Architecture critic Inga Saffron has been writing about the design of buildings and cities for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1999.  Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the 2018 Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum and a 2012 Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In June 2020, Rutgers University Press published a selection of her Inquirer columns about Philadelphia’s urban recovery, Becoming Philadelphia: How an old American city made itself new again. Before becoming the Inquirer’s architecture critic, Inga spent the 1990s as a foreign correspondent for the Inquirer in Russia and the former Yugoslavia, covering the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, and witnessing the destruction of Sarajevo and Grozny. In addition to her writing about architecture and urbanism, she is an expert on the cultural history of sturgeon. Her book, Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World’s Most Coveted Delicacy, appeared in 2003 to rave reviews. She is currently working on a history of the American newspaper building.

Michael J. Lewis teaches modern architecture and American art at Williams College, and he is the architecture critic for the Wall Street Journal. After receiving his B.A. from Haverford College in 1980, and two years at the University of Hannover Germany, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. He has taught at Bryn Mawr College; McGill University, Montreal; and the University of Natal, South Africa. His books include Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind (2001), American Art and Architecture (2006), and the prize-winning August Reichensperger: The Politics of the German Gothic Revival (1993). He was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton (2000-2001) and in 2008 received a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the completion of City of Refuge (2016), his study of millennial utopias. Lewis has been at Williams College since 1993 and in 2008 he was named Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art.

Ashley Bigham is an Assistant Professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University and co-director of Outpost Office. She has been a Fulbright Fellow in Ukraine, a Visiting Faculty at the Kharkiv School of Architecture, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Walter B. Sanders Fellow at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She is the editor of Fulfilled: Architecture, Excess, and Desire (Applied Research + Design, 2022). Her writing and work have appeared in publications such as MAS Context, Metropolis, Mark, CLOG, and Surface. The design work of Outpost Office has been exhibited at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Milwaukee Art Museum, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale, Roca London Gallery, Wedge Gallery, Yale School of Architecture, Princeton School of Architecture, Harvard GSD, and The Cooper Union.

Allegra Churchill is the granddaughter of Oskar and Elizabeth Stonorov. She currently serves in leadership roles at the Charlestown Playhouse and Miss Betty’s Day Camp, and practices residential landscape design. She holds a B.A. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia. Exploring the theoretical, practical and familial connections between design, community organizing, and early childhood education has been a focus of her academic and professional experiences for over 20 years.

Seth Cohen, principal of VSBA Architects & Planners, is highly experienced in the design and renovation of academic, civic, cultural, and institutional facilities.  Seth was with Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates for 14 years.

Victor Deupi is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Miami School of Architecture where he teaches history and theory, design, and representation. He received a Bachelor of Science in architecture from the University of Virginia, a Master of Architecture from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught previously at Fairfield University, the New York Institute of Technology, the University of Notre Dame, the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture in London, and has been a “Visiting Critic” at the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech. 
 

Belmont Freeman, FAIA, familiarly known as Monty, is founding principal of Belmont Freeman Architects, an award-winning design firm in New York City with built work for a wide variety of public, institutional and private clients in North America, Europe, and Asia. Since establishing his practice in 1986, Monty has earned a wide reputation as an innovative designer, a progressive practitioner, and a scholar. A prolific author, his writings have appeared in Places journal, Architectural Record, The Architect’s Newspaper, and other publications. He holds a B.A. from Yale and an M.Arch degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Freeman has taught at Columbia University and is currently a visiting lecturer at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design. From 1997 to 2008 Monty was the President of Storefront for Art & Architecture, on which board he still sits. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Association of Yale Alumni and the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians. An American of Cuban descent, Monty has done extensive research, writing, and lecturing about Cuban architecture and culture, as well as leading numerous architectural tours of Cuba. He maintains a home in Havana as a base for professional and family activities.

M. Jeff Hardwick is the Acting Director of the Division of Public Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has worked at NEH for the last thirteen years. His academic background is in American studies, with a doctorate from Yale University, a master’s from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the University of Delaware, and an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Jeff has taught American history and literature, urban history, and public history courses at Temple University, the New School, George Mason University, and George Washington University. He is the author of Mall Maker (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), a biography of the Viennese émigré architect Victor Gruen. Other publications include a history of African American architecture in Langston, Oklahoma, the impact of urban renewal in New Haven, the death of suburban shopping malls, and the preservation of modernist architecture. He has appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, CBC, 99% Invisible, and several podcasts speaking about consumer culture and postwar suburbanization.

Douglas Hassebroek, AIA, is an architect and associate principal at Skidmore Owings & Merrill in New York. He has worked on some of the great icons of modernism including Beyer Blinder Belle’s conversion of Eero Saarinen’s 1962 TWA Flight Center into a hotel, SOM’s renovation of Perry Dean Rogers’ 1977 Wellesley College Science Center, and Rafael Vinoly’s unbuilt expansion to Edward Durell Stone’s 1971 Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Doug won a national SARA award, with BRB Architects, for master planning the creative destruction of Eggers & Higgins 1970 brutalist superblock One Pace Plaza at Pace University. Doug grew up in Philadelphia’s South Jersey suburbs and spent his twenties living and working in Center City, where he also led walking tours for Philadelphia’s Foundation for Architecture. His career has been flanked by bit roles in two Philadelphia structures: Venturi Scott Brown’s 1992 Christopher Columbus Monument and SOM’s current renovations to Graham, Anderson, Probst, & White’s 30th Street Station. Doug holds architecture degrees from Rice and Columbia, where he received a Kinne Traveling Fellowship to study the State Department’s postwar embassy building program and wrote on Ed Bacon’s postwar moment for Perspecta.

