Frank Escher has been principal, in partnership with Ravi GuneWardena at Escher GuneWardena Architecture since 1995. The firm’s work ranges from residential to commercial and institutional projects. It includes collaborations with contemporary artists (including Mike Kelley, Stephen Prina, and Sharon Lockhart), art-related projects (Blum & Poe Gallery, Los Angeles) and numerous exhibition design projects internationally including the current Jeweled Isle exhibition at LACMA. Preservation-related projects encompass works by Schindler, Neutra, A. Q. Jones, Lautner, Eames and Paul R. Williams. Escher has served on the boards of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, the John Lautner Foundation, and the Julius Shulman Institute. He co-curated Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles). Escher studied at the Federal Technical University (ETH, Zurich), and has taught at Cal Poly Pomona, University of Southern California, University of Oregon, and the Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Lausanne).
_______
John Southern is a licensed architect and principal of Urban Operations, an architecture and construction consulting firm based in Los Angeles, California. As the head of the studio, he has managed the design and construction of several notable hillside homes in Southern California, a few of which were recently published in the book, Edgy Architecture. In addition to practicing architecture, John has written several critical articles on contemporary architecture and urbanism for publications such as Archinect, Art Papers, Domus, and The Architects Newspaper. His research interests in academia cover the cultural history and sociological impact of the skyscraper typology on 21st Century urbanism. He is a former board member of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design.
_______
Living and practicing in Los Angeles, Linda Taalman leads her company IT House Inc. and directs her studio Taalman Architecture, where her accomplishments and contemporary art collaborations have received numerous accolades. A graduate of the Cooper Union, she is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Woodbury University. Taalman’s collaborative explorations in architecture investigate the potential of building technologies and systems, sustainability, practicality, and ingenuity. She has lectured on her practice for Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design, the Architecture League in New York, the Aspen Institute, California College of the Arts, Columbia University, Dwell on Design, the Sculpture Center, Yale University, and ARTFORUM Berlin. Her work has been exhibited at international institutions including MOMA, New Museum, MAK, Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Art Basel, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and the Vitra Design Museum.
_______
Mohamed Sharif teaches in the Department of Architecture and Design at UCLA in the graduate and undergraduate program, which he directs. His architecture practice, Sharif, Lynch: Architecture, has completed several award-winning projects of various types and scales in metropolitan Los Angeles.Published in journals, periodicals, and catalogs, including 306090, arq, Constructs, JAE, the Getty Center, and Log, Sharif served on the editorial board of arq (Cambridge University Press) from 2006 to 2016 and on the advisory board of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, serving as the Forum's President from 2007 to 2009.
________
Jasmine Benyamin is Adjunct Associate Professor at the USC School of Architecture, having previously taught at CCA, Texas A&M University, SCI-Arc and as Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP). Her interdisciplinary scholarship addresses architectural manifestations in art practice and popular culture. In addition to translating several architectural monographs, her essays have appeared in the Journal for the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH), Thresholds, Constructs, AD, the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), Offramp, DOCOMOMO journal, LARA, the Harvard Design Magazine, and the Journal of Architecture. Her books include MASTERcrit (ORO, 2022), and a co-edited volume (with Elena Manferdini) Full Spectrum: Colour in Contemporary Architecture (London: RIBA Books, 2023).
