June 2025 | Mike Vogel
Brooks + Scarpa, a firm founded by University of Florida graduates and based in California and Fort Lauderdale, took home nine awards at last year’s AIA Florida honors competition, said to be the most by any firm. Projects ranged from a house in North Carolina to a park pavilion and youth sports field house in Pompano Beach to a UF college.
Fort Lauderdale-based principal, architect and landscape architect Jeff Huber, a Florida native who also is on the Florida Atlantic University faculty, says the Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory at UF helps integrate the various disciplines in the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning so that people can work together in interesting, collaborative spaces. It sounds like his description of being an architect. “I look at us as the conductor of the orchestra,” he says. “We have to know a little about everything.”
Another award winner, the Youth Sports Complex Field House in Pompano, is a small building with playful elements like a cascading rain feature and a bold yellow that “just really pops” against blue Florida skies. Backlighting makes it an iconic presence in the area day and night.
The firm overall has approximately 30 people, eight of whom work from Florida, where Huber started the office solo a decade ago. Married couple Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa founded the firm 30 years ago and are based in Los Angeles. All three principals went to UF.