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The road, so to speak, from the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile to the iMobile—which, at its most basic level, is a computer lab on wheels—would seem to be a long and winding one. But a look at the career path of Jennifer Siegal, the founder and principal of Los Angeles’ Office of Mobile Design, leads squarely back to frankfurters.

“My grandfather was a hot-dog salesman in Coney Island,” Siegal says, “and I was also a hot-dog salesgirl when I was going to SCI-Arch.” Siegal bought a cart while she was earning her master’s degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and her profits helped pay for her degree. More importantly, though, working as a peripatetic entrepreneur influenced Siegal’s design thinking. That experience, combined with several years of travel in the U.S. and abroad, gave Siegal an increased awareness of the nomadic nature of societies, especially in Southeast Asia.

“In my travels, I also became aware that I needed fewer and fewer things,” Siegal says. “Becoming light on my feet became a sort of way of life for me, and it seemed that the paring down of my lifestyle was reflective of what was happening for a lot of people in my generation.”

While traveling, Siegal taught at several universities, and she began developing her ideas in design/build studios with her students. Eventually, she returned to Los Angeles and began teaching at Woodbury University. She founded the Office of Mobile Design in 1998. Siegal had already begun to build and write in conjunction with her teaching, and the resulting recognition helped her firm win its earliest commissions. Work began to arrive.

“I guess it’s like any small firm,” Siegal says. “You get recognized for one thing and then you start to gain momentum. We actually launched our Web site, www.designmobile.com, and that helped us gain a lot of recognition, too.”

Siegal won the commission to design offices for the online “extreme sports” retailer PIE.com in large part because of her mobile emphasis. Siegal says that without being “overtly obvious, and using surfboards and sailboards and things,” she tried to emphasize “speed and movement and light.” The result is an office full of curving dividers and a central spine overhead that serves as a cable tray, bringing network connections to the scattered computer stations.

Aside from PIE.com, however, Siegal continues to focus on mobile architecture. Current and recent projects include a display and service kiosk for electric bicycles and a portable house, which is based on the structural system of a portable classroom, built with environmentally-friendly materials such as Plyboo bamboo flooring and recycled newspapers. The portable house is meant to appeal to people with transient, minimalist lifestyles who still have a good sense of design.
And while the iMobile may not be the Wienermobile, Siegal has not completely abandoned hot dogs. She may even design a better hot-dog cart. “Actually,” she said, “that’s a really good idea.”

Kevin Lerner

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© Office of Mobile Design  previous image  |  next image   iMobile, unbuilt, 2000 Office of Mobile Design. The iMobile is designed to showcase new computer hardware and software or to provide computer access to schools, rural areas, or other locations where it would not otherwise be available. PIE.com offices, Hollywood, Calif., 2000 Office of Mobile Design. The interior design for the offices of this “extreme sports” retailer emphasize speed and movement. Portable House, mobile, 2001 Office of Mobile Design. An update on the mobile home, but actually based on the structure of portable classrooms. A prototype is currently under construction at a California factory. Zevos Kiosk, unbuilt, 2000 Office of Mobile Design. Intended for malls and other public areas, this foldable kiosk contains facilities for the sale and repair of electric bicycles.