Stephanie M. Hoagland is a Principal and Architectural Conservator with Jablonski Building Conservation Inc. where she’s been employed since 2003. Ms. Hoagland has worked on a variety of conservation projects throughout the United States and Canada including finishes investigations, conditions assessments, and hands-on conservation treatments. Some of her favorite projects have involved the preservation of vernacular art and architecture. She has a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Columbia University with a concentration on materials conservation. She is a Fellow and past Chair of the Architectural Specialty Group for the American Institute for Conservation and is a Recognized Professional with the Association for Preservation Technology. Stephanie was first introduced to the architecture of the Wildwoods when she interned for the Doo Wop Preservation League in the Summer of 2001. She then completed her graduate school thesis on the Conservation of 1950s and 60s Concrete Motels in the Wildwoods. After graduation she worked at ARCH2 in Metuchen, New Jersey where she assisted in the completion the nomination forms for the Wildwood Shore Resort Historic District and the Motels of the Wildwoods Multiple Property Listing.

Katie Horak is an architectural historian and Principal at Architectural Resources Group, an architecture firm specializing in the historic built environment in the Western US. Katie leads the firm’s Los Angeles practice and is a respected authority on national and regional historic preservation standards, policy, and legal frameworks, with particular expertise in treatment and documentation methods. In addition to her work at ARG, Katie teaches graduate-level courses in historic site documentation at USC’s School of Architecture and is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities across the country. Katie’s love of mid- and late-20th century art and architecture has drawn her to a wide range of research projects, including most recently the use of color at Palm Spring’s Ocotillo Lodge, where she has a home. Katie is Founding President of the Docomomo US/Southern California chapter and is currently Secretary of Docomomo US.

George Thomas Kapelos, OAA FRAIC, is an architect, urban planner and professor in Canada at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). He studied architecture and urbanism at Princeton University, and holds a Masters of City Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Masters of Architecture from Yale University. 

He is the past president of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, and the past chair of the Toronto Society of Architects. 

He has published on a wide range of topics in architectural history, design pedagogy, urbanism and contemporary environmental design. His architectural research focuses on post-war modernity. His book and exhibition, Competing Modernisms (Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2015), explored the impact of the 1958 Toronto City Hall and Square Competition on national architectural culture. He is a contributing author to the book, Canadian Modern Architecture 1967 to the Present (Princeton Architectural Press 2019), writing a chapter on institutional architecture in Canada over the past five decades.

He is currently examining the role of photography in the preservation of Newfoundland’s vernacular architectural heritage.

Sean Kelley is Senior Vice President and Director of Interpretation at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia. He produced the site’s award-winning audio tour, now heard by more than a million visitors, and has curated more than 100 site-specific artist installations in the building. He conceived and developed The Big Graph, a 16-foot infographic sculpture that illustrates the skyrocketing US Rate of Incarceration, and curated the companion exhibit Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration which won the 2017 Overall Award for Excellence from the American Alliance of Museums. From 2017 to 2019 he oversaw “Hidden Lives Illuminated,” a project which resulted in 20 original films made by currently incarcerated individuals and projected them for a month onto Eastern State Penitentiary’s façade. Mr. Kelley visits active prisons and writes critically about prison museums and sites of detention.  He speaks widely on the responsibility of museums to address controversial and painful subjects, as well as the ethical and management challenges posed by large-scale fundraising events in sites with complex histories.  He has served as adjunct faculty at Rutgers University, teaching Museum Studies in the graduate program in Public History, and at the University of Pennsylvania.

Izzy Kornblatt is an architectural critic, historian, and curator with an interest in how social, cultural, and economic forces shape the built environment. He looks at buildings not as objects but as a lens through which to understand the social world. Originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, he studied philosophy at Swarthmore College and design studies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Much of his research has centered around the architecture of Philadelphia, and he received the Graduate School of Design’s 2019 Design Studies Thesis Prize for his study “Architecture for a New World: Louis Kahn and Philadelphia.” He has contributed to several books, published in leading design publications, and curated acclaimed exhibitions, among other projects.

Naomi Kroll is a senior conservator with the National Park Service, where she has worked since 1998 providing technical preservation services to parks as part of the Historic Architecture, Conservation, and Engineering Center. A twentieth-century enthusiast, her recent projects have included the expansive Cold War fallout shelters beneath Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Site in Woodstock, VT and Thomas Edison’s concrete buildings at Edison National Historic Park in West Orange, NJ. She holds master's degrees in architectural history and in the conservation of historic and artistic works from the Conservation Center/Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.  

Alexandra Lange is a design critic and author of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, (Bloomsbury, 2022). She has written extensively on postwar design, particularly for children. She is currently a columnist for Bloomberg CityLab, and her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Curbed, Design Observer, New York Magazine, the New York Times and the New Yorker, among many other publications.

