A Strong Foundation

Lawrence Korinda lives a life by design, blueprint-to-blueprint, building-by-building.

A Boonton native, he credits his parents for helping shape his career, his character, and his overall worldly view through a historical lens.

“Our whole family was heavily into history,” says Korinda. “My parents taught me respect for history and travel.”

As the founder of his namesake architecture firm, Korinda boasts a four decades-long career that can be seen and felt all around town, not to mention a good portion of the state and beyond. He’s traversed the country bringing structures to life in New York State, Wyoming, and even Ireland.

In Mountain Lakes alone, 235 projects were designed by him, encompassing businesses, schools and residences, and even houses of worship.

Behind the Scenes

Korinda is the principal architect behind landmarks such as the New Jersey Firemen’s Home in Boonton, an undertaking he tackled early in his career as a two-part overhaul to the retirement community that serves volunteer firefighters. He also had his hand in the redevelopment of the Green Hill Shopping Center, and phase one of The Mountain Lakes Club (since closed).

“I like to call myself a solver of spatial dysfunction,” he jokes. “And when I’m working with families, I’m sometimes a marriage counselor. My parents’ teaching background comes in handy for this.”

While he basked in the business redevelopment front, Korinda indulged his gravitational pull toward the residential realm, particularly concerning all matters mansions and lakefront estates.

He interchanges mansion with “monster house,” and his most recent project entailed a 12,000 square-foot waterfront property complete with four-car garage, a copula, and a tunnel in Franklin Lakes.

His website speaks to his philosophies—"quality is never an accident.” And his firm’s logo offers a glimpse into his mindset: A simple “K” superimposed inside a square, punctuated by a subtle red dot indicates—in his words— “thinking outside the box.”

Yet, all roads circle back to Boonton and his collective life experiences that laid the foundations for his success.

Beginnings

Korinda’s mother was known as “Mrs. Mountain Lakes,” and his father cemented his career as a history teacher at Boonton High School.

“My father was a Renaissance man,” he says. “He worked summers in odd jobs like selling vacuum cleaners and World Book encyclopedias and such, just so he could pay for our education.”

Architecture manifested in his childhood. Korinda remembers assembling toys from assorted household items otherwise destined for the trash, and his entrepreneurial side emerged when he hosted a neighborhood puppet show, charging a nickel a pop. “My father made me return the money,” he says, laughing. “But the show did go on.”

His career choice unfolded during a cross-country family trip in a used trailer repurposed by his father.

“I was standing in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, and the space and atmosphere just grabbed me,” he says. “It was right then and there that I decided to become an architect.”

His senior thesis at Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture in Pittsburgh paid homage to Boonton in the form of a book on the town’s history and architecture. Korinda says that a copy of the book resides in the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.

“Six years later, Governor Tom Keane appointed me to the state commission that reviews nominations to the state national register,” he says. “I was all of 27 and being vetted by the historical commission.”

Korinda advanced his degree at Princeton University, immersing in a competitive program with a class of seven from all corners of the globe. While pursuing two master's degrees, he gained experience by moonlighting with an architectural firm in Philadelphia for his apprenticeship. “I got that tough working-class ethic from my parents,” he says.

Full Circle

After Princeton, he returned to Boonton to raise a family and establish his own firm serving his beloved hometown, its surrounding areas, and beyond. He met his wife Karen during a youth group fellowship event at Boonton United Methodist Church where the couple remain active members.

His daughter Corey, 40, lives in Mountain Lakes and is as successful as her father only in the legal realm as a public defender. Korinda also can’t say enough about his young granddaughter, whom he dotes on regularly.

In addition to a portfolio complete with before-and-after testaments, Korinda has also amassed a series of “remember when” moments.

This includes the former location of the United Methodist Church. “It used to be a Colonial revival where the post office is now located,” he says. The church sold the property to the post office and relocated to Lathrop Avenue, near the New Jersey Firemen’s Home. The Lathrop name references William Lathrop who managed the Boonton Ironworks from 1850 to 1882.

In further cementing Boonton’s history, Lathrop’s mansion became the first home for firefighters in 1898. A plaque stands in his honor in front of the current firemen’s home.

Korinda uses his background in historical preservation to provide an assist to properties that have fallen under disrepair or require renovations minus the sacrifice of their significance. He also keeps the environment in mind, especially when it comes to maintaining older and storied trees and exotic plants on properties.

To the tune of “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” architecture is not exempt. Industry trends come and go. As principal architect, Korinda speaks of the delicate balance between designers, builders, and occupants, not to mention the municipal clearances for permits and such.

In abiding by a quality over quantity tenet, Korinda keeps his staff to a minimum of six including a Computer Assisted Design (CAD) associate, an administrative assistant, photographer, and a web designer.

To date, he is involved in a number of pro bono projects including the restoration of a house in Paterson that succumbed to a fatal Halloween blaze which claimed all the occupants.

In his downtime, Korinda pours his heart into his family and the Boonton community at large. He is always one design away from his next master plan.

Photographs courtesy of Bryan Murawski