Speakers

Paul Woolford

HOK

FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP BD+C

As the design principal for HOK’s San Francisco studio and member of the firm’s global design board, Paul leads interdisciplinary teams of architects, engineers, interior designers and landscape architects.

Paul has focused his entire career on rethinking the relationships between people and their environments. His design of innovative, people-centered buildings has earned him numerous accolades, including three AIA COTE Top Ten Awards and consistent LEED Platinum certifications.

Under Paul’s guidance, our San Francisco studio has been recognized as AIA California’s Firm of the Year, and his teams have won dozens of regional and national design awards.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Paul is an influential figure in architectural education, having taught at UC Berkeley, Cornell University and the Savannah College of Art and Design. He is also an engaged member and leader of various organizations, demonstrating his dedication to public service and urban planning.

Levi J. Rippy

HOK

AIA, LEED AP BD+C, DBIA, NOMA, NCARB

Levi is the technical principal for HOK’s San Francisco and Seattle studios. He leads the technical direction and development of projects across various markets, including aviation and transportation, healthcare, science and technology, justice, corporate, commercial and hospitality.

With more than 20 years of experience as an architect, Levi is an expert in alternative project delivery, including design-build and integrated project delivery. He is committed to improving society through sustainable strategies, well-crafted design and the promotion of design equity.

Dedicated to architecture and design, Levi is a member of HOK’s technical board working to improve project delivery and design processes. He also sits on the firm’s mentoring task force and has served as chairperson for the AIA Seattle Chapter’s Urban Design Forum.

Outside of architecture, Levi is an elite soccer official. He officiates matches across the country for the U.S. Soccer Federation and NCAA.

Luís Fernandes

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Dr. Luís Fernandes has over two decades of experience in researching, developing and demonstrating the energy and visual performance of daylighting and electric lighting technologies, using a variety of methods including computer simulation, optimization, laboratory tests and field demonstrations. Fernandes holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Building Systems Program of the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has authored 30 publications. Currently Department Head for the Building Technology Department in the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division.

Zach Pozner

Stanford University

Zachary Pozner is the Director of Architecture and a Campus Planner with Stanford University Land, Buildings and Real Estate. He oversees the long-range planning and design of a broad range of building types across all of Stanford’s lands. Believing that good ideas come from everyone, Zachary works collaboratively and closely with faculty, staff, and students to translate their values and aspirations into potent place-making programs that support and sustain group interaction and team-based learning. Leveraging Palo Alto’s wonderful climate and Stanford’s renown culture of interdisciplinary collaboration, he works closely with design and construction teams to create campus spaces that, beyond simply supporting the immediate building program, invite cross-pollination from the broader campus community.

Lisa Rammig

Eckersley O'Callaghan

Lisa leads Eckersley O’Callaghan’s West Coast offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She joined EOC in 2013 to support the practice’s emerging facade engineering group in London and after playing a significant role in the group’s exceptional growth, Lisa has been responsible for the expansion of EOC’s West Coast presence.

Lisa directs EOC’s R&D efforts, focusing on innovative glass designs and technology.

She remains heavily involved in academia particularly with the Facade Research Group at TU Delft where she pursued her doctoral research and has built strong links between research and industry.

Chris Giovannielli

Kawneer

Chris Giovannielli is Director of Global Product Management for Kawneer, where he has been a leading contributor for more than 25 years. Chris directs product development, positioning and launch strategies across global markets with an emphasis on education and sustainability. His deep expertise on the benefit of Kawneer’s products in the educational setting and how they tie to sustainability in people’s daily lives is highly valued in the industry. He has been featured in Metropolis and Green Building and Design, and recently was the member spotlight for the Air Barrier Association of America. Chris earned his Executive MBA from University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business in 2021. (13) Christopher Giovannielli | LinkedIn

Philip Tidwell

UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

Philip Tidwell is a registered architect in Finland and director of Peripheral Projects. He has practiced professionally in the offices of Juhani Pallasmaa, Agrest & Gandelsonas, and Perkins Eastman. As a designer and educator, Philip focuses on wood construction and emerging technologies in timber. His teaching and research examine the relationships among architectural form, constructive technique, and the agency of matter. For more than a decade, he served as studio coordinator for the Wood Program at Aalto University in Helsinki. From 2021 to 2023 he was an assistant professor of architecture at McGill University and he has served as a visiting professor at the Universities of Florida, Massachusetts, and Arkansas.

