Alan Maskin is a principal and owner of Olson Kundig, where he leads an interdisciplinary team of architects, designers, visual artists and researchers. His team designs buildings, parks and gardens, installations, sculpture, digital art, graphic novels and film. For over two decades, Maskin has pursued unconventional design challenges in public places, including the recent renovation to Seattle’s iconic Space Needle. His built international portfolio includes museums, installations, exhibits, visitor-based destinations and urban park projects.

In recent years, Maskin has been awarded first place in multiple international design competitions, including The Bob Dylan Center, ANOHA – The Children’s World of The Jewish Museum Berlin, and Fairy Tales 2016, the world’s largest architectural ideas competition. Maskin’s recent self-provoked works include [storefront] Olson Kundig, a two-year experiment in design, culture and social practice, and “The 5th Façade,” a multidisciplinary exploration into the uppermost layer of cities.

Blair Payson joined Olson Kundig in 2004 and has worked on both architectural and exhibit design projects, including the Century Project at the Space Needle, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center, and [storefront] Olson Kundig, as well as several residential projects across the Western United States and Mexico.

A maker at heart, Blair is an architect who revels in the details. From large cultural projects to temporary design interventions, Blair works to distill large, complex projects into distinct culminating moments. Lately, Blair’s research has taken him on site visits to a subterranean cavern deep underground in one week, to hundreds of feet above an urban landscape the next. Blair holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University, and regularly lectures and organizes conferences across the U.S. In 2018, he chaired the Architects Newspaper Conference in Seattle, and he co-presented a workshop for the 2019 Facades+ Conference in New York City.

Dang Qun plays a critical role in MAD’s strategic development and oversees all aspects of project management. She directs communications with both clients and consultants, organizes the structure of each project team, and ensures that the original design intention of each project is maintained from concept to realization. Dang’s role is central to maintaining MAD’s design philosophy which seeks to re-connect humans with nature within the urban environment. This is seen through her involvement with each of MAD’s projects.

Dang holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Iowa State University. Her academic career includes a visiting professorship at Pratt Institute, Assistant Professorship at Iowa State University.

Alan Maskin is a principal and owner of Olson Kundig, where he leads an interdisciplinary team of architects, designers, visual artists and researchers. His team designs buildings, parks and gardens, installations, sculpture, digital art, graphic novels and film. For over two decades, Maskin has pursued unconventional design challenges in public places, including the recent renovation to Seattle’s iconic Space Needle. His built international portfolio includes museums, installations, exhibits, visitor-based destinations and urban park projects.

In recent years, Maskin has been awarded first place in multiple international design competitions, including The Bob Dylan Center, ANOHA – The Children’s World of The Jewish Museum Berlin, and Fairy Tales 2016, the world’s largest architectural ideas competition. Maskin’s recent self-provoked works include [storefront] Olson Kundig, a two-year experiment in design, culture and social practice, and “The 5th Façade,” a multidisciplinary exploration into the uppermost layer of cities.

Karen Brandt, AIA, is a Senior Principal at Heintges, a certified WBE. She joined Heintges New York in 2001 and launched the firm’s San Francisco office in 2013. She has spent the last eight years leading and growing the firm’s West Coa­st teams and body of work. Notable projects include 100 Stockton Street, headquarters for Adobe, LinkedIn, and Uber, the MIRA SF tower, the new Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort and the historic renovation of the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters, New York. Ms. Brandt holds degrees in architecture from the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Blair Payson joined Olson Kundig in 2004 and has worked on both architectural and exhibit design projects, including the Century Project at the Space Needle, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center, and [storefront] Olson Kundig, as well as several residential projects across the Western United States and Mexico.

A maker at heart, Blair is an architect who revels in the details. From large cultural projects to temporary design interventions, Blair works to distill large, complex projects into distinct culminating moments. Lately, Blair’s research has taken him on site visits to a subterranean cavern deep underground in one week, to hundreds of feet above an urban landscape the next. Blair holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University, and regularly lectures and organizes conferences across the U.S. In 2018, he chaired the Architects Newspaper Conference in Seattle, and he co-presented a workshop for the 2019 Facades+ Conference in New York City.

