Billie Tsien | Studio Tsien | New York, NY | Billie Tsien is a New York-based architect, mentor, and leading voice in the design and broader cultural community. Her approach to architecture is rooted in the spirit of collaboration with a portfolio imbued with a sense of optimism, warmth, texture, and serenity. She is a founding partner of Studio Tsien and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. In parallel to her architecture practice, Billie teaches at Yale University and is a devoted participant in many arts organizations. Her dedication to work and the cultural landscape at large has garnered her numerous awards including the National Medal of Arts from President Obama, the 2013 AIA Architecture Firm Award, and the 2019 Praemium Imperiale presented by the Japan Art Association. As an educator, arts advocate and practitioner, Billie is steadfast in her mission to create a better world through architecture.

Omar Gandhi | Omar Gandhi Architects | Toronto, ON | Omar is the Principal of Omar Gandhi Architects, an architectural practice founded in 2010 with small teams in both Halifax, Toronto and Berlin.

In its early years, the studio was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Professional Prix de Rome, was included in Wallpaper* Magazine’s Architects Directory, and Omar himself was named as one of Monocle Magazine’s ‘Most Influential Canadians’. Omar was chosen as one of the Architectural League of New York’s ‘Emerging Voices’ of 2016 and in 2018, was appointed the Louis I. Kahn visiting Assistant Professorship in Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture.

Most recently, Omar Gandhi Architect was the recipient of a 2018 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture for its work on Rabbit Snare Gorge and honored as the only Canadian practice in Architectural Record Magazine’s 2018 Design Vanguard. In 2020, the studio was part of the team awarded the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and in 2021, completed the revitalization of one of Canada’s most Iconic landmarks, Peggy’s Cove.

Omar was made a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Association of Canada in 2022.

Z Smith | EskewDumezRipple | New Orleans, LA | Z Smith is Principal and Director of Sustainability and Building Performance at EskewDumezRipple, winner of the AIA Firm Award. His built work includes academic, laboratory and residential buildings earning LEED Gold and Platinum certification, and winners the AIA COTE Top Ten award, the RAIC Green Building award (Canada), and the international Urban Land 10 Extra Green award. He brings training and experience in physics and engineering to the field of architecture, is named as inventor on 10 patents, and author on over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He has taught at the Tulane School of Architecture, and has served on state, national and international bodies including the Louisiana Energy Code Commission, the Louisiana Climate Initiatives Task Force, the US Green Building Council Louisiana Chapter, the national Advisory Group of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE), and the International Union of Architects Sustainable Development Commission.

Moderator: Lauren Gallow | Independent Design Journalist, Editorial Advisor for ARCADE | Seattle, WA Lauren Gallow is a Seattle-based design writer, editor, and educator. With a background in architectural history and a keen interest in how people live with design, she covers stories about art, design, and architecture for outlets around the world. A regular contributor to the Art & Design section of The New York Times, Lauren is also a columnist for Dwell and Luxe Magazine and has bylines in Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Metropolis, Wallpaper*, The Architect’s Newspaper, and more. Lauren serves as Editorial Advisor for ARCADE, a local non-profit design platform founded in 1981, and she is a lecturer at the University of Washington’s Department of Architecture, where she teaches courses on writing and storytelling in the built environment. Her book New Northwest (Figure 1 Publishing) is in stores this November and showcases contemporary residential architecture in Washington state.