Stephen Chu, AIA

Stephen Chu is a Design Principal at Ennead Architects, a New York based firm known for its civic work with an emphasis on cultural, educational, and diplomatic projects. With over 25 years of experience, Stephen has worked in a broad range of sectors including educational, cultural, and commercial. Specializing on the Performing Arts Stephen’s international award-winning work reaches a broad range of audiences in the public realm. His clients include Stanford University, NYU, Omaha Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, The Public Theater and Yale University.

Committed to the stewardship of NYC’s rich built environment and open spaces, Stephen currently serves as a Commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission assisting in the protection and designation of culturally, historically, and architecturally significant sites.

Architectural Education plays an important role in his commitment to the profession. Stephen is an Associate Professor at Pratt’s Graduate School of Architecture and has served as studio critic, juror, and lecturer at numerous colleges of architecture. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Christie Johnson Coffin

Christie Johnson Coffin has taught, written, and practiced architecture. A deep interest in the relationships between people and built form has led her to assignments in not only Western United States, but also Taiwan, India, Vietnam, and Nicaragua. Her social practice has been broad, bringing questions of health and well-being, social equity, and sustainability to the design of a wide variety of health facilities and university research laboratories. Other experience ranges from houses for Habitat for Humanity to a public school, Rosa Parks Elementary School in Berkeley.

Her university teaching includes University of Oregon, University of California Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, and National Taiwan University’s Building Planning and Research Foundation.

She is co-author of two books: Changing Hospital Environments for Children written with Roslyn Lindheim and Helen Glaser and Making Places for People: 12 Questions Every Designer Should Ask written with Jenny Young.

Winston Thorne, AIA

Winston Thorne is the President, of Winston Thorne Architect, an architecture and planning general-practice firm based in Pasadena serving the growing California and Arizona markets. Works include private and multi-family residential, restaurant, laboratory, historic structures, and commercial-type developments. The owner of Thorne Construction, LLC, a licensed general contracting business in Arizona. His accolades include awards from AIA Central Arizona Architecture Foundation, Resolution Awards with the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee – National Parks Service, RED Awards, and design competition accomplishments. Growing up, he excelled in athletics, leadership, and music. As a student of Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Architecture, is where his design interests in the built environment were founded in architecture. His curiosity about American architecture led him to Phoenix, Arizona, where he spent the next seventeen years working on notable historic preservation, and luxury condominium types projects, including the tallest hotel in Arizona. Actively participated with the design community, and associations, and volunteered with charitable organizations. He is currently serving and facilitates several local organizations and coalitions, such as being the Director-At-Large / Past President for The American Institute of Architects Pasadena and Foothill Chapter; Vice Chair of the Mayor’s Central Library Technical Oversight Committee, NCARB Subject Matter Expert, and at the state level, currently is the First Vice-President / President-Elect for The American Institute of Architects California.

Lynne Riesselman, AIA

Over the last 18 years, Lynne Riesselman has brought a rigorous yet creative design ethic to museums and cultural centers, aquariums, university and commercial projects. With recent work including the Presidio Tunnel Tops Youth Campus, the Kansas City Zoo Aquarium, and new affordable student at San Francisco State University, she is keenly focused on creating spaces that engage, inspire, and have a lasting impact on the greater public. Riesselman approaches design with a passion for leveraging the interconnectedness of the natural and built environment. She is a recent contributor to the AIASF International Waterfronts Lecture Series and an AZA panel on Resilience.

Leo Chow, FAIA

Leo Chow, FAIA, is Design Partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). His work demonstrates his passion for interdisciplinary and deeply collaborative practice, developing designs in concert with structural engineering, building services, environmental engineering, historic preservation, and digital analysis to deliver intelligent built solutions across the United States and Asia. His award-winning portfolio includes the Northwest Science Building at Harvard University, Poly Corporation Headquarters in Beijing, the St. Regis Hotel & Residences in San Francisco, and the new UCSF Research & Academic Building at ZSFG. In addition, he has led transformative urban planning projects in the region, Parkmerced and India Basin.

Chow created the SOM Integrated Design Studio, which fully integrates structural engineers as co-instructors into an academic studio that focuses on tall building design. This studio has been taught at UC Berkeley, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the California College of the Arts, and Stanford University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for San Francisco Heritage and is Co-Chair of the SOM Foundation, an independent nonprofit that provides support for students using design to address the most pressing concerns of the built environment. Leo holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.