Wade became a member of the Fives Lund (Lund Engineering) team in November of 2009 and enjoys meeting the challenges as a Project Engineer. Wade has contributed to and managed projects for a number of successful, complex automated machines and complete work cells for the petroleum, aerospace and defense industries. Prior to the position at Lund, Wade spent 7 years with Fatigue Technology, Inc. In that position Wade’s functions included design and evolution of in-house automated production systems, product testing mechanisms and industrial forensics. As a team leader, Wade was a primary influence in the development of their Product Lifecycle Management systems. Additionally, Wade’s skill set was utilized for design of special-purpose tooling products for aircraft production and repair. Prior to FTI, Wade worked as a consultant for small firms designing and managing fabrication of equipment to meet various customer contracts. Wade has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and is a registered Professional Engineer (Mechanical) in Washington State.

Shannon Han is an Associate Principal at SHoP Architects where she is currently leading the Uber Headquarters project in San Francisco, CA and the Morrison Hotel and Residence project in Los Angeles, CA. Shannon has led a variety of large-scale projects including the Botswana Innovation Hub, B2 Modular Tower and the ALABS Renovation project at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Working on these projects has contributed to her wide range of experience in academic, multi-unit residential and mixed-use projects. Ms. Han holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and a B.A. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, CA. She is a registered architect in California and New York.

Matthew Marani is a Program Manager and Editor for The Architect’s Newspaper. He curates AN’s Facades+ conference series, and covers cutting-edge projects nationally and internationally for their Facades+ Newsletter and In Construction sections.

Facade Design Director, Studio NYL, has designed and realized award-winning structural and skin projects that merge high performance, high design, and constructability. He is the current national Vice Chair for the Building Enclosure Council and AIA National’s representative on the ASHRAE 90.1 Envelope Subcommittee. Will is also on the ASTM Committee E06 on Performance of Buildings and is a developer and trainer for ASTM’s and NIBS’ new Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) certificate program. Will has presented at various AIA state and local events, CSI’s National CONSTRUCT Convention, BEST5, BEC-Colorado and BEC Minnesota events, and at multiple AIA National Conventions.

O’Hara is facade director for the Skins Group, a division of Studio NYL, established to provide full service facade design specializing in thermal modeling, moisture/condensation analysis, and in-depth detailing. Although Studio NYL is recognized for its skins work with cutting-edge glass and glazing, their team also specializes in digitally fabricated metal skins, GFRC, reinforced polymers, stone, ultra high performance concrete, terra cotta, and traditional precast. O’Hara is currently working on multiple projects in the Boston area.

An exceptional leader, Bradford J. Prestbo, FAIA, is advancing the profession through his practice, advocacy, and educational efforts in the use of cutting-edge design technologies, high-performance design, and the incorporation of maker culture into the design process.

Bradford also finds time to share his knowledge of advanced design technologies, high-performance design, and how maker culture is transforming our practice within the industry. He has practiced internationally, is a sought-after speaker, is frequently interviewed by publishers, and is an educator via his detailing workshops, higher-education classes, design juries, and mentorship of emerging professionals.

Bradford is actively involved in the AIA, and has been elevated to the College of Fellows for his notable contributions to the advancement of the profession of architecture. He is part of the leadership group in the AIA’s Technology in Architectural Practice Knowledge Community, and founded the Boston Society of Architect’s MakeTANK Knowledge Community, where he currently serves as the National Director.

Education
Bradford holds a degree from Syracuse University School of Architecture.

Principal Jamie Slagel’s design approach is all about the pivot points: moments where the experience of a space shifts and becomes surprising. In her architectural practice, this manifests in quiet details felt by the touch of a hand, and in more dramatic moments with the power to influence one’s perception of space. Since joining Olson Kundig in 2011, Jamie has focused on these points of intersection where the natural meets the built, old meets new, public meets private, and where small scale meets the grand. Her designs offer users a greater understanding of how people relate to their built and natural environments.

