Todd Paolillo

Now an Associate Principal, Todd Paolillo has spent nearly 25 years at KAA Design, helping shape many of the firm’s most celebrated and widely published projects as a lead design force alongside the Partners. Recognized as a driving creative voice in the firm and the broader industry, he is known for merging artistry with precision, distilling complex ideas into architecture that is both innovative and enduring. Based in Los Angeles, Todd has embraced the unique opportunities of Southern California living, helping to define and proliferate the region’s modern ethos nationally and internationally. A licensed architect and member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Todd has championed KAA’s participation in the Case Study 2.0 Program, advancing sophisticated yet accessible design for the Palisades and Eaton Fire rebuild initiatives.

(Image courtesy of KAA Design Group | Photographed by Ricky Lesser)

Interview with Todd Paolillo

When you were a kid, what did you dream of becoming? Did any of those childhood ambitions lead you to where you are today?

I knew I wanted to be an architect by the time I was 5 or 6 years old. There were a couple of builders and engineers in my family, but honestly, I think my family was just delighted I had a dream of something “real” so young and fanned the flames as much as they could. Whether it was getting my first drafting table and T-square (seriously dating myself) at age 9, drawing and expressing myself through art, or my grandparents driving me around neighborhoods to look at new houses being built, there was always encouragement. I got my first “commission” at 15 to revise a family friend’s catalog blueprints for a new home they were about to build. Nobody in my family knew any architects, so they just kept saying, “Maybe someday you’ll design mansions for famous people…” which ultimately happened?! That ambition has never diminished, and sometimes, as I’m hunched over my desk late at night with trace paper and marker or on the iPad sketching new ideas, I literally think to myself, I’m getting paid to do exactly what I loved to do as a kid. There’s immense gratitude for the family, teachers, mentors, and friends who supported me along the way.

Is there a particular designer, artwork, or design movement that deeply inspires you? How has it influenced your own style or philosophy?

Well, I’m seriously considering my next tattoo to be a reproduction of Borromini’s original floor plan sketch of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. So perhaps that’s ONE influence. I spent the most formative year of my life studying – no – IMMERSING myself in Rome and the greater Italian peninsula. I had access to Piranesi’s original engravings, made pilgrimages to many of Carlo Scarpa’s projects, and was absolutely transcendent upon seeing Giorgio Morandi’s still-life paintings, as if I’d never seen sunlight and color before. Much of this feeds into a much softer, warmer attitude towards Modernism where texture, color, and fine detail can be as celebrated as monumental and aggressive form making. My love of nature and landscape photography allows me to reflect on the harmony between built form and natural settings, ensuring a humanistic experience. The Deconstructivist and High-Tech architectural movements of the 80s and 90’s, and in particular in LA, were as alluring as the Hollywood sign for a kid from Connecticut. I joke that period tore everything apart, and it’s my job now to put it back together with elegance and sophistication.

Tell us a bit about where you live: How long have you been there, and how does your environment shape your creative process?

In 2001, I hopped in my ’79 Chevy Malibu and decided to drive cross-country to Los Angeles without any job waiting for me and far more idealism than cash. That two-week trip brought me through the majesty of the western US, from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons to Bryce Canyon in Utah. Most of that first decade in LA was defined by the great national parks of Joshua Tree, Sequoia, and Yosemite, along with frequent escapes up the California Coast to Big Sur. Most recently, I made a pilgrimage to Sea Ranch, which brought full circle a unique architectural movement that heavily influenced what I only understood as “contemporary” architecture as a child back East. This all distills down to what we simply embrace as “indoor-outdoor” architecture.

Was there a specific turning point or experience when you realized that design was your true calling?

I was active in our High School drama club, and every spring we’d compete statewide – we were always the underdogs from “up north” competing with the schools outside of NYC that could afford and often tapped directly into that endless supply of directors and production resources. One aspect of that festival was the set design competition, which I led. It was as much about the “performance” of a crew loading their set from the wings inside of 5 minutes than the scenery itself. We delivered Paris’ “Opera Comique” to a standing ovation and, quite smugly, I knew I had that award in the bag. I had to feign shock when I went up on stage to claim my plaque.

Which of your projects are you most proud of, and what makes them stand out for you?

You’re asking me which child I like the most?! A few certainly stand out. A recent crowning achievement is a multi-generational family compound in the Caribbean that combines influences from Carlo Scarpa and Italian brutalism, regional nods to colonial plantations, and a distinct signature of broad cantilevered concrete planes and expanses of glass evoking Southern California case study houses. There’s a particular home on the Strand in Manhattan Beach whose brief was simply “An Armani yacht moored at a concrete pier,” where I labored over the intricate mechanics of a series of shade sails suspended between 20’ wooden “masts” sourced from a boat maker in Maine. Intermixed in those two extremes was a very dark, heavy, 1970’s blufftop ranch in Palos Verdes, completely reimagined as a serene family retreat with an almost monastic restraint of smooth plasters and refurbished wood structure, anchored by courtyards of Mediterranean-inspired landscape and perhaps one of the most stunning views of both ocean and city anywhere.

In your opinion, what is the most significant challenge facing the design world today? How do you think designers should respond to it?

Loss of architectural agency of the human for the commoditization of design. The housing crisis. The disjunction between natural materials, sustainability, and affordability. Technical disruption and AI are making design something that can be generated and iterated without any meditation on its purpose.

What are you currently working on?

A family vacation home perched on a mountainside in Costa Rica, and another estate perched on a mountainside right here in Bel Air.

What’s a favorite movie, band, or song that has inspired or shaped your creative mind?

Hmmm… well, I have to confess: Heated Rivalry (if you know, you KNOW). I’m going to see Project Hail Mary tonight for a third time. I’ve been listening to Elbow, Fink, and Jose Gonzales, and I’ve had James Blake’s latest album on repeat for over a week.