I'm often called an old-fashioned modernist. But the modernists had the absurd idea that architecture could heal the world. That's impossible. And today nobody expects architects to have these grand visions any more.

January 19 1944 in Waterbury Connecticut) is a Los Angeles-based architect. Thom Mayne (b. In recent years such visual effect has been made possible increasingly through computer design techniques which simplify the construction of complex forms.

Educated at University of Southern California (1969) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1978 Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in 1972 where he is a trustee. Since then he has held teaching positions at SCI-Arc the California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).