Tom Wiscombe

  1. Home
  2. Wiki

Tom Wiscombe
Born (1970-04-04) April 4, 1970 (age 55)
La Jolla, California
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect
Known forSpeculative Realism and Contemporary Architecture
Notable workKinmen Passenger Service Center and The Main Museum of Los Angeles Art.

Tom Wiscombe (born April 4, 1970, La Jolla, California) is an American architect based in Los Angeles, California. He is the Principal and Founder of Tom Wiscombe Architecture (TWA). Wiscombe’s work is known for its massing, graphic qualities, and inventiveness, all informed by contemporary ecological thought.[citation needed] His monograph Objects Models Worlds covers his practice and ideas.

Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre (2024)

Career

[edit]

Wiscombe began his career as an intern at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center, where his father Warren Wiscombe was a Chief Scientist. He completed his B.A. in architecture at UC Berkeley in 1992 and his master's degree at UCLA in 1999.

Between degrees, from 1993-1998, Wiscombe joined Coop Himmelb(l)au, where he became Chief Design Architect for Principal Wolf Prix. During this time, he designed and built the UFA Cinema Center,[1] Dresden. After returning to Coop Himmelb(l)au as Chief Designer and Project Partner, he lead several international projects including: BMW Welt,[2] Munich, the Lyon Musée des Confluences,[3] and the Akron Art Museum.[4] During this time, Wiscombe also won the MoMA/ P.S.1 Young Architects award[5], realizing a giant crystalline canopy in the P.S.1 courtyard.

Render of Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre at night (2024)

In 2006, Wiscombe established TWA[6] in Los Angeles and has since developed an international reputation through winning competition entries, lectures, exhibitions, and writings. In 2014, Wiscombe won second prize[7][8] in the international competition for the Kinmen Passenger Service Center, Taiwan. That same year, planning and design began[9] on The Main Museum of Los Angeles Art with Tom Gilmore, the developer known for leading the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles.

Partnering with Orange Barrel Media and MOCA, Wiscombe went on to win the West Hollywood Sunset Spectacular billboard[10] in 2016. This project operates as both a contemporary 'bell tower' and public space, and combines site-specific art and interactive content with commercial advertising.

In 2018, Wiscombe, together with EYRC Architects, designed the gigaproject known as Blockchains City for Blockchains, LLC on their 67,000 acres (270 km2) property in Sparks, Nevada.[11][12]

Kinmen Passenger Service Terminal, 2014.
West Hollywood Sunset Spectacular, 2016-Present

2019 saw the construction of Wiscombe’s Dark Chalet, located on Summit Powder Mountain, for the founder of the largest independent solar power developer in the United States. The project is 362% energy positive, using breakthrough residential solar technology.[13] The Dark Chalet received the 2020 AIA LA Next LA Honor Award in the Single-Family Residential category.[14]

In 2021, TWA began developing The Flat Out Large- also known as Earth Protector- which takes on the dual housing and ecological crises of Los Angeles, with a new form of urbanism based on megalithic slabs, large scale indoor-outdoor spaces, district scale shade, and inner-city solar fields.[15]

Tom Wiscombe won the international competition for the Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre[16][17] in 2023. It is located on the cliffs of Qiddiya City near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia[18]. Tom Wiscombe Architecture is Lead Design Architect, in collaboration with executive architect Brewer Smith Brewer, Dubai. Construction began in early 2025, with piling nearly completed as of August, 2025. This project is based on megalithic parts leaning on one another, creating district-scale shade and microclimates beneath. The project is multi-functional[19], including an 1,800 seat Premium Theatre, a 400 seat Adaptable Theatre, exhibition spaces, and education and outreach. It is one of the premiere cultural buildings in Saudi Arabia, part of Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan, intended to diversify the economy of the KSA.

TWA has produced designs for NEOM The Line[20], along with other notable architecture firms like Morphosis, Coop Himmelblau, DMMA, and Peter Cook. His work was exhibited at the NEOM The Line Exhibition in Riyadh in 2022.

Recognition

[edit]

ICON Magazine, in its May 2009 issue, named Wiscombe one of the “top 20 architects in the world who are making the future and transforming the way we work”. Wiscombe’s work is part of the permanent collections of the FRAC Centre Orleans, the Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA San Francisco, and MoMA New York. Wiscombe won AIA Design Awards for the Kinmen Passenger Service Center in 2014, the Main Museum in 2015, and the Sunset Spectacular in 2017. The Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre won a Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture award for culture and entertainment.

Teaching

[edit]
National Museum of World Writing, 2017.
Flat Out Large, 2021.
Orange Barrel Media HQ, 2020.
Dark Chalet, 2020.

Wiscombe has taught at SCI-Arc, UPenn, and Yale University. In 2022, Wiscombe resigned from his teaching position at the Southern California Institute of Architecture following allegations of labor exploitation and a resulting investigation.[21]

Selected Lectures and Texts

[edit]

Lectures

[edit]

Texts

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "UFA Cinema Center by Coop Himmelb(l)au". www.arcspace.com. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  2. ^ "BMW Welt / Coop Himmelb(l)au". July 22, 2009. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  3. ^ Giovannini, Joseph (December 19, 2014). "Confluence Museum Opens in Lyon, France". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  4. ^ "Akron Art Museum by Coop Himmelb(l)au". www.architecturenewsplus.com. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  5. ^ "Young Architects Program 2003: Light-Wing by EMERGENT Architecture | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  6. ^ "Tom Wiscombe Architecture". tomwiscombe.com. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  7. ^ Bustler. "Results of Taiwan's Kinmen Passenger Service Terminal competition". Bustler. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  8. ^ "Kinmen Passenger Service Center | Tom Wiscombe Architecture Inc". Archello. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  9. ^ "New Main Museum in downtown Los Angeles reveals 'Beta' plans — and focus on art in L.A." Los Angeles Times. June 30, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  10. ^ "There's a New Billboard in Town, and You Can Walk in (Published 2022)". August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  11. ^ "In Nevada, a Utopian Vision Gets a Blockchain Twist". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2024. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  12. ^ Gibson, Eleanor (November 6, 2018). "Blockchain millionaire plans smart city in Nevada desert". Dezeen. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  13. ^ Kamping-Carder, Leigh (September 19, 2019). "In Utah, These Entrepreneurs Are Creating Their Own Version of Eden". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  14. ^ "Design Award Winners for 2020 Announced by AIA LA". Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  15. ^ "Flat Out Large". Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  16. ^ Tandon, Khushi (July 16, 2024). "Qiddiya Performing Arts Center incorporates with AR, VR and AI". Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  17. ^ Qiddiya - القدية (June 24, 2024). Qiddiya Performing Arts Centre, the City's first flagship cultural asset. Retrieved August 19, 2025 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ Hammond, Andrew (June 27, 2024). "Futuristic architect lands arts centre in Saudi's Qiddiya". AGBI. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  19. ^ Tandon, Khushi (July 16, 2024). "Qiddiya Performing Arts Center incorporates with AR, VR and AI". Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  20. ^ Mitchell, Bea (February 1, 2023). "International architecture studios working on The Line at Saudi's Neom". Blooloop. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  21. ^ X (October 1, 2022). "Newsletter: SCI-Arc professors resign after school announces changes to internship, other policies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
[edit]