Agenda

Dionne Darling

VP of Brand Partnerships

The Architect’s Newspaper

Dionne Darling has been with The A|N Media Group for over six years. As VP of Brand Partnerships and 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.

Michelle Old

Partner & Design Director

Kirksey Architecture

Michelle Old is a registered Texas architect with over 15 years of experience that designs innovative buildings that excel in beauty and high performance. She is a partner and lead designer at Kirksey Architecture. Several of her projects have won design awards including the San Jacinto College Anderson Ball building that won national recognition for Wood in Schools in 2023. She has shared at several conferences on different topics including the impact of mass timber structures as well as lessons learned. In 2023 she was named Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Honoree.

Gary Machicek

Partner & Managing Director of Design

Kirksey Architecture

Gary Machicek, AIA

Throughout Gary’s career, he has worked on award-winning projects in Germany, Nepal, New York, and Texas. However, he has always prioritized giving back to his community and worked hard to give back to Houston through design, industry involvement, and mentorship. As the Managing Director of Design, Gary is involved in every aspect of design at Kirksey, and his leadership on the Design studio helps shape the tenets of our firm’s design approach. Gary cites his greatest accomplishment as educating and inspiring future architects. In addition to practicing architecture, Gary has been a professor at the University of Houston and a visiting juror at several other institutions.

Mark Motonaga

Partner & Creative Director

RIOS

Mark Motonaga joined RIOS in 2009. His extensive experience architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design enable him to manage complex projects and has made him a leading voice in the design community for creating memorable experiences. His grasp of creative culture and placemaking has led him to speak at such events as the Fast Company Innovation Festival to share his insights into the qualities that make great spaces succeed. His interest is in understanding the underlying cultural currents of a site to create bold, distinct designs that reveal the story that defines a place. His trans-disciplinary approach allows him to integrate both architecture and landscape architecture in design, as well as understand the complexity and inter-related nature of both practices.

Gary Machicek

Partner & Managing Director of Design

Kirksey Architecture

Gary Machicek, AIA

Throughout Gary’s career, he has worked on award-winning projects in Germany, Nepal, New York, and Texas. However, he has always prioritized giving back to his community and worked hard to give back to Houston through design, industry involvement, and mentorship. As the Managing Director of Design, Gary is involved in every aspect of design at Kirksey, and his leadership on the Design studio helps shape the tenets of our firm’s design approach. Gary cites his greatest accomplishment as educating and inspiring future architects. In addition to practicing architecture, Gary has been a professor at the University of Houston and a visiting juror at several other institutions.

Michelle Old

Partner & Design Director

Kirksey Architecture

Michelle Old is a registered Texas architect with over 15 years of experience that designs innovative buildings that excel in beauty and high performance. She is a partner and lead designer at Kirksey Architecture. Several of her projects have won design awards including the San Jacinto College Anderson Ball building that won national recognition for Wood in Schools in 2023. She has shared at several conferences on different topics including the impact of mass timber structures as well as lessons learned. In 2023 she was named Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Honoree.

Michelle Murray

Architectural Sales Representative

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.

Marc Angelillo

Director of Architectural Systems

Gate Precast

Prior to joining GATE Precast, Marc served as an Outside Sales Engineer for nine years serving the industrial market, oil & gas, chemical, aggregates, cement manufacturing and power industries. His sales management experience is invaluable in his current role working with architects, contractors and owners in the early stages of design.
Education: University at Albany, Bachelor of Arts: Mathematics (2006)

Gary Machicek

Partner & Managing Director of Design

Kirksey Architecture

Gary Machicek, AIA

Throughout Gary’s career, he has worked on award-winning projects in Germany, Nepal, New York, and Texas. However, he has always prioritized giving back to his community and worked hard to give back to Houston through design, industry involvement, and mentorship. As the Managing Director of Design, Gary is involved in every aspect of design at Kirksey, and his leadership on the Design studio helps shape the tenets of our firm’s design approach. Gary cites his greatest accomplishment as educating and inspiring future architects. In addition to practicing architecture, Gary has been a professor at the University of Houston and a visiting juror at several other institutions.

