Truitt Foug Architects

Process

The balancing act for this office is between respectful study and assertive invention. Truitt Foug Architects approaches the design of new buildings with an awareness of past insights into program and form. This precedent study is accompanied by a thorough analysis of the client’s needs, which leads to ideas for material and spatial expression. Constraints from the client, the site, and the city are welcomed and seen as a structure to build on. 

Formally, we look to assembly rather than narrative as a source for depth in design. Instead of telling a story through decoration, we attempt to gently surprise the visitor by forcefully framing space and, where possible, revealing the intricacies of construction. In school projects, especially, it is important to create meaningful details – young students should be given the chance to come across rich moments in the building that explain the structure of their environment. Resolving competing geometries and joining disparate materials can yield such opportunities.

Urban Analysis

When placing a project in context, we study the city carefully in order to make appropriate interventions that support the way neighborhoods are used. Our proposed projects aim to organize existing activity rather than impose new forms and uses in an idealized manner.

Sorting Through Existing Conditions

We employ the same respectful yet critical attitude when approaching renovation and addition projects. We think of these projects as “rebuilds,” since, in a given project, we aim to draw out the inherent strengths of the building and articulate and emphasize those strengths more clearly than in the original construction. See our “Rebuild and Add” page for an example.

Principals

William Truitt is an assistant professor at University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, where he also coordinates the third year design studio. He leads studio trips abroad to conduct research on the spatial expression of intense urban conditions, most recently in Mumbai. His analysis of the Near Northside of Houston earned a 2008 Texas Society of Architects Award. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A&M University and a Master of Architecture from Syracuse University. He has worked for Gluckman Mayner Architects, Polshek & Partners, and Garrison Architects in New York, as well as Morris Architects in Houston. While at Morris, he designed two projects that earned Houston AIA honor awards. He is a registered architect in Texas and New York and a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Carolyn Foug holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and a Master of Architecture from Yale University. She has worked for Gluckman Mayner Architects and Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York, and Curtis & Windham Architects in Houston. While practicing in New York, she edited an issue of Perspecta, The Yale Architectural Journal. She taught for three years in the graduate school at the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture. She is a registered architect in Texas and New York and a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Contact Information

Carolyn Foug, AIA
William Truitt, AIA

Truitt Foug Architects
1602 Hawthorne St
Houston TX 77006

713.520.9958 – t
713.520.8723 – f

truittfoug@gmail.com