Mass Timber Symposium

Program Welcome

Gregg Novicoff, AIA, LEED AP, Leddy Maytum Stacy
Gregg Novicoff is a Principal with Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, focusing on sustainable cultural, educational, and civic projects. Since joining the firm in 2005, he has led significant projects including the Ed Roberts Campus, an 85,000-square-foot center for disability rights in Berkeley, and the Edwin M. Lee Apartments in San Francisco, which pioneered combined housing for veterans and low-income families.

Currently working on UC Berkeley's People's Park Student Housing and the Sunnydale Community Center, Novicoff brings expertise in both new construction and adaptive reuse of historic structures. His other notable projects include Family House San Francisco, Sweetwater Spectrum Community, and 455 Fell Apartments.

A registered California architect, Novicoff holds degrees from UC Berkeley (BA in Architecture and English) and Harvard University (Master's in Architecture). He serves on the AIA San Francisco board as Vice President.

Panel 1 - DESIGN + SUSTAINABILITY

Moderator:

Joe Swain, AIA LEED AP BD+C
Joe is an Associate Principal and architect with Mithun, a multidisciplinary design practice with offices in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He specializes in modular and prefabricated systems and has worked with mass timber for over a decade, from schools and offices to large‑scale residential and industrial projects. He has worked on ICC Tall Wood code‑related research, including most recently a pair of CLT exterior‑wall fire tests, and leads Mithun’s working group on timber and forestry, which explores the relationship between carbon in timber and forest health and management.

Panelists:

Pramod Sanoor, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, FitWel Amb, Associate Principal
Pramod is an Associate Principal at BAR Architects & Interiors committed to creating enduring, community-focused, and environmentally responsible architecture. With over 20 years of experience leading affordable, student, and market-rate housing, he believes thoughtful design can shape behavior, strengthen ecosystems, and foster social well-being. He champions innovation, environmental stewardship, and social equity, while advancing research and implementation of strategies to reduce operational and embodied carbon, including mass timber, prefabrication, and volumetric modular systems. Pramod is currently leading the design of UC Merced’s Promise Student Housing, a 485-bed mass timber Design-Build project under construction, along with other housing projects across California. A licensed architect and LEED 

Clarke Stevenson, The Watershed Center
As the Wood Enterprise Lead, Clarke oversees projects on market-based solutions that support ecological restoration, sustainable forest management, and regional supply networks.  His work focuses on business model innovation, technical feasibility analyses, and building cross-sector partnerships that invest in the full value chain of wood utilization. Before WRTC, Clarke worked for an air district and bioenergy attorney, supporting state policy and program development to overcome barriers to wood utilization. He is based out of Eureka, CA

Ian Ashcraft-Williams, AIA, LEED AP, NOMA, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects

Ian Ashcraft-Williams is an Associate at Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects. With a background in architecture and urban design, Ian is driven to create sustainable projects grounded in a community-centered approach. His work has ranged from learning environments to affordable and supportive housing. His recent project work includes the Nueva School Science and Environmental Center, recognized by AIA National’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Green Project. He is currently overseeing construction on the mass timber Sunnydale Community Center, the heart of the redeveloped Sunnydale HOPE SF neighborhood in San Francisco. Ian is a registered architect in California and an active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). 

Panel 2 - TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO DESIGN 

Moderator:

Zander Sivyer, SE, LEED AP, Managing Principal, Holmes US
Zander has led Holmes in the US since 2005 and oversees Holmes' offices on the West Coast and projects throughout the US.  

Zander has led the structural engineering design for a number of Holmes’ major projects including new academic, commercial and institutional projects throughout the US. These include institutional buildings for the University of California, new commercial campus projects for Adobe, Intuit & Microsoft and major seismic retrofit projects including the Bay Area Metro Center, 140 New Montgomery and 100 McAllister for UC Law San Francisco.

Panelists:

Chelsea Drenick, SE, Regional Director, WoodWords
Chelsea is a licensed structural engineer in the state of California. She received her BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. As the Bay Area Regional Director for WoodWorks, a non-profit organization, she helps project teams achieve successful wood buildings. Prior to joining WoodWorks Chelsea spent nine years in structural design consulting. Her experience is in a variety of sectors including residential, higher education and retrofit of existing and historic structures. She is passionate about sustainability and the use of wood as a building material to reduce the embodied carbon emissions of structures.

Masume Dana, SE, Principal, Forell Elsesser Engineers

Masume brings over 20 years of expertise in structural engineering for the built environment. Her experience spans all major construction materials and advanced seismic systems. Masume leads mass timber design at Forell Elsesser and is the Project Manager for UC Berkeley Undergraduate Academic Building, leveraging her knowledge of this sustainable material to create an efficient, high-performance structure. She has worked on multiple projects at UC Berkeley including Bakar BioEnginuity Hub the adaptive reuse of old Berkeley Art Museum to lab and office space, BAMPFA in downtown Berkeley, and Heathcock Hall the new expansion of the College of Chemistry.

Megan Stringer, SE, LEED AP BD + C, Associate Principal, Holmes 
Megan is an Associate Principal at Holmes and serves as the US Structures Practice Lead. She also leads the firm’s sustainability efforts. Megan has a wealth of experience managing large design teams and has overseen significant projects, including the Microsoft & Intuit Campuses in Mountain View CA and the McCain Center at Arizona State University.
Deeply engaged in professional associations, Megan is the past President of SEAONC. While serving as chair of the SEI Sustainability Committee, she helped launch the SE 2050 Commitment Program. Megan also led the national professional engagement and equity survey in 2018 for the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations.

Paul Mayencourt, PhD, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley
Paul Mayencourt is a researcher and educator focused on low-carbon design solutions for the built environment, bridging structural design, forestry, and materials science. His work explores innovative building systems that leverage advances in manufacturing and computational optimization, with current research centered on undervalued timber resources such as small-diameter timber and underutilized Californian hardwood species.

He is an Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in Engineered Wood Products and Design at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and the Department of Architecture. He holds a PhD from MIT, an MSc from ETH Zurich, and a BSc from EPFL, and has taught structural design and mass timber construction at MIT, Stanford University, the University of Washington, and UC Berkeley.

Parisa Nassiri, PE, Senior Fire Engineer, Holmes
With a focus on holistic building design, Parisa utilizes performance-based engineering to find optimal solutions for her clients. By leveraging Structural Fire Engineering, Parisa guides project teams and works with Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) to calculate the expected performance of structural systems in fire. Her findings often yield construction cost, carbon, schedule, and labor savings; expression of architectural intent; and alternative egress solutions. Parisa has a proven track record of developing effective strategies with the design team to meet project objectives. She is well-versed in code consulting methods and is dedicated to providing the most cost- and time-efficient solutions for her projects.