Hugh Lowry

Strategic Account Manager – Solar Facades

Elemex

Hugh Lowry, Strategic Account Manager – Solar Facades, has a passion for BIPV. After his undergraduate at Queen’s, Hugh worked in the solar industry, specifically ground-mount utility projects. Taking a year to pursue an M.Eng at Western University was followed by Hugh’s current role, where he has applied his solar knowledge to facades.

Chris Flemming

Architectural Design Manager

CR Laurence

John Penta

VP of Facades Business Development

GV Facades

John Penta is a VP of Facades Business Development at GV Facades Group. GV Facades is a leading industrial fabricator, and supplier of porcelain façade panels in the USA. John pulls together his porcelain façade technical expertise while facilitating all aspects of project assistance and installation management. He has provided invaluable knowledge for over 33 years to architects and developers by supporting their façade design intent, aesthetics, and façade functionally. His portfolio includes numerous high-rise buildings, and airport façade projects throughout the USA and Canada.

Michelle Old

Partner & Design Director

Kirksey Architecture

Michelle Old is a registered Texas architect with over 15 years of experience that designs innovative buildings that excel in beauty and high performance. She is a partner and lead designer at Kirksey Architecture. Several of her projects have won design awards including the San Jacinto College Anderson Ball building that won national recognition for Wood in Schools in 2023. She has shared at several conferences on different topics including the impact of mass timber structures as well as lessons learned. In 2023 she was named Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Honoree.

Ahmed K. Ali

Associate Professor of Architecture

Texas A&M University

Dr. Ahmed K. Ali is the Harold Adams endowed professor of architecture and the director of the award-wining Resource-Based Design Research Lab (RBDR/Lab) at Texas A&M University. Dr. Ali’s research and scholarship investigate the relationship between the architecture of waste, circular economy, and industrial symbiosis. He is well-known as “the Wasteman” for his patent designs and his incredible ability to transform industrial waste streams into valuable building products and systems. Dr. Ali’s work has been cited in numerous prestigious press including the Steven Holl Foundation’s critical research archive, William Zahner’s Steel Surfaces book by Wiley, General Motors Green, Living Architecture Monitor, and Texas Architect Magazine

Juan José Castellón

Assistant Professor

Rice University

Juan José Castellón is an architect and scholar of building technologies who collaborates with other scholars and engineers, including partnerships with Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and the Carbon Hub. Castellón’s research focuses on the implementation of innovative material processes and structural systems in architecture and on the integrative and ecological design of building infrastructures. Through his work at Rice and his collaborative practice, xmade, located in Basel and Barcelona, he explores the materialization and sustainable design of contemporary building envelopes.

His research output includes structural and material prototypes, installations, and peer-reviewed articles and publications. Recent projects have explored the use of ceramics and textiles in building structures—stemming from his collaboration with eminent manufacturers in Spain—in particular for rooftop structures that also mitigate the effects of sun and rain, a project that was featured in the 2021 Seoul Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, and it will be exhibited at the collateral event “Students as Researchers: Creative Practice and University Education” organized by the New York Institute of Technology as part of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition The Laboratory of the Future, organized by La Biennale di Venezia 2023.

As an architect and scholar, Castellón has collaborated with international firms such as FOA (London), Abalos & Herreros (Madrid), SHoP Architects (New York), and Herzog & de Meuron (Basel). Before joining Rice University, he also taught at ETH Zurich and the Barcelona Institute of Architecture.

Mili Kyropoulo

Assistant Professor

University of Houston

Mili Kyropoulo is an Assistant Professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. She holds a MSc in Sustainable Environmental Design from the AA in London. Her research interests include building performance simulations, computational design, generative design, human-centric design, performance-based design, performance parametrics, and solar form-finding.