Mark is a Designer and Project Architect who brings a broad array of skills to his projects. His work ranges from large scale mixed-use projects, to city scale urban design, to program driven higher education projects. Mark is dedicated to design innovation through the advancement of novel workflows, advanced fabrication, and innovative project delivery methods.

In addition to his primary professional work, he is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where he leads graduate courses positioned at the intersection between design, technology, and computation investigating the role of structures, materiality, and digital simulation in driving the design process. Mark has lectured widely and is a thought leader in the spaces of Computational Design, Visualization, Urban Design, and Design for Higher Education.

Tom Wiscombe, born in 1970, is Principal and Founder of Tom Wiscombe Architecture (TWA) in Los Angeles. His work is known for its powerful massing, alluring graphic qualities, and tectonic inventiveness, all underwritten by contemporary ecological thinking. Tom combines his renowned design expertise with a deep knowledge of construction and project delivery– gleaned from a thirty year professional career– to create projects with the highest level of care and craft. His recently released monograph Objects Models Worlds, captures the breadth of his practice and ideas. Tom is also Chair of the Undergraduate Program at SCI-Arc, where he has taught for over 15 years.

For more than a decade, Ian has worked on a wide variety of projects, from seismic upgrades of historic structures to complex and eye-catching new athletic facilities. Ian genuinely enjoys the collaborative process between the architect and engineer, blending creativity with finite logistics. When Ian gets involved in a project, clients know they are getting 110% of his engineering abilities as well as an extremely positive outlook that makes working with him enjoyable. Recently, Ian managed the structural engineering of the unitized curtain wall design on the Wilshire Grand Center Tower located in Los Angeles, California. The Wilshire Grand gained the title of the west coast’s new tallest building, standing at 73 stories tall. Ian earned both his BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Washington State University and became a LEED accredited professional in order to bring a deeper understanding of sustainability to the job.

Jeff Heymann, Vice President, Business Development has over thirty five years of experience in the facade and glass industry. A Western New York native, Jeff attended Case Western Reserve University and has a BA from SUNY Buffalo. After college Jeff worked in the architectural glass and façade systems business business development and operations roles in the Midwest and in New York City. In 2004 Jeff joined Benson Industries and founded Benson’s NYC office. During the following 12 years, Benson had significant growth in the region. In 2016 Jeff re-located to the corporate office in Portland Oregon where today he oversees the sales, preconstruction, conceptual design and estimating for Benson and two MiTek sister companies SidePlate and Aegis.

Michael Lewis is a forensic architect specializing in building enclosure design and rehabilitation. He has diagnosed deficiencies and created remedies for over $900 million of enclosures on nearly $9 billion of new, existing and historic buildings internationally. Superior capability to recognize and cure problems results from his unique experience as licensed architect, engineering graduate, adjunct professor, facade contractor, and expert witness. As an ASTM Fellow and TMS member, he authors code and standards used internationally to improve building quality. Enclosures he has repaired or improved include some designed by Gilbert, Hake, Hannaford, Graber & Woodward, Durrell Stone, Studios, Ennead, IMPei, HOK, SOM, HDR, HGA, DLR, NBBJ, GBBN, KPF, WRL, VOA, ZGF, Yamasaki, Johnson, Gehry, Safdie, Stern, Pelli, Graves, Gensler, Eisenmann, Pei-Cobb-Freed, Porphyrios, Leo A Daly, Cooper Carry, DeStefano Goettsch, Libeskind.

Blair Payson joined Olson Kundig in 2004 and has worked on both architectural and exhibit design projects, including the Century Project at the Space Needle, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center, and [storefront] Olson Kundig, as well as several residential projects across the Western United States and Mexico.

A maker at heart, Blair is an architect who revels in the details. From large cultural projects to temporary design interventions, Blair works to distill large, complex projects into distinct culminating moments. Lately, Blair’s research has taken him on site visits to a subterranean cavern deep underground in one week, to hundreds of feet above an urban landscape the next. Blair holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University, and regularly lectures and organizes conferences across the U.S. In 2018, he chaired the Architects Newspaper Conference in Seattle, and he co-presented a workshop for the 2019 Facades+ Conference in New York City.