Barbara is Co-Managing Director, Principal of Gensler Los Angeles and has been a global influencer for human wellbeing through design excellence. Gensler is widely recognized as the world’s leading design firm, with nearly 6,000 professionals networked across 48 offices in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Through her collaborative leadership style, Barbara brings strategic design management to highly innovative clients such as Netflix, JPL/NASA, Amgen and the City of Hope.

As a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and member of the AIA California Board of Directors, Barbara is the 2019 AIA Los Angeles Chapter President. Barbara was recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal as the Executive of the Year: Women Making a Difference, and Real Estate Forum magazine as a Woman of Influence: California. Active in the community, Barbara is on the Board of Directors of Imagine LA, a leading not-for-profit dedicated to mobilizing the community to end the cycle of homelessness and poverty. She was an honoree for Girls Inc and is active with Dress for Success, National Organization of Minority Architects and Women Presidents’ Organization. Sought after for her expertise on health and wellbeing in the built environment, Barbara was featured on the internationally televised National Geographic Channel documentary, “Origins: The Journey of Humankind – Building the Future.” She was also highlighted in California Sunday Magazine for the December 2018 issue on “Home.”

Barbara holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and studied in the Graduate Diploma Program at the Architectural Association in London. Barbara’s work has been published nationally and internationally.

Since joining ZGF in 1989, Ted Hyman has taken responsibility for many of the firm’s most challenging and technologically complex projects, encompassing a broad range of academic and research facilities, hospitals, courthouses, and other civic buildings nationally. He has played a key role in guiding the development of the firm, and in January 2014, he was named Managing Partner and now oversees the firm’s strategic and overall performance. As a LEED AP®, he has a particular passion for sustainability, and played a key role in the design of a number of the greenest buildings in the United States, including the J. Craig Venter Institute La Jolla, which has achieved LEED Platinum® and was designed as the first net-zero energy biological laboratory in the world and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Headquarters, also LEED Platinum® and net-zero energy. He continues to share his strategies and approach to creating innovative solutions with the professional community at national and international conferences, and remains involved in various committees with the American Institute of Architects. In 2016, Ted was one of a handful of U.S. architects invited to participate in a historic forum in China to address China’s commitment to signing the Paris Agreement and establishing Zero-Net Carbon (ZNC) as a necessary and achievable goal for buildings and developments.

Karin Liljegren has dedicated her career to revitalization and the power of adaptive reuse to enrich a community. In 1999, she worked on the very first projects under Los Angeles’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, which launched her nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities of adaptive reuse. Karin is a thought leader in the community and is active with city and county officials in crafting policies that ease the challenges of working on existing buildings. Her impact created the return of historic downtown Los Angeles as a livable, walkable neighborhood.

Karin founded Omgivning in 2009. The firm uncovers potential in underutilized buildings and spaces transforming them into hotels, multifamily housing, offices, restaurants, and bars. Omgivning has grown and expanded having touched more than 500 buildings in Downtown Los Angeles and greater Southern California. In 2014, the firm received a Presidential Honoree award for an Emerging Practice from the AIA Los Angeles.

Karin is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) and a frequent contributor and speaker on architecture, design, and adaptive reuse. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute’s Redevelopment and Reuse Council and a member of the AIA Los Angeles Historic Resources Committee.

Barbara Bestor, FAIA is founding principal of Bestor Architecture. Since 1995, Bestor Architecture has actively redefined Los Angeles architecture with a practice that rigorously engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Increasingly, the firm applies L.A.’s lessons to national undertakings. She explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color, which is evident in her projects from custom residences to headquarters for international companies. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life and embraces the ‘strange beauty’ that enhances everyday life experience.

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealthy density” Blackbirds housing, groundbreaking retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces for Beats By Dre and Snap, award-winning experimental residences and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

While maintaining a practice, Barbara has continuously taught at Southern California’s leading design schools from SCI-Arc to Woodbury University, where she is currently the executive director of the Julius Shulman Institute. She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

Patrick Tighe, FAIA, FAAR is one of Los Angeles’ preeminent architects and interior designers.