Michelle Old

Partner & Design Director

Kirksey Architecture

Michelle Old is a registered Texas architect with over 15 years of experience that designs innovative buildings that excel in beauty and high performance. She is a partner and lead designer at Kirksey Architecture. Several of her projects have won design awards including the San Jacinto College Anderson Ball building that won national recognition for Wood in Schools in 2023. She has shared at several conferences on different topics including the impact of mass timber structures as well as lessons learned. In 2023 she was named Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Honoree.

Martin Voelkle

Partner

Bjarke Ingels Group

Martin Voelkle is a Partner at BIG who focuses on architecture, sustainable construction and technology. Martin has been leading BIG’s collaboration with ICON Build, a developer of advanced construction technologies, including 3D-printed buildings, which are produced with less waste and in a more expedited manner than typical construction methods. Collaborations with ICON have included affordable housing communities, market rate residential, hospitality and event spaces, and NASA’s Project Olympus – a research base that will be the first lunar surface construction on another planetary body. Martin is also leading BIG’s transportation portfolio with the Zurich International Airport Dock A in Switzerland – a design that celebrates the passenger experience and ease of movement by way of its flexible framework constructed of renewable timber, the largest of its kind – and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Central, a reconsideration of the BQE transit corridor through Brooklyn with a focus on accessibility, integration with growing neighborhoods and an incorporated public realm. Martin’s work varies from cultural and infrastructural to residential and commercial, including the Shenzhen Energy Mansion HQ in China; Gowanus active community hub and residence in New York; and the Qianhai Prisma Towers in Shenzhen, China, designed to be a landmark gateway integrated thoughtfully with the existing skyline and public realm. Martin’s design interest and expertise expands to the urban scale with the development of King’s Cross Google HQ in London and Telosa, the vision for a new city in America that sets a global standard for urban planning, expands human potential and becomes a blueprint for future generations and future urban environments. Martin began working at BIG Copenhagen in 2010; he helped build the BIG New York office in 2012; and in 2016 he led the enterprise of BIG’s London office before returning to BIG New York, where he is currently based

Michelle Old

Partner & Design Director

Kirksey Architecture

Michelle Old is a registered Texas architect with over 15 years of experience that designs innovative buildings that excel in beauty and high performance. She is a partner and lead designer at Kirksey Architecture. Several of her projects have won design awards including the San Jacinto College Anderson Ball building that won national recognition for Wood in Schools in 2023. She has shared at several conferences on different topics including the impact of mass timber structures as well as lessons learned. In 2023 she was named Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Honoree.

Dionne Darling

VP of Brand Partnerships

The Architect’s Newspaper

Dionne Darling has been with The A|N Media Group for over six years. As VP of Brand Partnerships and 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.

Michelle Old

Partner & Design Director

Kirksey Architecture

Michelle Old is a registered Texas architect with over 15 years of experience that designs innovative buildings that excel in beauty and high performance. She is a partner and lead designer at Kirksey Architecture. Several of her projects have won design awards including the San Jacinto College Anderson Ball building that won national recognition for Wood in Schools in 2023. She has shared at several conferences on different topics including the impact of mass timber structures as well as lessons learned. In 2023 she was named Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Honoree.

Gary Machicek

Partner & Managing Director of Design

Kirksey Architecture

Gary Machicek, AIA

Throughout Gary’s career, he has worked on award-winning projects in Germany, Nepal, New York, and Texas. However, he has always prioritized giving back to his community and worked hard to give back to Houston through design, industry involvement, and mentorship. As the Managing Director of Design, Gary is involved in every aspect of design at Kirksey, and his leadership on the Design studio helps shape the tenets of our firm’s design approach. Gary cites his greatest accomplishment as educating and inspiring future architects. In addition to practicing architecture, Gary has been a professor at the University of Houston and a visiting juror at several other institutions.