Jean-François Lejeune, Ph.D. is a professor of architecture, urban design, and history at the University of Miami School of Architecture. His research ranges from Latin American architecture and urbanism to 20th-century vernacular modernism in Spain and Italy. His publications include The Making of Miami Beach 1933-1942: The Architecture of Lawrence Murray Dixon, with Allan Shulman (Rizzoli, 2001), Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), Sitte, Hegemann, and the Metropolis (Routledge, 2009), Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean: Vernacular Dialogues and Contested Identities, with Michelangelo Sabatino (Routledge, 2010), Cuban Modernism: Mid- Century Architecture 1940-1970, with Victor Deupi (Birkhäuser, 2021) and Rural Architecture and Water Urbanism: The Modern Village in Franco’s Spain (DOM-Publishers, 2021). He curated various exhibitions in Brussels and Miami, including with Victor Deupi, Cuban Architects at Home and in Exile: The Modernist Generation. He holds a diploma from the University of Liège in Belgium and the Ph.D. from the TU Delft. He was founder of Docomomo US/Florida and is the current treasurer. He was an Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2007.

Carl-Dag Lige is an architecture historian, critic and curator, a member of the Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators. He has produced, curated and moderated various architecture events, and currently works as a curator at the Estonian Museum of Architecture in Tallinn. His academic interests concern the history of modern architecture, particularly the relationship between architecture and structural engineering. In 2018–2019, he was a grantee of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts. In 2020, together with his team, he received the annual Estonian Architecture Award for the exhibition Miracles in Concrete. Structural Engineer August Komendant (Estonian Museum of Architecture, 10 January—26 July 2020). He is the editor of the book Miracles in Concrete. Structural Engineer August Komendant, published by Birkhäuser Verlag and the Estonian Museum of Architecture (2022).

John Lobell is a professor of architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he has taught since 1969. His courses have included design, planning, Kahn and Venturi, Frank Lloyd Wright, global architecture, creativity, and the social impact of technology. He is part of the team that teaches the architectural history and theory survey. Lobell studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1966 and received a post-professional master’s degree for work on architecture and structures of consciousness under G. Holmes Perkins. Subsequent to his architecture education, Lobell studied with a range of important cultural figures including mythologist Joseph Campbell, social critic Paul Goodman, Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa, shaman Michael Harner, and Tai Chi master Cheng Man-Ch’ing. Lobell’s widely ranging interests and research address the fundamental role of creativity in our lives and how new technologies change our consciousness. He has written numerous articles and has lectured throughout the world. He is the author of several books, including Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy, Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn, Architecture and Structures of Consciousness, Joseph Campbell: The Man and His Ideas, and Visionary Creativity: How New Worlds are Born.

Daniel McCoubrey, president and principal of VSBA Architects & Planners, is an expert in the planning, design, and implementation of academic and cultural projects. His work includes planning, programming, design of new facilities, and adaptive reuse of existing buildings. Dan was with Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates for 31 years and founded VSBA in 2012.

Rosalyn McPherson is President of The ROZ Group, Inc., a firm she launched in 2005.   She is highly regarded as a builder of strategic relationships and intercultural enthusiast.  Her firm has served as project director for important history and science projects during their construction phase around the country including The President’s House; Octavius Catto Memorial; Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Historic House (Lancaster, PA). Prior to launching her firm, Roz had a distinguished career in marketing and educational product development and subsequently museum administration.  She served as Senior Vice President for the Science Center at the Franklin Institute.  As Senior Vice President and Publisher for Time Life Education (Alexandria, VA), Roz was responsible for K-12 product development and marketing. Roz entered the workforce as a teacher of junior high social studies and mathematics.  She also taught marketing at Rutgers University.  Roz has an MBA degree in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck, NJ) and a BS degree in Secondary Education from Southern University & A&M College (Baton Rouge, LA).  She currently serves as co-vice chair for the board of Community College of Philadelphia. Roz has lived and traveled around the world since childhood and credits that experience with fostering her appreciation for the world’s varied cultures. 

Pablo Meninato, Ph.D., is an architect, architectural critic, and educator. A native of Argentina, Meninato has taught and practiced architecture in Philadelphia, Buenos Aires, and Monterrey, Mexico. Before joining Temple University as Associate Professor, Meninato taught at various academic institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, the Universidad de Monterrey, and Universidad de Belgrano at Buenos Aires. Meninato’s essays have been published in various magazines, journals, and books. He is the author of Unexpected Affinities (Routledge, 2018), a book that proposes a historical reassessment of the concept of architectural “type” and its impact on the design process. Meninato has embarked on a multi-year research and publishing project examining how various contemporary architects are developing new and original interventions in informal settlements across Latin America. The first outcome of this project is the co-edited book Informality and the City—Theories, Actions, Interventions (Springer Rotterdam, expected Spring 2022), a multidisciplinary overview of informality in the Global South.

Justin Miller is an architectural historian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He specializes in historic preservation legal compliance, historic tax credit consulting, and research and documentation for the National Register of Historic Places. He has presented on a variety of topics for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the Victorian Society in America. Justin’s recent articles, talks, and tours have ranged from an exploration of a modernist ski resort in northern Wisconsin to a Chicago tour of the buildings of African American architect John Moutoussamy. Justin is a member of the Docomomo US/Chicago chapter.

