication goes through us.

33:54
Michael Møller Pedersen
And so being a person who is able to handle that communication and create and hone those relationships is extremely important, and something that I pride myself on, we pride ourselves on as well, having those relationships.

34:08
Michael Møller Pedersen
Practically, there are certain skills that are good to have. Nowadays, we don't draw a lot by hand. Everything is computer modeled, but being able to draw a hand sketch is still very useful. A little bit of understanding of basic math is also very helpful, but generally if you have an interest in design and you have a passion for it, nothing can't be taught. Nothing disqualifies you from being a good architect.

34:31
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
So a building is created on the computer and 3D'ed afterwards. Maybe explain how that's done.

34:39
Michael Møller Pedersen
It's a multitude of collaborations, but it is all done on computers nowadays. It's 3D from the beginning from what we call a massing model. So understanding how tall is the building, how big is the footprint, how much can you fit into that footprint. And then from there you start working out the plans and everything else. But everything is in a 3D model.

35:03
Michael Møller Pedersen
And plans are generated out of that. Contractors work from that model to find out how everything fits together. So everything is a digital 3D experience, much like you would see in a movie. You can walk around in it virtually to a fairly high level of detail. The more you can solve virtually in a computer, the easier it is to actually build it in the field and figure it out.

35:26
Michael Møller Pedersen
Technically, it's very complicated. It takes a long time. I used to say the designing of a building is the easy part. It's putting it together to make it look the way it's designed, that's the tough part. That's the time-consuming part.

35:40
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
What kind of emotions do stars and stripes evoke in you, and what kind of emotions does Dannebrog evoke in you?

35:51
Michael Møller Pedersen
The Dannebrog, obviously, a lot of comfort, a lot of history, a lot of just cozy feelings of riding around the Danish countryside and seeing the flag. The stars and stripes is a little divisive, the way it's being used, but it is also my flag. I'm an American citizen and so it is my flag and represents the country.

36:11
Michael Møller Pedersen
But I think more than the Dannebrog, the American flag is being used more politically. And so it is politically divisive and that's probably the emotion that comes to mind when I see that. It's not just the same comfy, fuzzy hygge feeling as the Danish flag.

36:27
Michael Møller Pedersen
Historically, the American flag is used by the government, whereas the Danish flag, as you may know, is the only flag that's actually the people's flag and not the country's flag. So it is something that the people will use. And I think that speaks to the status of the countries as well as the flags.

36:47
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
The flag is included in every celebration we do, so it's cozy. My final question to you. Where would you like to grow old? Where would you like to live the rest of your life where you get to not think about work, but just live life as a senior citizen?

37:04
Michael Møller Pedersen
Senior citizen, not senior associate. I think I will probably never really stop working. I do love what I do. It's not something I just do. But it's certainly conversations that we are having and have been having. Being in my 50s with a three-year-old daughter, there's some simple math that comes into mind, that by the time I'm retiring, I'll have a daughter who will be gymnasium or college age.

37:28
Michael Møller Pedersen
So I think a lot of it will really be her decision — where does she want to be, where does she want to go to school, what kind of education does she want? And we might just follow that. Selfishly, I think I could probably imagine myself retiring in Denmark over retiring here. The benefits, the comfort, and probably getting some of that hygge back, would be ideal for a retired Michael Pedersen.

37:57
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
On that note, thank you for being part of Danish originals. It's been a pleasure being here and seeing the beautiful Public Library in Downtown Los Angeles behind you from the Gensler building. It has been an honor. Thank you.

38:10
Michael Møller Pedersen
Thank you so much.

38:13
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
For today's episode, Michael Pedersen chose Vilhelm Hammershøi's Stue i Strandgade med solskin på gulvet or Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor from 1901 from the collection of the National Gallery of Denmark.