Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Hatch McLean.
Christopher, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have always had a strong interest in architecture, art and design that was instilled in me very early on by my parents who pushed me to take countless art classes and exposed me to many great architects. My family has had a long history within the arts and I have always been driven by the legacy left behind by my great uncle Benjamin Bishop Johnson who worked at the Smithsonian in his early years and passed away after starting the art conservation program at the LACMA during the 1960s. My affinity for art has always been contrasted by my love for the outdoors created during my upbringing in Alaska where I grew up on a cattle farm in the small town of Wasilla. This love for the outdoors and the arts has continued to grow stronger as I have gone further down the path of becoming an architect.
After high school, I moved to Seattle to study Art and Pre-Architecture at the University of Washington. Seattle had a major impact on me being that it was the first time I experienced architectural masterpieces in person. During this period of time, I took a variety of amazing art classes such as black & white photography, drawing, and graphic design which I have carried with me throughout my entire career as a designer.
Upon completing two years at the University of Washington, I transferred to the University of Oregon to obtain my BArch degree that would later allow me to obtain my architecture license. Oregon was considered to be the #1 school for sustainability in the country at the time and I found myself obsessed with the concept after being saturated by it. Not only did I get a lot of exposure to performance-based green design most people are familiar with, I also learned about sustainability theory characterized by radical new ways of thinking about how to change the way people live and think.
While attending Oregon, I studied abroad in Rome which opened my eyes up to the long history of architecture and classical philosophies that undoubtedly changed me forever. After completing my junior year at Oregon I won the only summer internship offered to work at the prestigious MillHull Partnership in Seattle where I trained directly under the late Robert Hull, who was the godfather of the Pacific Northwest Modernist design movement. At MillerHull, I worked on some of the most cutting edge sustainability-focused buildings in the world including the Bullitt Center, which is called the “World’s Greenest Office Building” after it met the living building challenge.
During my final year at Oregon, I met Kulapat Yantrasast who offered me a job in Los Angeles to work for wHY Architecture. While at wHY I had the privilege to work on projects with the great Japanese architect, Tadao Ando. This was a really important period of time for me because Kulapat pushed me to develop my design abilities to new levels as I worked on a variety of incredible art-related projects such as: the Harvard Art Museum, the MOCA in LA, the Pomona Studio Art Hall and the Speed Art Museum. I worked for wHY for two years until I was presented an opportunity to help start a new architecture firm in Venice Beach with two other young creatives. Starting this new company was an extremely empowering experience for me because I was given the ability to have full control over the projects I was working on, something rarely offered to young designers. This gave me the chance to develop my own ways of working and provided me time to obtain my architectural license while I built my own client base.
After seven years of working for other architects I branched off to start my own company called HATCH which is a multidisciplinary design firm focused on blending sustainability with architecture, wellness, art and design. HATCH is my middle name and is short for Hatcher Pass in Alaska, a state park filled with mountains I used to explore throughout my youth. HATCH now has nearly a dozen projects in four countries and I intend to expand it into a large design firm aimed at creating a positive impact on the world.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Architecture is an extremely challenging industry. It requires extensive coordination and countless thoughtful decisions to create a building. These difficulties multiply when you are doing fully custom projects in highly regulated places. If you have ever done a simple remodel you have likely experienced a taste of this, now try to imagine those challenges when you are working on a multi-million dollar ground-up project with a large team of stakeholders. The three challenges I am constantly faced with are: coordination, schedule and budget; the true art of architecture is finding a way to elegantly juggle all these pieces; I am always looking for ways to become a better conductor because I know that this will allow me to do more impactful work.
On a personal level, the biggest challenge I am faced with is finding a good live/work balance. Sleep is something I am constantly lacking being that I find it very difficult to walk away from my work knowing that it is impossible to get the drawings perfect. This is very common in architecture, but more recently I have begun to understand the importance of finding this balance and have treated this as a design challenge in itself to give more time back to my personal life.
Please tell us about Hatch.
HATCH is unique in that it is boundless and decommodified of aesthetic; rather than providing clients with a signature style, HATCH is focused towards doing work that is tailored specifically to each individual design challenge. This philosophy is carried into the kinds of projects we take on being that we relish in accepting new types of work. We are currently working on: constructing product prototypes, branding, masterplans, museums, cultural buildings, institutional projects, commercial buildings, retail stores, interior design, art explorations, landscapes and a variety of residential buildings. The thing that I am most proud of is that we have been able to embed the philosophy of sustainability into all these unique projects and we have been really happy to see how receptive clients are to it.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t change a thing; while I did make mistakes along the way, I would not be who I am today without them.
Contact Info:
- Address: 122 Lincoln Blvd. Venice, CA 90291
- Website: hatch-inc.com
- Phone: 9078416970
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @hatch_inc
- Facebook: @hatcharchitectureinc
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