Fátima Olivieri-Martinez, AIA, is a Principal at the Philadelphia-based, research and planning firm KieranTimberlake. Since joining the firm, Fátima has worked on award-winning projects including the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and the renovation of Harvard Dunster House. Fátima is currently Principal on New York University’s new 181 Mercer, an academic, mixed use building combining academics, athletics, performing arts, and student and faculty residences. She spearheads the design and construction of the building’s lobbies, Commons, and theatres. Fátima is an active member of the design community, lecturing at national conferences such as Living Future, Facades+ and DesignPhiladelphia and sitting on the AIA Philadelphia Board as Director of Design. Her writing has appeared in a variety of online publications. A native of Puerto Rico, Fátima attended the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture from which she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design in 2008. She pursued a Master of Architecture at the University of Virginia graduating in 2010 with honors. In 2019, Fátima received the AIA Philadelphia Young Architect Award, which recognizes a registered architect between the ages of 25 and 39 for remarkable contributions in leadership, practice, and service.  

Allison Olsen is the Digital Archivist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Architectural Archives where she is responsible for collecting, analyzing, preserving, and providing access to born digital archival collections. Additionally, she also works alongside the Archivist and Curator on exhibitions, reference and public services, collections management, and rights and reproductions. Before joining the Architectural Archives, Allison worked in the University of Pennsylvania’s Office of the University Architect as a Digital Archivist, and as a Visual Resources Librarian at the University of New Hampshire. She graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in History and an MA in Historic Preservation and worked at the Center for Historic Architecture and Design documenting the Mid-Atlantic’s built environment and preserving archival collections.  Allison also holds an MSC in Library and Information Management from the University of the West of England. During her stay in the UK, Allison worked in the library and archives of the 11th-century Hereford Cathedral. Currently, Allison serves as the Co-Chair for the Society of American Archivist’s Design Records Section and is a LEADING fellow at Drexel University’s Metadata Research Center.

Cynthia is an architect and currently serves as the Executive Director for Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF). She joins the Foundation following ten years as the Managing Director of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, Center for Architecture. Both an architect and a creative institutional administrator, Cynthia was responsible for the creation of Archtober, the New York City month-long festival of architecture and design. As one of the early pioneers of co-education in the 1970’s, Cynthia graduated from Princeton University receiving both a magna cum laude, and Masters of Architecture. She worked for Philip Johnson in the 80’s and taught at the University of Virginia, New Jersey Institute of Technology and her alma mater.

John Poros, Professor at Mississippi State University’s School of Architecture, is the previous director of the Educational Design Institute and Fred Carl Jr. Small Town Center at Mississippi State. Prof. Poros’ work in community design has won him statewide and national awards including Mississippi AIA Design Awards, American Planning Association national awards and an invitation to the White House as part of the White House Convening on Rural Placemaking in 2015. Prof. Poros received his M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and his B.A. from Columbia College. Prof. Poros worked for eight years with the internationally known firm of Kieran Timberlake before taking his position at Mississippi State University. Prof. Poros’ has a longtime interest in the work of Marcel Breuer and has authored the book Marcel Breuer: Shaping Architecture in the Post-War Era, to be published by Routledge in the Spring of 2022.  Prof. Poros has previously spoken on Breuer’s Atlanta Central Library in an invited talk entitled “The Atlanta Central Library: The End of a Long Search,” given at the Atlanta Central Library on Dec. 14, 2009 as part of the library’s and the Museum of Design Atlanta’s celebration of the library.

Brittany Reilly joined the Board of Directors of Preservation Pittsburgh in 2017 and established and leads the Pittsburgh Modern Committee in its mission to survey the city’s 20th-century modern and postmodern architecture, design, and integral public art as a groundwork for preservation and to engage public awareness and related community experiences through documentation, public programming, education, and advocacy. With a 15-year career in the visual arts, Brittany is the Executive Director of the Irving and Aaronel deRoy Gruber Foundation where she manages a collection of artwork by the late, Pittsburgh-based artist Aaronel deRoy Gruber (1918-2011), and curates the Foundation's gallery space in the historic Ice House Studios. Brittany received her M.A. in Visual Arts Administration from New York University, Steinhardt (2013) and B.A. in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005), focusing on non-profit management combined with art, architecture, and design history. Brittany’s programming and advocacy efforts have included curating and coordinating walking tours of modern sites throughout Pittsburgh neighborhoods; a local launch event for Imagining the Modern (Monacelli Press, 2019) extensive Section 106 consulting party work for the successful preservation of artist Virgil Cantini’s large-scale abstract 1963 mosaic installation in Downtown Pittsburgh (recipient of the Modernism in America Award, 2020); an in-depth advocacy and nomination campaign and for the preservation of a modernist 1970s banking structure;  and authoring a 2021 article on Westinghouse’s SOM-designed, at-risk campus in Churchill, Pennsylvania, a site that will soon undergo Section 106 review.

Douglas Schaller, an art historian and writer, frequently teaches Philadelphia’s architecture and modern design history at Temple University. A business development director for the architecture firm MGA Partners, his research and writing focus on Philadelphia’s built environment, 19th and 20th-century design, and contemporary Philadelphia artists. His writing has appeared in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and on the website Hidden City Philadelphia, and he has lectured at the Union League of Philadelphia. He serves on the Ego Po Theater Company board and has volunteered at Vox Populi, Bartram’s Garden, St James School, and St. Peters Churchyard.

