We pass through outdoor public spaces every day—plazas, parks, streetscapes. Yet while some environments inspire us to take pause and engage, others barely catch our attention. Join us for an exciting panel discussion on the magic that makes certain spaces stand out. Experts from architecture and urban design, landscape architecture, public art and audio design will share the innovative approaches they use to bring public spaces to life.

• Ila Berman, California College of the Arts/Studio Matrixx
• Mona El Khafif, California College of the Arts
• Kevin Conger, CMG Landscape Architecture
• Kate Rothrock, Antenna Audio
• David Best, Artist
• Leslie Pritchett, Public Art Consultant

$10 AIA, ASLA, Cultural Connections, Public Architecture Members, $15 Non-Members

Ila Berman, Director of Architecture, California College of the Arts
Ila, Director of Architecture at the California College of the Arts and Principal of Studio Matrixx, is an architect and architectural and urban theorist with a doctorate from Harvard University. Her design work and publications include the recent book URBANbuild local global. She has curated exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Center, the Ogden Museum, and many other public and private institutions, as well as the City of the Future exhibition at CCA. She is also the creator of New Orleans: Urban Mappings for a Future City, an exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2006 International Architectural Biennale in Venice, Italy.

Mona El Khafif, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, California College of the Arts
Mona is an Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Project Coordinator of the URBANlab at California College of the Arts. She holds a doctorate in urban design from the TU Vienna. Mona worked in architectural offices in Germany and Vienna, on projects which received important urban design awards including the Otto Wagner Urban Design Award for the BUSarchitecture Homeworkers project and the Ortner & Ortner Museumsquartier. She is a founding principal of phase 1 Fox_El Khafif_Nuhsbaumer, a co-author of URBANbuild local global, and has recently published Staged Urbanism: Urban Spaces for Art, Culture and Consumption in the Age of Leisure Society in Germany.

Kevin Conger, Principal, CMG Landscape Architecture
Kevin is one of three founding partners of CMG Landscape Architecture, a San Francisco-based studio. His projects have included redevelopment plans for Treasure Island, Hunters Point and Concord Naval Weapons Station, university and school work, parks, and urban infill residential development. He has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, UC Berkeley and the Boston Architectural College. Prior to founding CMG, Kevin worked with Hargreaves Associates on Crissy Field and the master plan of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and with Martha Schwartz on residential design, urban public plazas, and land remediation.

Kate Rothrock, Creative Director, U.S., Antenna Audio
Kate leads the creative efforts of Antenna Audio in the U.S. Antenna is the world’s leading provider of audio and audio-visual interpretation to museums, historic sites and visitor attractions, including Alcatraz, Graceland, the Berlin Wall, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Antenna’s origins lie in theater, and the audio experiences it produces aim to bring vitality to public sites through evocative storytelling and soundscapes. Kate’s background is as a writer and editor. She was formerly Associate Editor at the Oakland Museum, and began at Antenna in 2000 as Head Writer. She has scripted many of the company’s audio tours.

David Best, Artist
David is a prolific artist whose sculptural works range from intimate assemblage to art cars and can be found in collections of major museums nationwide. His monumental Temple Projects created for the Burning Man event, through which he has engaged hundreds of volunteers in creating works with deep spiritual underpinnings, have inspired a new series of Temple Projects in the public sphere built with community members in San Rafael, San Francisco and Detroit. David lives with his much-loved family in Petaluma, California.

Leslie Pritchett, Public Art Consultant
Leslie is a public art consultant based in San Francisco whose work in fostering community-based temporary artworks has transformed public spaces in varied contexts and communities throughout the city. While Executive Director of the Black Rock Arts Foundation, Leslie developed programs in temporary and interactive public art that have served as models for municipalities across the country. Leslie worked with David Best in bringing to fruition his Temple Projects in San Francisco’s Hayes Green and in the Brightmoor neighborhood of northwest Detroit.

Moderator: Lisa Zimmerman, Principal, 7Story
Lisa is the creative force behind AIA’s Enlightened Spaces series. She is principal and founder of 7Story, a new design and consulting firm that makes public spaces inspiring and engaging. Working with architects and planners, artists and designers, 7Story integrates community engagement with public art and experiential design to create vibrant places of interaction and meaning. Lisa draws from over 15 years of community engagement experience with civic, educational, philanthropic and community-based institutions throughout the Bay Area.

Contact:  AIA San Francisco
info@aiasf.org

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