Together with Kristo Vesikansa and Laura Berger, Philip was curator of the Pavilion of Finland for the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture. The exhibition and book, New Standards, examines the industrialization of the wood industry in Finland during and after the Second World War. Philip’s research has been supported by grants and fellowships from numerous organizations including the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright program, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. His work and teaching have been recognized by The Architectural Review and the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Claire Moore

HOK

Claire Moore, SE

Claire Moore has more than 23 years of experience in structural engineering design. Her technical expertise encompasses both linear and nonlinear analysis, seismic evaluations and retrofits, and structural design in all major construction materials. With a project experience ranging from large iconic buildings to small scale art installations, she brings experience in a variety of project types, including government, justice, science & technology, higher education, healthcare, and aviation.

Ethan Martin

DCI Engineers

Ethan Martin, PE brings a wealth of engineering design experience to the team of developers, architects, and contractors. Having helped develop CLT in the US, Ethan assists general contractors with mass timber constructability and collaborates with architects on construction types and acoustics to create exciting projects for clients. Ethan collaborated with state officials in Oregon to set up the permitting process for tall mass timber buildings. This process developed the prototype buildings creating the Type IV-A, IV-B, and IV-C construction types, which allow for mass timber up to 18 stories. Driven to inform his team and professionals in the AEC industries, Ethan quickly becomes an asset to any multi-discipline project team looking for answers on proformas, construction types, constructability, supply chain, and product usage. He also co-founded the International Mass Timber Conference with Forest Business Network in Portland, now one of the leading mass timber conferences in the world.

Sean Quinn

HOK

Sean Quinn AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, BREEAM, BEAM Pro

Sean Quinn leads HOK’s global regenerative design practice, leveraging natural systems and building technology to enhance development as a steward of the environment. Over the past two decades, he has demonstrated his commitment to performance-based sustainable design and progressive approaches to biomimicry in planning and design projects all over the world. Sean is committed to ensuring that the built environment of tomorrow goes beyond net-zero strategies, yielding mutualistic, net-positive benefits for nature, buildings and communities.

Felix Weber

RDH

As a Façade Specialist, Felix has a deep knowledge in complex façade and glass design. He is a highly creative engineer and experienced team leader with over 15 years of experience in façade consulting and structural engineering. He enjoys designing structures and façades influenced by individual materials or products. He has worked with many cladding types and specializes in structural facades, structural glass, complex geometry structures, and uncommon building materials such as ETFE and fiber-reinforced polymers. Felix was involved, for example, in the Bombay Sapphire Greenhouses (Laverstoke, UK), a Large Confidential Campus Project (Cupertino, CA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA) and the Berkeley Hotel Entrance (London, UK).

J-F Robert

RAICO North America

As a Professional Engineer and owner of Blackcomb Facade Technology, J-F Robert has focused his practice on significant curtainwall projects. His experience ranges from 60 story high rise, PHI certified commercial buildings, high end residences and complex freeform structures. Blackcomb Façade Technology is the exclusive fabrication partner for RAICO Bautechnik in the Pacific Northwest for all systems types including Timber, Steel and Aluminum.

Michelle Murray

SAFTI First

Michelle Murray has over 15 years of experience in the architectural glazing industry. As the Architectural Sales Representative at SAFTI FIRST®, she brings her extensive knowledge and expertise of fire rated glazing systems and fenestration in general when working closely with architects, specifiers, glazing contractors and code officials. Michelle is a dynamic presenter and speaker who has been delivering our AIA-registered presentation to various architecture firms, AIA local chapters, CSI local chapters, and at other architectural and glazing industry events.

