Social Studies Projects is a progressive design studio working across architecture, interiors, graphics, and exhibitions. Rooted in the California culture of grassroots experimentalism, collectivity, and innovation, our work draws inspiration from historic precedents across multiple disciplines to create detail-driven, original projects for modern inhabitants — in Los Angeles and beyond.
Studio
As a team of like-minded architects, designers, and strategists, we work through a rigorous, iterative design process to create original residential, commercial, and cultural projects for owners, tenants, friends, investors, organizations, institutions, and brands.
Our diverse network of collaborators include brilliant builders, fabricators, curators, filmmakers, photographers, artists, fellow designers, and clients. Many hands touch each of our projects, deliberately.
Though our work is grounded in conceptual ideals, we are realists. Therefore, we strive to blend the obsessive energy of a boutique design studio with the practicality and professionalism of a structured outfit.
Our favorite projects embody a thoughtful response to each project's context — climate, geography, culture, materiality, and history each play a part. From this foundation, we prioritize warmth, simplicity, craft, and wit in the spaces we create.
Services
Our team's broad creative expertise fuels capabilities across interiors, furniture design, real estate, exhibitions, and publications, in addition to architecture. While each project's tailored scope of work differs, our services on any given project may include:
Pre-Design
⎯ Site Analysis
⎯ Feasibility Studies
⎯ Code Investigation
⎯ Preliminary Budgeting
⎯ Program + Circulation Analysis
Design
⎯ Interior Design
⎯ Architectural Design + Development
⎯ Custom Furnishings
⎯ Artist Collaborations
⎯ Environmental Graphics
⎯ Exhibition Design
⎯ Creative Direction
⎯ Finishes, Fixtures & Equipment Selections
⎯ Precedent Research
⎯ Physical and Digital 3D Modeling
⎯ Material Palettes
⎯ Renderings + Representation
SSP is a Women-Owned Business (WBE).
Project Management
⎯ Client Communications
⎯ Project Budgeting
⎯ Project Scheduling
⎯ Consultant Coordination
⎯ Owner Representation
Approvals
⎯ Permit Drawings
⎯ Schedules + Specification Publications
⎯ Agency Submittal Services (Expediting)
⎯ HPOZ and Mills Act Approvals
⎯ HOA Presentations
Construction
⎯ Construction Drawing Production
⎯ Bid Solicitation, Negotiation + Leveling
⎯ Value Engineering
⎯ Coordination of Specialty Fabricators
⎯ Construction Administration + Support
Values
Our approach is rooted in the following core beliefs:
Research + Education
We love information—programmatic, historic, logistical, aesthetic, legal, environmental, social, cultural. We ask questions. We listen. We dig into the constraints of each project and mine so-called challenges for opportunities to enrich the work.
Character
We believe in the power of the well-crafted, the specifically curated, and the one-of-a-kind, developed through innovative details and combinations of textures. We don’t believe in typical projects; but our work frequently layers materials, objects, and fixtures from multiple eras to produce tactile spaces that feel as though they've been collected and evolved slowly, over time.
Collaboration
Our team’s diverse skill set and range of experiences forge a unique vision for each of our projects. We foster conversations across multiple perspectives, from our diverse library of design inspiration to our client-focused and feedback-driven approach to our engagement with collaborators, contractors, and fabricators to our broad network of vendors and suppliers; our work is the better for it.
Service
We value our clients and want them to enjoy the process of making. To that end, we are organized, communicative and suppportive throughout our time working together.
Community
We strive to build highly tailored, original spaces that serve the kind of diversity that strengthens our collective experience. From the outset, we understand the power inherent in shaping the way our clients connect with their communities, their families, and their environments. We also believe space can transform those relationships for the better.
As an organization, we cultivate relationships with vendors, consultants, and fabricators that mirror our values for social connection, craftsmanship, sustainable business practices, and creative innovation.
People
Mary Casper, RA
Principal + Creative Director
Mary received her M.Arch from Rice University and a B.A. in Sociology from Vassar College. Mary has 12 years of experience in the architecture and design field. She has worked as a Lead Designer and Project Manager for numerous award-winning offices, including Johnston Marklee, WW Architecture, and Interloop Architecture, served as Director of Architecture for The Archers, and was a Consulting Partner of Design & Interiors for Chet Architecture. Mary is a licensed architect in California and Wisconsin.
Mary is currently on faculty at the USC School of Architecture, has taught previously at the Harvard GSD and has served as a visiting critic at University of Michigan, University of Kentucky, CalPoly Pomona, Woodbury University, UCLA, and Sci-Arc. She co-edited Plat Journal 2.5 and 3.0 with Chimaobi Izeogu and The Petropolis of Tomorrow with Neeraj Bhatia, published by Actar in 2013.
Maggie Angelini
Interior Designer + Strategist
Maggie received her B.A. (Plan II) from the University of Texas at Austin. She previously worked as a designer with Lisa Koch Design, crafting boutique and large scale hospitality projects, as well as high-end residential interiors. Prior to design, Maggie worked in finance, as a trader and real estate investor. She remains active in real estate development projects.
Francesca Leventis
Project Designer
Francesca received her B.S. in Interior Design from the University of Cincinnati. She has previously worked as a collaborator with Ware Malcomb in San Diego, HDR in Chicago and Studio UNLTD in Los Angeles, where she most recently worked on hospitality and restaurant projects. She has also volunteered her time on archival and photography projects with Hood Century, a modernist historic preservation organization.
Kellie Dinh
Intern
Kellie is a second year Master of Architecture student at University of Southern California. She is on the board of USC's National Organization of Minority Architecture Students and participates annually in the Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition. She was recently the recipient of the AIA LBSB and CACP LA scholarships. Prior to architecture, Kellie received her B.A. in Computer Science from Bryn Mawr College and worked as a software engineer at various startups.
Zack Parker
Operations Coordinator
Zack received his B.F.A from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is currently enrolled in the Architecture and Interior Design Certificate Program at UCLA Extension. He previously worked at Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD, and Tortoise General Store in Los Angeles, specializing in visitor experience, arts administration, and digital content.
Maria Sviridova, RA
Project Architect
Maria received her Master of Architecture from UCLA AUD and her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan. She is a licensed architect in California and Michigan with over 10 years of experience. She has previously worked at the Los Angeles offices of NBBJ’s and SOM on a broad range of projects including commercial, government, healthcare, and education.
Maria has been a faculty member at Cal Poly Pomona and UCLA AUD since 2018, where she has taught Construction and Studio courses.
Location
Social Studies Projects is located in the historic Granada Buildings in the La Fayette Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
For new project inquiries, please say hello.
We are always on the lookout for future collaborators. Here is a list of our current open positions.
To submit your materials for a creative position, please submit your CV and/or portfolio under 5mb via email.