The Docomomo US Board of Directors welcomed its new President Katie Horak and designated Meredith Bzdak as president elect at its January meeting. The Board also added three new members: Tonia Moy of Hawaii; Bob Thomas from New England; and Jingyi Luo, who is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Katie Horak is a principal at Architectural Resources Group and manages the firm's Downtown Los Angeles office. Her work at ARG ranges from rehabilitation projects on some of Los Angeles’s most recognizable landmarks to large scale planning projects, including SurveyLA. In addition, Katie is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at USC, where she teaches graduate-level courses in historic resource documentation methods, and she is the founding president of the Southern California Chapter of Docomomo US.
Meredith Arms Bzdak, an architectural historian, is a partner in the Princeton, NJ firm Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC. She has over twenty years of experience in the field of historic preservation, and has produced numerous documents pertaining to historic architecture. As Associate Graduate Faculty at Rutgers University in the Art History Department, she teaches classes on the development of the modern city (specifically New York and Los Angeles), the preservation of the recent past, and modern Italian architecture. Meredith is the Chair Emeritus of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and the author of Public Sculpture in New Jersey; Monuments to Collective Identity. She holds a BA in Art History from Mount Holyoke College and a PhD in Art History from Rutgers University.
Tonia Moy is the vice president and director of preservation at FAI. She leads all historic and residential projects. Prior to joining FAI in 2004, she served as architectural branch chief for the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) and was a trustee at Historic Hawaii Foundation. Her dedication to preservation extends beyond FAI, as she helped establish Docomomo US/Hawaii. Her achievements have been widely recognized within and outside the industry. In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Frank Haines Lifetime Achievement for her contribution to Hawaii’s preservation community. At her leisure, Tonia enjoys travel with her husband, including the Docomomo Brazil trip and other trips to explore architecture, nature and visit family.
Bob Thomas's career in real estate springs from an interest in architecture of all kinds and a commitment to the importance of design quality. As co-founder of Saltaire Hotels, Bob brings a keen interest in the re-use and repositioning of underperforming hotels while maintaining and enhancing architectural quality and integrity. Prior to his work in hospitality, Bob developed adaptive re-use and new construction housing and mixed-use projects in the New York and Boston areas. As Project Manager at a New York based restoration consulting and contracting company, he designed and implemented restoration plans for many major historic buildings and monuments, including New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, the Annapolis Naval Academy Chapel, and the Minnesota State Capital. In addition to working with DocomomoUS, Bob serves on the Advisory Board of the Boston Preservation Alliance, and as a Mentor for Preservation Alumni, Columbia University.
Jingyi Luo was born in China and raised in Beijing. She obtained her Bachelor of Architecture degree from the California College of the Arts in 2019, where she discovered her interest in architectural history and theory. After working as an architectural designer for several years, she decided to pursue a master's degree. Currently, she is a second-year graduate student in the Historic Preservation department at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Architectural Conservation.