Michael Zanotelli

STI Specified Technologies

Michael has over 20 years of real-world experience on many of largest, high profile projects throughout the Western United States. Through his knowledge and expertise, Michael developed a solid reputation working closely with inspectors, glazing contractors, and curtain wall consultants as a trusted resource on a wide range of curtain wall projects.
Michael is committed to ensure your project stays on budget and gets done right the first time from conception to close out. Prior to his role as Façade and Curtain Wall Specialist for the Western US and Canada, Michael was the Western United States and Hawaii Regional Manager.

Dionne Darling

The Architect's Newspaper

Dionne Darling has been with The A|N Media Group for over six years. As A|N’s Associate Publisher, she manages A|N’s Texas headquarters and handles accounts in the West, Southwest and Europe territories. Dionne has over 28 years of direct B2B sales, management and business development experience.

Robert Hart

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Robert Hart performs research and model development of energy-efficient windows and window attachments within the Windows and Envelope Materials Group. His recent work includes the development and experimental analysis of highly insulating “super windows”, shading systems, and vacuum glazing. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University with concentrations in heat transfer and fluid dynamics. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of California, and a LEED AP.

Graydon Cox

Kingspan Panels - Benchmark

With 25 years of experience via multiple division 7 and 8 materials, Graydon has a deep knowledge of building envelope applications. He supports architectural insulated metal panels in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho.

Justin W. Ridley

YKK AP

Justin is a Building Envelope Specialist with YKK AP America. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University, College of Architecture with a B.S. in Architecture. Justin’s career covers over 18 years of experience within the Architectural, Engineering, Building Material Manufacturing & Distribution communities. Justin is also actively involved in community development & volunteering where he resides in San Francisco, CA (Russian Hill). He is also member of SF AIA, SF Heritage, Junior Giants Coach, and a volunteer at Saints Peter & Paul School in North Beach.

David Brenner

Habitat Horticulture

Working at the intersection of horticulture, art and architecture, David has applied his passion for plants to a growing list of innovative projects, building a broad variety of modern, human-centric spaces with abundant plant life at their heart.

David is a pioneer in the field of vertical gardens. He holds a degree in Environmental Horticulture Sciences and Psychology from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. He credits his time spent apprenticing at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, with setting him on the path to living wall design. It was at Kew that he came to appreciate the beauty of epiphytic plants—those which have naturally evolved to grow vertically on trees.

David sees his work as an integral part of a public shift in consciousness towards a renewed desire for closeness with nature and an appreciation of the restorative effect of plants, especially in urban environments. For David, creating living walls affords the chance not only to promote awareness of native and endangered plant species, but also to have a direct impact on quality of life.

David speaks on the benefit of living walls in urban architecture and his work has been featured in publications such as Fast Company, CBS, Wall StreetJournal, Dwell, Architectural Digest, The Los Angeles Times, Wired, Work Design Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, andSan Francisco Magazine. In 2019 he was honored to join the 2019 Class of the “Top 40 Under 40” by The San Francisco Business Times.

Lisa Podesto

Swinerton

Lisa Podesto offers 15+ years of leadership in developing, designing, and constructing projects using mass timber and offsite construction technologies. Utilizing a broad range of industry experience, she supports Swinerton’s project teams regionally to achieve cost and schedule efficiency in enabling the use of mass timber and expanding the market for more sustainable innovation.

As a recognized subject matter expert, Lisa is active on several industry and professional advisory boards supporting mass timber research and market development for organizations such as the Tallwood Design Institute (TDI), the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2012, Lisa began her contribution to the market development of mass timber as a co-author and peer reviewer for the United States Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Handbook. Over a decade later, she continues to advance the cause—speaking and authoring papers on designing and constructing cost-efficient, high-performing, low-carbon buildings.