Built for All Time
by Laurel Delp
Catharine Garber created the now Palo Alto, California-based Fergus Garber Architects (FGA) in Chicago in 1988. She added Fergus, her maiden name, to give the fledgling company’s name more weight. It was, in fact, a one-woman operation, with her infant son often crawling about under her desk or slumbering in a file cabinet drawer. At the time, her husband, Dan Garber, worked at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).
Since moving to Palo Alto in 1997, the firm has grown in prestige and staff, with 25 employees and two additional partners, Gina Dixon and Kristen Lomax, in line to take over. The firm’s central tenet is the creation of homes that reflect and enhance the owners’ lives through all the changes the years bring. As a result, there’s no particular style for which they’re known. Instead, FGA’s reputation rests on their ability to design high-quality “forever” homes that range from traditional to transitional to contemporary, and includes the updating of a number of historic houses.
Asked to elaborate on the firm’s philosophy, Gina Dixon says, “We’re a little more of a service-oriented firm. And that has led to a wide range of styles that we work on. I guess that’s probably the simplest way to put it.” When asked what kind of architects they are and what makes them different, Dan Garber, who joined the firm full-time in 2002, believes there is a spectrum of architects ranging from service to product firms. “An example of the quintessential product architect is Frank Lloyd Wright. You would hire him in much the way that people hire IBM: an architect who had a defined style and look that sold that product. The big learning curve for me, personally, was recognizing that my wife did things for clients who appreciated what she did for them.”
And because Garber worked on very large commercial projects before joining FGA, he believes they set themselves apart in their personal connection with clients. “Recently, Catharine received a letter from a family that hired her to do their first house 25 years ago, telling her how much they still love the house,” Garber says. “My wife is the one who started the firm,” Garber adds. “I worked on weekends helping her for 20 years, so I, too, got hired by Catharine,” he says with a laugh. “The firm was built around her.”
Garber brought diverse experience to the firm. After SOM, he worked at a major real estate management firm, then as a vice president at Relign Consulting, where his work with Sun Microsystems led to the family’s move to Palo Alto, which proved to be the perfect fit. His expertise in improving business systems for architectural firms led to his being named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in 2014. Garber is also a scholar of what’s known as ‘the Peninsula,’ the large expanse of land south of the city of San Francisco, bordered by the San Francisco Bay on the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. In the years since their move to Palo Alto, FGA has become renowned for the homes it’s designed across the Peninsula and beyond.
Viewed from its east façade, a home’s single-story and two-story wings unite in tethering it to the earth and choreographing easy movement between indoors and outdoors. The 13-acre site had suffered from renovations that caused significant erosion, and the design response was to extensively regrade the hill. In their colors and textures, the exterior materials help the home harmonize with its surroundings. Both of the Garbers were inspired by the work of Birge Clark (1893–1989), who had a profound effect on Palo Alto and the surrounding area, primarily working in what he called “Early California,” an interpretation of Spanish Colonial and Mission Revival styles. But Clark’s clients always came first, so there were various styles in his portfolio. FGA has also renovated a number of his homes.
“We recognized that he was the paradigm for us to use to organize as a service-oriented firm,” Garber explains. “And one of the characteristics that you see in an architect that works at that end of the spectrum is that they do work in a variety of styles and that what they’re trying to do is find out what is meaningful to their client, as opposed to, ‘Here’s a house that I did and I can modify it for you.’ So for us, the enjoyment comes from understanding what our client wants. Most of our clients don’t get what that is when they start out, so it’s this thread of discovery that really makes it meaningful to them as well as to us in doing that.” That said, there is something FGA houses have in common.
“We tend to do things that have larger rooms and simple plans, so that a house has what many people refer to as strong bones, because it gives you the flexibility to live in it as your life changes throughout your lifespan,” Garber says, adding “Often with clients who have very young kids, we walk them through how they’re going to live in the house once the kids are grown.”
Their partner Gina Dixon came to FGA after she and her husband moved to nearby Mountain View. She was drawn by the positive office culture. After what she calls a marathon interview that included lunch and coffee, followed by another long interview, she was sold on the firm. “There were a lot of young professionals there,” she says. “And they just had really great things to say about the company. The cherry on the top was that Catharine was doing beautiful work. That aspect was interesting too, and how they were working with clients.”
Dixon’s mother was an art teacher, so drawing was second nature. She chose Notre Dame University for her architecture degree because of its concentration on traditional design. All her life she’d loved intricate detail, often concentrating on floral images, and was nicknamed “Two Hair” for her choice of the kind of thin brushes needed for fine detail. She also put in some time in a woodshop and came to love carving.
“When she first came to the firm, she says she was a little uncomfortable because of her training in traditional architecture,” Dixon says. “There’s a moral high ground aspect to traditional design. But I really came to appreciate architectural diversity. I also think coming to places like Palo Alto where you have such a wide range of historic and new, and it’s all very thoughtful and beautiful, that I had this change of heart. And that’s not to say that I don’t love working on more traditional projects, but I also enjoy doing more contemporary work. It’s landed me in a different place.”
“FGA’s introductory conversation with clients roots out how they want their house to conform to their lives. ‘It’s not uncommon for people to like a lot of different things,’ Garber says. ‘We’re there to help them become more comfortable with the decision they’re making, and knowing that after we’ve investigated a lot of different options, they’ve kind of cross-checked what they like versus other things, and think, ‘I am really solidly here and really comfortable with this. I want to move forward and create this home.’”
Every project is headed by one of the partners. Which partner takes the lead may be determined by anything from how personalities mesh to simply who’s available. Every initial meeting is attended by two partners, since there might be different takes on what the client is seeking. The firm has long been solid on sustainability, starting with designs that won’t become dated after a few years. Trendy is not in their vocabulary. The in-house sustainability manager is Luke Morton, who’s worked for years as an environmental engineer and lectures at Stanford.
His talent allows the firm to achieve high levels of sustainability and engineering without compromising design quality. It’s good to know this highly respected firm will continue on after the Garbers step aside, providing the same levels of design and service.