WHO WE ARE

Scott K. Thrift AIA

A black and white photo of a man with glasses, short hair, and a beard sitting in a room, wearing a white shirt.

SKT ARCHITECT · SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Founded SKT Architect in 2002. Practicing as a licensed architect since 1994. In between: a 23-foot cantilever that made a structural engineer nervous before it made him proud, a Maui house where the front door moved into the middle of the plan so you land in the heart of it instead of traversing an 80-foot corridor to arrive at the same place, a hillside site I fought a developer to keep the trees on instead of clearing them.

I push the envelope structurally, not financially. I ask “what if” before the client does.

Most of my clients are homeowners and project owners, sent my way by builders who’ve trusted me with their hardest sites for years — occasionally a developer with something nobody else wants to touch. Most of the work is custom, high-end residential. Some of it is a warming hut, a rescue shelter, a fire tower office, or an inn built for cats. Those live under Odd Jobs, because they earned their own corner of this site.

Ancient Roman ruins with tall marble columns and detailed stone architecture, viewed from below.

LIBRARY OF CELSUS, EPHESUS, TÜRKİYE

Born in Ankara, Turkey, surrounded by the Roman ruins I would later study in school — there are more of them scattered across Turkey than in Italy. That’s where the love of architectural history started. I chased it through a double degree at the University of Oregon and never put it down. My family arrived in San Francisco in 1850 as mining engineers and foundrymen, building the City during the Gold Rush — I’ve spent years since finding out exactly what they built and why.

Timeless, appropriate, and when we’re done, you’d wonder how we ever lived without it.