The highly acclaimed namesake firm, Tighe Architecture, is committed to creating authentic, contemporary Architecture informed by technology, sustainability and building innovation. Since its inception, the firm has produced a strong and diverse body of projects that includes city-developed affordable housing, commercial, mixed-use projects, and award-winning interiors.

The firm’s work has received over 100 design awards including eight National AIA Honor Awards. The work of Patrick Tighe Architecture has been published extensively and exhibited Internationally. Patrick Tighe was awarded the prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture, and is a Fellow of the American Academy and The MacDowell Colony. A monograph of the firm entitled “Building Dichotomy” was released in 2016. Tighe, a professor at the University of Southern California, was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame and named one of the Top 50 Architects in the country by Architect Magazine.

Charlotte Wiederholt has been a part of the Studio Other team for over 20 years. As President, she oversees a team of industrial designers, engineers and a customer service group. Her team works closely with each client to reflect and reinforce the company’s distinctive culture through innovative custom furniture solutions achieved through a process of collaborative input and planning, conceptualization, prototyping, engineering, fabrication and installation. The end result is a unique workspace that captures the client’s brand in an environment that cultivates employee satisfaction, motivation, creativity and productivity. Some of Charlotte’s clients include Boston Consulting Group, Saatchi & Saatchi, Juno Therapeutics, Imagine Entertainment, Loyola Marymount University, Toms Shoes, Pinkberry and Ticketmaster.

Aaron has been with Burnham Nationwide for three years as a project manager where he oversees and manages the permitting process for new construction projects in Southern California. During his time at Burnham he's utilized his strong understanding of city processes and building code to expedite the permitting process. Which has led to strong relationships with officials in dozens of jurisdictions across Southern California.

Mia Lehrer, FASLA, founded MLA with a vision to improve quality of life through landscape. She is internationally recognized for progressive landscape design, advocacy for sustainable and people-friendly public places, and catalyzing work for a climate-appropriate future. Mia has led the design and implementation of ambitious public and private projects, including the Hollywood Park Racetrack redevelopment and its new LA NFL Stadium, the LA County Natural History Museum Gardens, Vista Hermosa Natural Park, and many Los Angeles River-related projects. She earned her Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and lectures and teaches around the world. In 2017 she received the ASLA’s LaGasse Medal.

Scott Hunter is a Regional Director and Partner at HKS. Scott directly leads all HKS commercial sector projects on the West Coast. He draws on experience working across the U.S. and Asia to bring clear design direction to projects of varying program, scale, and complexity.

Jim Burnett, FASLA, founded The Office of James Burnett in 1989 and has dedicated his career to creating meaningful spaces that challenge the conventional boundaries of landscape architecture. To date, OJB has garnered over eighty state and national design awards. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach to his practice, Jim often works closely with design teams of highly-regarded architects, planners, artists, and other professionals and a diverse range of clients. Throughout his work, there has been a particularly strong focus on designing landscapes that promote healthy living. Most recently, his work has focused on the transformation of American cities through the creation of active public spaces. Jim’s work in this area restores connections between disparate sections within cities, providing open space with a purpose through innovative programming initiatives.

The firm’s contribution to revitalizing communities has been recognized with the 2014 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Urban Open Space Award for Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, as well as the 2015 ULI Urban Open Space Award for Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City. Jim worked with the Annenberg Foundation on the creation of the Sunnylands Center and Gardens in Rancho Mirage, CA; a sustainable desert garden that won the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Honor Award in 2012. Other awards include the ASLA's 2015 Firm Award and two other ASLA Honor Awards for the Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University, and the Reid Residence, both located in Houston. In 2016 Jim was awarded the ASLA Design Medal, a prestigious professional designation recognizing an exceptional body of work sustained over an extended period of time.

Jim has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University and has been a member of the Louisiana State University Design Circle since 2000. In 2004 Jim was made a Fellow by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the highest form of honorary recognition that the professional association can bestow upon one of its members.

Martin founded the company in 2002, inspired by a family tradition in the construction industry. With an engineering background and a clear mission of becoming a worldwide leading studio in the technical delivery and coordination of projects, Martin built the company around solid processes and strong communication, understanding that the centrepiece of the project is always the client and the end-user.

With forward-thinking and an innovative spirit, he is leading the company to a more comprehensive role in the AEC industry with his completely new approach, the "Construction Digital Prototype" methodology.