Linda Scinto has been an interior designer at the office of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates since 1997 as well as being Mr. Roche’s executive assistant for eight years, and is currently archiving his papers and drawings for transfer to Yale University’s Manuscripts and Archives Library. She has lectured in Textiles in the Interior Design Department at Paier College since 2013. Prior to teaching at Paier, she taught History of Architecture and Interiors at the University of New Haven for four years and while there led a two-week study abroad course in Italy, visiting Rome, Florence and Pompeii. She has a B.F.A. in Interior Design from Paier College of Art and is NCIDQ certified. As a professional member of ASID, she was involved with the Connecticut Chapter for many years, serving on the board in several positions including president. Awards include ASID Presidential Citation in 1990 and 1997 and one for Chapter Service in 2002. She is a member of Docomomo US. Linda has a love for books, midcentury design, and 1960s muscle cars, and has been seen at the track on occasion, racing her vintage car.

Eleanor Sharpe is a Deputy Director in the Department of Planning and Development. She is responsible for the Division of Planning and Zoning. She oversees the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC), the Historical Commission, the Art Commission and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Sharpe is also the Executive Director of the Planning Commission. She works with City Council, City agencies, and civic and community organizations to implement the recommendations of Philadelphia2035, the city's comprehensive plan. The plan aims to improve the city’s built environment. Sharpe has a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University and a master's in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Hannah Simonson is a Cultural Resources Planner at Page & Turnbull in San Francisco, where she has worked on a range of projects from documenting the significance of the Transamerica Pyramid to developing design guidelines for Eichler neighborhoods. She received a Master of Science in Historic Preservation at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture in 2017 where her thesis, "Modern Diamond Heights: Dwell-ification and the Challenges of Preserving Modernist, Redevelopment Resources in Diamond Heights, San Francisco," was awarded the Outstanding Thesis in Historic Preservation. Her personal and professional research interests include Late Modernism, Bay Area regional Modernism, and San Francisco redevelopment and public art. Hannah is the current board president of the Docomomo US/Northern California chapter. She also regularly gives walking tours of the Modernist enclave of Diamond Heights and manages the Instagram account @moderndiamondheights.

Francesca Sisci undertook her studies in Architecture at the Polytechnic of Bari (Italy) in 2012, and completed her Master's degree in 2018 with the highest honors. In 2019, she enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the Drawing and Survey of Architecture at the Polytechnic of Bari. Her main research project is on Robert Venturi's theoretical work. Her work often combines multiple disciplines, merging the representation of architecture with the study of visual perception and graphic analysis, art history, architecture, and photography. She is also enrolled in postgraduate school in Architectural and Landscape Heritage of the Polytechnic of Bari where she is a graduate teaching assistant in the architectural drawing and survey courses. She has taken part in national and international symposiums where she has presented research in architectural representation and basic design. She has written articles that have appeared in scientific journals and magazines such as Domus.

Ian Smith is the founding principal of IS‐DG, an award‐winning full‐service design architecture firm in Philadelphia, PA. IS‐DG is a member firm of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects as well as a certified DBE in Pennsylvania. Ian’s combined accomplishments from the Rhode Island School of Design and at Yale University have trained him to pursue a perspective in design, architecture, and urbanism to expand best practices. His cumulative experiences and have afforded him opportunities in the design of health care, commercial, residential, and institutional buildings. One of the core values of the Firm, Ian firmly believes that “Much of who we are as people comes from the stories we have been told as well as the ones that we are a part of. We work to identify the intertwined emotional narratives upon which we depend. This allows us to have a sensitivity to the many challenges that may influence the outcome of the project. Not only did we find that this came easily when pursuing memorial, dedication, and legacy projects, but also became relevant to single family homes and utility additions.” Ian continues to serve the civic discourse through teaching occasionally at local universities in addition to his current appointments on the PhilaNOMA, Philadelphia Preservation Alliance, and Inglis House boards.

Dr. Franca Trubiano is associate professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Group Chair of the doctoral program (2021-22), and a registered architect with l’Ordre des Architectes du Québec. Her research on “Fossil Fuels, the Building Industry, and Human Health” was sponsored by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. Amongst her book projects are the co-edited Women [Re]build: Stories, Polemics, and Futures (2019, ORO ar+d), the edited Design and Construction of High-Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice (Routledge Press, 2012), the forthcoming single author Building Theories: Architecture as the Art of Building (Routledge, 2022), and the co-edited Bio/Matter/Techno/Synthetics: Design Futures for the More than Human (Actar, 2022). Franca was president of the Building Technology Educators Society in 2015 (BTES); a founding member of the editorial board of the journal Technology, Architecture and Design (TAD) in 2015-2016; and a member of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) (2013-2016).

