Lecture Series

Past lectures

Virtual Lecture

JACOB ZINDROSKI

This lecture is about the application and alternative thinking for fabrication. Some of the greatest challenges for architecture is advanced construction techniques. Current digital tools have progressed the profession to new design possibilities but lack integration into construction and application. A portion of this lecture is to evoke new thinking regarding tool creation. By producing new tools, the architect is empowered to realize new design capabilities and creation.

Jacob Zindroski received a Master of Science in integrative technologies and architectural design research from the University of Stuttgart and a Bachelor of Architecture from SCI-Arc. He is an experienced professional with an emphasis in additive research with a demonstrated history in robotics, 3D printing, 3D modeling, and design engineering. At the Los Angeles Institute of Architecture and Design, Jacob teaches 3D modeling and computational methods as they relate to design.

Virtual Lecture

STEVEN EHRLICH, FAIA, RIBA

Steven Ehrlich is Founding Partner of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, recipient of the 2015 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Firm Award. The jury recognized the firm for “fluidly melding classic California Modernist style with multicultural and vernacular design elements by including marginalized design languages and traditions.” The practice’s signature approach known as “Multicultural Modernism” creates meaningful architecture through environmentally conscious designs, cultural meaning and advances in technology and materials.

Ehrlich, a self-proclaimed “architectural anthropologist,” learned early on the significance of architecture’s response to the culture and to the environment. Upon graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ehrlich spent six years in the 1970s living and working in Africa, serving for two years with the Peace Corps as their first architect in Marrakech, Morocco; he later traveled across the Sahara and taught architecture at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. The wisdom of indigenous building—architecture without architects—was instrumental in forming Ehrlich’s approach to design and continues to influence the firm’s work today. Now joined by three partners with diverse personal backgrounds and experiences, EYRC is a vibrant collaborative practice committed to creating architecture that is globally relevant.

In addition to the Firm Award, the widely published practice counts nine national AIA design awards to its credit, and Steven Ehrlich is a recipient of the AIA California’s prestigious Maybeck Award for outstanding lifelong achievement in architectural design as well as the 2015 AIALA Gold Medal Award. He has lectured and taught as a visiting professor both nationally and abroad, and has intermittently taught at USC for over 35 years.

Emily Bills is an author, curator, and faculty at Woodbury University. Dr. Bills has contributed essays to books on architectural and urban history, including Michigan Modern: Design That Shaped America and Visual Merchandising: The Image of Selling. Her co-authored book California Captured, Mid-Century Modern Architecture (Phaidon, 2018) won a Glenn Goldman Art, Architecture & Photography Award by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association for its perspective on the life and work of architectural photographer Marvin Rand. Her next book, Linking Up Los Angeles: How the Telephone Built a City, is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press.

In her talk, “How They Learned About L.A.” Emily will explore some of the photographs and photographers that helped bring Southern California architecture to the world’s attention. The bulk of the conversation, however, focuses on her latest book Wayne Thom: Photographing the Late Modern. A key primer to late-twentieth century Modernism, this monograph chronicles Thom’s photographic practice and the architectural and urban environment in which he worked. An innovative chronicler of the booming West Coast urbanism of the 1960s and 70s, Thom’s photographs of key projects by path-breaking architecture firms such as William Pereira & Associates, Edward Durell Stone, SOM, Gio Ponti, John Portman, I. M. Pei, and A. Quincy Jones helped establish the idea of cool architectural glamour of the era.

Carl Smith, AIA is a licensed architect and general contractor. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from California Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1997. Carl was a founding member of Telemachus Studio in 1995, became a partner with William Adams in 2004. Carl has taught design studio at multiple levels at Cal Poly and Los Angeles Institute of Architecture and Design (LAIAD). Carl is currently co-director at LAIAD where he teaches advanced design and is responsible for development of academic programs and advancement of the school.

“Field Notes” explores Carl’s somewhat unlikely path through education, fabrication, building, and into an architectural career. We’ll look at how early influences affect the work of the school and a small vibrant architectural practice with a wide variety of projects and close relationship to construction and field work.

https://www.instagram.com/telemachus/
http://telemachus.com

Mark Ericson holds a Master’s of Architecture from SCI_Arc and Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers College. His drawings have been published in LOG, 306090, and the catalog for the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Uneven Growth. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between historical practices of representation and contemporary developments in the discipline. He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Woodbury University in Los Angeles.

https://www.instagram.com/m_cericson/
https://www.markericson.com/

William Taylor earned his Master of Architecture degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art and his Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Before founding LAIAD in 2001, William has taught architectural design since 1983, with positions at Harvard University, the University of Houston, and at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he developed an innovative new program for basic architectural design. William is also a founding principal of StreetStudio.LA and is involved with a variety of local and international projects.

William has persistently explored the relationship between form and idea and his work at LAIAD is an outgrowth of a 30-year effort, in both teaching and practice, to develop and promote a design methodology based on idea and order rather than visual composition. In recognition of his work at LAIAD, William was recognized with the AIA Los Angeles Educator of the Year award in 2005. His design work has been featured in magazines such as L’Arca, Arkkitehti, and A+U and been included in international exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, the Milan Triennale, the Centre Pompidou, and the Museum of Finnish Architecture, where it is part of the permanent collection.

Perry Kulper is an architect and has been an associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning since 2006. He previously taught for 17 years at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCIarc) in Los Angeles and held visiting teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Arizona State University. Subsequent to his graduate studies at Columbia University, he worked for Eisenman/ Robertson; Robert A.M. Stern Architects; and Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown Architects. Kulper’s interests include the generative potential of architectural drawing, the different spatial opportunities of diverse design methods, and broadening the conceptual range by which architecture contributes to our cultural imagination. His drawings and writings have been extensively published and exhibited internationally.