In the heart of Los Angeles, Breland-Harper has emerged as one of the city’s most thoughtful and quietly transformative design studios. Founded by partners Michael Breland and Peter Harper, the firm seamlessly unites architecture, interiors, and landscape to create spaces that feel both timeless and deeply grounded. Their portfolio spans adaptive reuse and new construction alike—from a verdant creative campus in Culver City to sensitive restorations in Frogtown and bespoke residences across California.
Each project reveals a poetic dialogue between craft and context, where proportion, light, and history are treated as living materials. With an eye toward longevity and a reverence for nature, Breland–Harper’s work invites connection—to place, to people, to the rituals of daily life. The visionary duo generously took the time to speak to Whitewall about the evolution of their practice, the art of preservation, and creating harmony between built form and the natural world.
A Studio As Civic Space
Breland-Harper Portrait. Photographt by Carlos Jaramarillo. Courtesy of Breland-Harper.
Courtesy of Breland-Harper.
WHITEWALL: Your beautiful Los Angeles studio is both a workspace and a gallery. How did the vision for this hybrid space take shape?
PETER HARPER: The idea came about two or three years ago, as we were coming out of the pandemic. Our practice had grown—we now have architecture, commercial, residential, interiors, and landscapes all under one roof—and we needed a space that could hold that.
We began to ask: post-pandemic, what does it mean to have a physical space? The genesis of this multipurpose, flexible studio really came down to community. Design can be quite isolated, and we wanted to create a space that fostered connection.
The building accommodates our practice—client meetings, material samples—but also hosts lectures, concerts, and art installations. It’s a forum for discourse and interaction, where people can walk in off the street and engage.
MICHAEL BRELAND: Architecture offices tend to be closed spaces, but so much of what we do—especially in landscape—is public. We wanted something more open, where art could act as a connector. A gallery show became the perfect format to bring people together. Everyone can come and see art, and there are so many ways to enter the conversation. It’s been an amazing equalizer for us.
“Everyone can come and see art,”
-Michael Breland
WW: How does this space reflect your love for Los Angeles and its creative energy?
MB: The building itself tells that story. It was originally a Disney prop warehouse, then a 1960s recording studio. We bought it from a locksmith supply store and restored it to its original bones. It sits on Hyperion Avenue among auto shops, a clothing store, and a Mexican restaurant—quintessentially Los Angeles. Maybe you wouldn’t expect a gallery and design studio here, but in L.A., you absolutely should.
PH: The architecture mirrors the city’s character: indoor-outdoor, filled with light and air. We added operable windows and skylights and opened up a courtyard. We share the building with makers in the film industry, creating natural cross-pollination—an analog for the city itself: complex, sunlit, and full of possibility.
A Practice Defined by Restraint
Courtesy of Breland-Harper.
WW: Your work brings together old-world craft and minimalist frameworks. How do you strike that balance?
PH: We spend a lot of time observing and researching before acting. Once you’ve done that, you can move with confidence. We call it cultivating a certain appropriateness. We always say: do less, but do it carefully. Old-world craft elevates everything. It’s not about a single style; it’s about intent and quality. Restraint leaves room for growth.
MB: We try to dissolve boundaries between old and new. Integrity, appropriateness, and craft tie everything together—including the art we show.
“We spend a lot of time observing and researching before acting,”
-Peter Harper
WW: Gardens appear in your projects as integral design elements rather than add-ons.
PH: It’s all about choreography—sequencing space and understanding arrival. Sometimes just the presence of a tree signals that something meaningful is happening. We always think about the threshold between indoors and outdoors, which defines how we live in Southern California.
MB: It’s hard to imagine a building here without its garden. Sometimes it’s eight inches wide; sometimes it spans acres. But it’s essential. We have 320 days a year of usable outdoor weather. For us, outdoor space isn’t secondary—it’s another room in the house.
Designing With History in Mind at Breland-Harper
Courtesy of Breland-Harper.
WW: You seem so in sync creatively and emotionally. How did you meet, and how did the studio begin?
PH: We met freshman year in our university’s fine arts library. We became fast friends. Then, after we graduated, we became partners in life.
After cutting our teeth in both commercial and residential architecture, I joined Michael about six years ago. Our studio evolved into a hybrid where we each bring different strengths—Michael focuses more on commercial work, I lead residential, and we meet in the middle on hospitality, landscape, and our own development projects.
WW: You both have a deep passion for Los Angeles history and preservation. How do your office and gallery fit into that vision?
MB: So much of preservation here is about acknowledging what’s already present. The gallery gives us a platform to push that conversation forward.
PH: Los Angeles is a frontier city—anything goes. As outsiders from Northern California, we came here with a hunger to understand its architecture, commerce, and art. Our office is a continuation of that curiosity—a space for discourse and dreaming, where different worlds collide.
We’re also rebuilding homes in the Palisades for families who lost theirs to fires and designing seven homes in Altadena for people with little or no insurance. These projects feel incredibly meaningful—they allow us to make a real difference in people’s lives.
Courtesy of Breland-Harper.
Courtesy of Breland-Harper.