Daniel Vieyra, Ph.D., AIA, is Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture at Kent State University. He is author of Fill ‘er Up; An Architectural History of America’s Gas Stations. Having taught Architecture for over thirty years in Ohio, Daniel relocated to the Philadelphia area where he and his wife Katherine are currently involved in grand-parenting and preserving and somewhat irreverently updating a mid-century modern ranch/farmhouse outside Media, PA. Long interested in the everyday built environment and everyday Modernism, he organized the Society for Commercial Archeology 20th Anniversary Annual Conference, “Fins, Family, Fun and the Fabulous ‘50s”  held in Wildwood, N.J.  With Steven Izenour, he conducted the “Learning from Wildwood” studios and workshops sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and Kent State University. Daniel is past president of the Western Reserve Society of Architectural Historians and the American Institute of Architects Akron Chapter.  He currently serves on the Board of the Society of Architectural Historians Philadelphia, where he coordinates the peripatetic The Elusive Philadelphia School; The Many Guises of Philadelphia Modernism series; he is also a Board member of Docomomo US/Philadelphia.

Lee Webb is a historic preservationist and urban planner in Washington DC with close to 30 years of experience in historic preservation, urban design, and planning. Lee has worked at the local, state, and federal levels, as well as with non-profit foundations, and has a wide range of diverse experiences. In his career, Lee has pursued opportunities to introduce new and cutting- edge strategies to assist in historic preservation regulatory reviews. During his tenure at the federal Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, Lee worked with the Department of Energy to establish a nationwide prototype programmatic agreement, to assist in the reviews of weatherization and energy related projects—the first use of this type of agreement document under the ACHP’s regulations. Lee has also worked on creating state level legislation to establish state tax incentives and credits for historic rehabilitation projects. Lee has served on local Historic Preservation Commissions, statewide organizational professional boards and panels, and provided expertise on planning issues for planning commissions. Currently, Lee serves as the Federal Preservation Officer at the National Capital Planning Commission. Prior to joining the NCPC, he was the Executive Director for Thomasville Landmarks, a foundation focused on neighborhood revitalization and historic preservation.

Brian Wentz, Keast & Hood, has over 25 years of structural engineering experience.  He is a master at revitalizing old buildings and has worked on some of the firm’s most sensitive historic projects.  He is a former board member of both the Association for Preservation Technology International Board and Delaware Valley Chapter Board, and he currently serves on the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia Easement Committee.

Caroline Wilson is an associate with MacRostie Historic Advisors and manages historic tax credit projects throughout the southeast. During her time with MHA, she has written several successful tax credit applications and has multiple National Register of Historic Places nominations to her credit including Judson Mill in Greenville, SC; Griffin Motors Company in Florence, SC; and Mt. Zion Institute in Winnsboro, SC. Prior to joining MHA, Caroline worked with the Appalachian Council of Governments in Greenville, South Carolina and consulted on historic preservation projects for Preservation South Carolina, the statewide historic preservation non-profit. She has also served as the Review & Compliance Coordinator (Section 106) for the South Carolina SHPO. Caroline holds a Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation and Community Planning from the College of Charleston and a Master of Fine Arts in Architectural History from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is currently serving as the president of MidModSC, a statewide organization concerned with the identification and preservation of Modernist architecture. In the past she has presented at the National Main Street Conference in Seattle, WA, the South Carolina Historic Preservation Conference in Columbia, SC, and the Association of Preservation Technology Conference in Miami, FL.

Jessica Wolff, ASLA, LEED-AP is a studio instructor at Boston Architectural College and Thomas Jefferson University. She teaches courses in interdisciplinary design, site design, introductory architectural design principles and mapping and analysis. She also works as a design consultant for landscape design firms. She received her Bachelor’s of Landscape Architecture from Pennsylvania State University and her Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She has 15 years of experience working in design firms in the landscape architecture, planning and architecture disciplines. Additionally, she has presented at national conferences and the Bauhaus School of Architecture.

Yue Wu is the Neighborhood Planning & Project Manager for the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. In August 2018, Yue Wu joined PCDC to spearhead the implementation of key community development strategies outlined in the 2017 Chinatown Neighborhood Plan. Thus far, Yue has worked on a wide range of projects, including public space activation, community engagement, and equitable development advocacy. In partnership with Asian Arts Initiative and the Friends of Rail Park, Yue launched the Parks for Chinatown Initiative to engage the Chinatown community to activate their neighborhood public spaces. She is also an advocate for cultural heritage preservation. Yue holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation (Preservation Planning) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Caroline Rob Zaleski is a preservation activist and writer. She is the author of the critically acclaimed illustrated book, Long Island Modernism 1930-1980 (W.W. Norton with the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 2012). This book is based on her all-island field survey conducted with serial funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. In 2000, she received her MS in architectural preservation from Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she pioneered concentrating on the preservation of Modernism. Soon after graduation, she became a leading advocate for the preservation of important modern architecture in New York City and on Long Island, while spearheading campaigns to save the Conger Goodyear House by Edward Durell Stone, the Edgar Kauffman Conference Rooms by Alvar and Elissa Aalto and Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal. Much of this work was done in her role as Director of Advocacy for Docomomo US/New York Tri-State. She is currently chair of the New York Preservation League Seven to Save Endangered Sites program and also sits on the board and curatorial and preservation committees of Preservation Long Island. She has appeared on radio and in film, but her favorite way to communicate is by organizing and leading tours.

Richard Bartholomew, FAIA, FAAR is a retired architect and city planner whose professional career focused on urban design. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the American Academy in Rome, his 45 years of practice include 25 years as a partner in the internationally-known planning and design firm Wallace Roberts & Todd. In addition to his professional practice, Richard served for over 20 years as adjunct faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s graduate School of Design. Awarded the Rome Prize in Architecture, Bartholomew holds Master of Architecture and B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Thouron Scholar at Cambridge University, England.

