Glenn Erikson works on the integration of architecture, urban economics, planning, ecology and the arts. Working on teams that won 7 design awards, he taught Urban Economics at CUNY for 17 years, obtained planning permits for the first new low-income SRO Hotel in LA, was Conservation Director for FFI, developed several Artist live-work studio projects, was on the boards of FFI, Westbeth Center for the Arts and The World Policy Institute.
Background
Glenn Erikson lives three months of the year on a trout stream in New York's Catskills. He has fly fished for trout and salmon across the US, Canada, Iceland and the UK. He began life in Indianapolis, was raised in Chicago, educated in Tucson and New Orleans, began work in Southern California, then moved on to Charlotte, VT, NYC, Upstate New York, and now resides in Santa Fe. Work has taken him through 20 states and on to Canada and Europe. He's sailed the length of both coasts, from Anchorage to La Paz and the Great Exumas to Newfoundland. The grandson of indigenous Sami from Sweden, his children and grand children now live in NJ and the UK. He's married to Karina Naumer, an educator and potter.
Education
Glenn earned his Bachelor's in Architecture in 1974 and a Master of Science in Real Estate and Finance in 1981, both from the University of Arizona. Later in 1999 he was awarded a Ph.D. in Religious and Urban Affairs from Summit University of Louisiana in 1999.
Career
Upon completing his studies at the University of Arizona he worked at the office of Deem/Lewis & Partners in San Diego. He served in a variety of roles, including Project Manager, Interiors Designer and Project Designer, working on 6 award winning projects with the firm. Upon receiving his license, he began work at Subbiondo & Associates, where he was the architect for OrangeGate Plaza, a four building, 600,000 SF office complex where he initiated the first use of both pre- and post-tensioned concrete in one building in the US. He then began work at Center Financial Group in Los Angeles as an Investment Banker in order to be able to fund his first development, Morton Park Apartments. He then joined Alan Goodman and formed Los Angeles Land Company (LALC), where he held the firm’s architecture, real estate and construction licenses and developed 16 shopping centers and mixed use projects in Southern California. In 1989 he had a falling out with Goodman, sold his partnership assets in LALC and began his own firm, the Erikson Partnership (later Erikson Leviton and Associates).
Concerned about the impacts of increasing commuting times on both the environment and lifestyle, he searched for a way to create a building that combined both living and working in one unit, thus eliminating the need for commuting. Unfortunately, this type of use was specifically outlawed in the zoning code. However, the building code allowed Artist-In-Residence units in certain converted industrial buildings downtown, at that time an undesirable residential area. He found a commercial site in Venice with an Artcraft overlay, and approached the Planning department with his idea, and was able to obtain a variance for the first live-work project to be approved in Los Angeles, the Electric ArtBlock. This project also achieved higher rents than apartments in Marina Del Rey or Santa Monica, demonstrating the economic viability of live-work. The success of this first of its kind project encouraged hundreds of additional units to be built, in both Venice and Downtown LA.
Another concern was that the city-wide room count for Single Room Occupancy Hotels for the homeless in Los Angeles had declined from 20,000 in the 1930s to less than 10,000 by 1990, in the face of growing demographic pressures. So he began planning work on the Simone Hotel, the first new construction single room occupancy (SRO) hotel for the homeless in Los Angeles. For this project he obtained the largest density bonus the State had up to then allowed, 300%, as well as a parking reduction from over 100 stalls to just seven (the homeless on Skid Row don’t have cars). However, obtaining state financing proved difficult, so he transferred the project to the Skid Row Housing Trust, which completed the project. Again, Erikson’s formula proved successful in initiating hundreds of new SRO units over the coming decades.
Due to the Savings and Loan collapse and resultant recession, Erikson left Los Angeles in 1992, in 1995 went through a divorce and then began his PhD program in Summit University. In 1998 he moved to New York, where he worked for Time Equities as a Director of Acquisitions and Development. There he worked on numerous projects, primarily in New York, Seattle and Berlin Germany. In 2004 Erikson and his partner, Bruce Forer (now deceased) formed Integral Design and Development and purchased a number of commercial and residential rental projects in the Utica, NY metropolitan area. Currently Erikson is developing the Hillside Terrace Lofts in New Hartford, NY, a 150 unit townhouse/apartment complex.
During his career, Erikson took time to climb over a dozen peaks above 9,000 feet, including 3 climbs over 14,000 feet. He has run in three marathons and covered 20 miles a week for over 20 years. He has boated off shore from Anchorage, AK to San Diego, and from the Great Exumas to Newfoundland. He loves to fly fish, maintaining a cabin on a trophy trout section of the Delaware River in NY while he has been on teams that won first, second and third in the annual One Bug contest on that river, and has also fished for trout and salmon in Labrador, Quebec, Iceland and the UK.
Connections
Dr. Erikson is the son of Erik G. Erikson, an electrical engineer who worked on the early warning radar systems for the UK during WWII, then for NORAD while at Bell Labs and later directed Teletype Corporation. He is married to Karina Anne Naumer, a Drama Educator and Potter. They have a son, Erik S. Erikson, a software engineer in New Jersey and a daughter, Annika Liv Erikson who works in London, UK and is the Founder and CEO of Articheck.