David Brownlee is a historian of modern architecture and urbanism in Europe and America. He has taught for his entire career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he won the Outstanding Teaching Award of the College Alumni Society and the university’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. An important focus of his scholarship is the architecture and planning of Philadelphia. His books include architectural histories of the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Penn campus, and the catalogues associated with exhibitions devoted to Louis Kahn, Denise Scott Brown, and Robert Venturi. He has won the major publication prizes of the Society of Architectural Historians (USA), its British counterpart, and the American Institute of Architects. He was named a Fellow by the SAH in 2015, which in 2020 established the international Brownlee Dissertation Prize in his honor. Active in civic affairs, Brownlee served for 15 years on the Philadelphia Historical Commission, and he is now on the boards of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, the World Heritage City project of the Global Philadelphia Association, the Beth Sholom Preservation Foundation, and the Design Advocacy Group.  He is a recipient of the Wyck-Strickland Award and the Philadelphia AIA’s Paul Philippe Cret medal.

Barbara A. Campagna, FAIA, FAPT, LEED AP BD+C, Principal, Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC, is an architect, planner, and historian – reinventing and restoring historic and existing buildings. She is the recipient of the National AIA Young Architect of the Year Award 2002 and was elevated to Fellowship in the AIA in 2009 as “the leading national architect and policymaker for the integration of preservation values into green building practices.” Barbara has completed the restorations of some of the most significant National Historic Landmarks in the country and is a recognized leader in the preservation and modernization of modern heritage.  She ran her own architecture firm for many years in New York City, served as the Regional Preservation Officer for the Northwest Region of the General Services Administration and from 2006-2011 was the Chief Architect for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  In her roles at GSA and the National Trust she managed archival documents for the historic sites.  Her current firm, BAC/A+P has integrated her work as a private architect, non-profit administrator, and government preservation officer for the past 11 years. 

Eric has an unconventional stance on design: truly new ideas are tremendously rare. Hear him out—he’s not one to abandon innovation and creativity. Instead, Eric sees our shared past as a rich source of valuable lessons. It’s no surprise, then, that he’s an accomplished architectural historian, having authored Paffard Keatinge-Clay: Modern Architecture/Modern Masters and co-authored 100 Buildings Every Architect Should Know. Informed by this broad historical knowledge, Eric’s work exists at the intersection of design, architectural history, contemporary visual arts, and state-of-the-art building technology. And, despite dozens of design awards and international acclaim, his metrics for success are simple: impact people’s lives, improve the environment, and transform contemporary society—to the benefit of all.

Eric is the Design Director for the Boston studio of global architecture and design firm Perkins & Will. A self-proclaimed disciple and teacher of Modernism, he serves on the United States board of Docomomo, an international advocacy group focused on works of the Modern movement. Outside the studio, he’s a father, collector of antique modern furniture and miniature buildings, as well as a classic car enthusiast.

Robert Meckfessel is an activist architect with more than 30 years of experience in the planning and design of institutional, residential, and commercial projects throughout North America and Asia. Many of these projects have been recognized for innovation and excellence in urban design, architecture, and preservation from professional and industry organizations, including AIA Dallas, Texas Society of Architects, Preservation Texas and Preservation Dallas. He serves or has served in a leadership role of many organizations involved with the quality and public awareness of the built environment, including Docomomo US, the Trinity Park Conservancy, the Trinity Commons Foundation, Texas Society of Architects, and AIA Dallas.

Grace Ong Yan is Assistant Professor of Interior Design in the College of Architecture and the Built Environment at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia where she teaches history of architecture and design, research methodologies, and design studio. Her scholarship explores histories of modernism and intersections of business histories, media, and architecture. She received her Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, M.Arch. from Yale University, and B.Arch. at the University of Texas at Austin. Grace is the co-editor of Architect: The Pritzker Prize Laureates in their own Words, (Blackdog and Levanthal, 1st ed. 2010, 2nd ed. 2018) and has also published articles and chapters on subjects ranging from the intersections of consumerism and modernism to material complexities in post-war design and architecture. Her recent book Building Brands: Corporations and Modern Architecture explores the role of architectural branding in the design of mid-twentieth century corporate modernism and tells how business strategies, modern architecture, urban conditions, and conceptions of society shaped the ambitious branding goals of corporate clients. (Lund Humphries, 2021) Grace is a board member of Docomomo US/Greater Philadelphia and past chapter president.

Theodore Prudon is a leading expert on the preservation of modern architecture and a practicing architect in New York City. Dr. Prudon has worked on the terra cotta restoration of the Woolworth Building, the exterior restoration of the Chrysler Building, and of a 1941 Lescaze townhouse in Manhattan. Dr. Prudon teaches preservation at Columbia University and Pratt Institute. He is the recipient of a Graham Foundation Individual grant for his book “Preservation of Modern Architecture.” He is the founding President of Docomomo US and a board member of Docomomo International.

Nina Rappaport is an architectural historian, curator, educator, writer, and consultant in urban manufacturing. She is a founder of Docomomo US (a Vice President and board member) and of the first US chapter - New York Tri-State (President 2006-2012) and currently Vice-President. She has organized numerous programs, grants, and activities. She is author of Vertical Urban Factory (Actar 2015, paperback edition, 2020), co-editor of Design of Urban Manufacturing (Routledge 2020) and editor of Hybrid Factory/Hybrid City forthcoming with Actar July 2022. She curated the traveling exhibition, Vertical Urban Factory, which opened in 2011 in New York and has been shown in 12 venues including Brussels this year. She is Publications Director at the Yale School of Architecture where she edits Constructs, the schools book series, and exhibition catalogs. She is co-editor of the book, Ezra Stoller: Photographer (Yale University Press, 2012) and author of the book, Support and Resist: Structural Engineers and Design Innovation (The Monacelli Press, 2008). She was a Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Torino (2019) and Sapienza Universita di Roma (2018). She is coordinator of history/theory at the Michael Graves College of Public Architecture at Kean University, has taught seminars and studios in New York area schools, writes for numerous journals, books, and lectures internationally. She has received numerous grants and research awards.

Maria C. Romanach was born in Havana, Cuba and came to the United States in 1959.  She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University. She began her professional career working with The Kling Partnership and in 1975 joined with her father Mario J. Romanach to establish the Romanach Partnership. This collaboration produced projects in the United States and abroad. Upon Mr. Romanach’s death in 1984 the firm became known as Maria C. Romanach Architects. The over the years the firm gravitated to doing primarily museum and exhibition projects. Concurrent to her professional practice she has pursued a commitment to architectural education. As Associate Professor at Cornell University she headed the second-year design studio, taught the history and theory of architecture course, and advised undergraduate and graduate thesis students. She has been on the faculties of the School of Design at North Carolina State University, the School of Architecture at the Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela and at the Ecole Special d’Architecture in Paris. Most recently she was the Fox Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. Her honors and awards include the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award of the New York Landmarks Conservancy for the restauration of The Hispanic Society of America, and a nomination to the National Academy of Design. Her work has been exhibited at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Herbert G. Johnson Museum of Art, and the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ricki Sablove serves as secretary for Docomomo US/Greater Philadelphia.  A 1970 graduate of Rutgers, she received her doctorate from that institution in 2013. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked for Arch2 in Metuchen, NJ, researching, documenting, and photographing sites throughout the state. For the past nine years, she has been adjunct professor of Art History at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. 

Michael Schade, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has been a partner at Atkin Olshin Schade Architects since 2000. He coordinates the sustainable design initiatives for the firm and is the technical and quality control director where his skills in facilitation and promoting knowledge across the practice come to the fore. He has led the design and documentation of several award-winning projects, including the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the LEED Gold Certified North Philadelphia Law Center for Community Legal Services, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, and Richards Medical Labs at the University of Pennsylvania. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a regular speaker at design and sustainability conferences and is active in several committees of the Center City Residents Association.

Heather Isbell Schumacher is Archivist of the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. She manages processing and cataloging and provides access to more than 400 design-related collections. She aids students in integrating archival research in their work and contributes to the Archives’ public programs and exhibition initiatives. Heather received her master’s degree in public history from Temple University in 2010. Previously she served as Curator of Images at the Delaware Historical Society where she managed photograph and audiovisual collections and produced collections-based content for a variety of regional media outlets including WHYY and Delaware First Media. As an activist archivist, Heather believes that archives cannot and should not be neutral spaces. She is currently serving as a co-curator for the exhibition project What Minerva Built, funded by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, that examines absences in the historical record and thinks critically about the future of archives and cultural memory.

With bulldozers destroying mid-century Modernist houses like Breuer’s Geller in New York, these livable works of art continue to be threatened by rising land prices and disinterested heirs. Preservation is more important than ever, but you can’t save something if you don’t know where it is and why it is important. George Smart, CEO and founder of USModernist, created the largest open digital archive of residential mid-century Modernist houses that documents over 15,000 Modernist houses. USModernist’s intrepid team of nonprofit staff and volunteers document nearly every Wright, Lloyd Wright, Neutra, Schindler, Lautner, Breuer, Gropius, Ellwood, Koenig, Ain, and Soriano houses – plus the work of 80 more architects – and the USModernist Library has scanned over 4 million pages of architecture magazines. As host of the long-running podcast USModernist Radio, named by DWELL as the #2 architecture and design podcast, George has informed, entertained, and inspired audiences with over 250 shows to engage preservationists. George and USModernist have won 17 honors for leadership in preservation, including a 2014 Docomomo US award, a 2022 national Honorary AIA and 2016 national AIA Institute Honors for Collaborative and Professional Achievement.

William Whitaker is curator of the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. He is coauthor (with George Marcus) of The Houses of Louis Kahn. Trained as an architect at Penn and the University of New Mexico, Whitaker works most closely with the archival collections of Louis I. Kahn, Lawrence Halprin, and the partnership of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, in support of teaching, scholarship, preservation, and public engagement. He co-curated over forty exhibitions including Experiments in Environment: The Halprin Workshops, 1966-71 (Graham Foundation), Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry (Graham Foundation and Penn’s ICA), and, most recently, Design With Nature Now (with the McHarg Center) – a major program of exhibitions, conference, and public programs that highlight the dynamic and visionary approaches to landscape design and development in the face of climate change and global urbanization. He is project director for What Minerva Built, an exhibition project focused on America’s first independent female architect, Minerva Parker Nichols.