Fellowship Recipient
The Radical Practice of James H. Garrott: Civil Rights Activist and Modernist Architect
Anthony Fontenot is a Professor at Woodbury University School of Architecture. He holds a professional Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Louisiana, a Master of Architecture degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture, and a Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture at Princeton University. He was a recipient in 2009 and 2010 of the Fellowship of the Society of Woodrow Wilson Scholars at Princeton University and was awarded a Getty Fellowship for 2010-2011. He is the author of numerous publications including New Orleans Under Reconstruction: The Crisis of Planning (Verso, 2014), “Gregory Ain and Cooperative Housing in a Time of Major Crisis” in Making A Case (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012) and the forthcoming books Non-Design and the Non-Planned City (Chicago University Press, 2017) and Gregory Ain: Low-Cost Modern Housing and the Construction of a Social Landscape (UR Books, 2017). Fontenot’s interdisciplinary work has been exhibited at various venues including the Architecture Biennial in Venice, Documenta, the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and A + D Museum. He was a co-curator of the exhibition “Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X – 197X” (2007), and co-curator of the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennial in South Korea. Fontenot has organized many international exhibitions and symposia, including Exposing New Orleans (Princeton University, 2006), “Sustainable Dialogues” (Bangkok, Panama, Los Angeles, 2007-2008), and “Questioning the Standard: New Narratives of Art in Los Angeles” (2011) at the Getty Research Institute.
Fellowship Recipient
Jackson has a background in urban planning, historic preservation, and urban history. His research focuses on intangible heritage, difficult history, and social justice. He earned his Bachelor of Arts with majors in History and German Studies from the University of Florida in 2014 and completed a dual master’s degree program at the University of Southern California in planning and historic preservation in January of 2020. His masters’ thesis discussed the shortcomings of preservation in handling Los Angeles’ history of racial violence.
Jackson has worked as a staffer in the City of West Hollywood’s Current Planning Division, an architectural historian at ICF, and an historic preservation specialist at Joshua Tree National Park. He currently works for the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing as their Policy Coordinator. Jackson also served as a scholar-in-residence at the Gamble House in Pasadena, a National Historic Landmark, between 2019 and 2021.
Fellowship Recipient
Christopher Smith is a design practitioner with wide-ranging interests and connections across the creative landscape of the greater Los Angeles region. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design in 2003 he went to work for Morphosis Architects as a graphic designer and media liaison which exposed him to a world of architecture that cemented a lifelong interest in design process, theory and practice. After those first few years freelancing and finding contract work he went on to a brief stint at Gehry Partners while working nights documenting the cornfield adjacent to LA’s Chinatown for Metabolic Studio. Each of these events were chances to learn and grow in powerful creative practices that eventually led to the formation of a small office producing all manner of visual material along with recent residential design commissions.
In 2021 he completed the Graduate program in Architecture (March 1) from the College of Environmental Design at California Polytechnic University Pomona to pursue architecture on a professional level, with the desire to tie-in graphic and product design to form a cohesive set of references and experiences that will inform future projects.
Fellowship Recipient
Rafael Fontes is an urban planning professional currently working for the city of Los Angeles. In addition to work experience in architectural design, drafting, and project management, time spent volunteering abroad proved formative. Above all, he seeks to combine a professional commitment to the built environment with a love of history. He has both a Master of Heritage Conservation from the USC School of Architecture and a Master of Planning from the Price School of Public Policy at USC. Rafael recently completed his graduate thesis, Gaining a Foothold: Conserving Los Angeles’ Queer Eden(dale).
Fellowship Recipient
The House that Mary Built: The 1936 California House and Garden Exposition
Dr. Andrea Thabet is a historian, writer, researcher, and historic preservation consultant specializing in Los Angeles, urban, and public history. She is currently a Lecturer in American History at Caltech, where she teaches courses on the Civil Rights Movement, and America in the 20th century. She also co-coordinates an urban history seminar series, the LA History & Metro Studies Group, for the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. Dr. Thabet holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from UC Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in History with an Art History minor from Loyola Marymount University. Prior to earning her PhD, she worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in Los Angeles and at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. She has consulted on a number of historic preservation projects, which include a successful Historic-Cultural Monument nomination for the Hawk House designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris (2019). Dr. Thabet’s published works on Los Angeles and urban history have appeared in both academic and popular journals, in print and digital formats. Her article, “‘From Sagebrush to Symphony’: Negotiating the Hollywood Bowl and the Future of Los Angeles, 1918-1926,” appeared in the Pacific Historical Review in Fall 2020. She also authored the report “Space to Lead: A Century of Civic Leadership in Los Angeles” for Future of Cities: Los Angeles, with Shawn Landres and William Deverell. Dr. Thabet is currently completing a book manuscript, “Culture as Urban Renewal: Remaking Public Space in Postwar Los Angeles” which examines the critical role cultural and leisure spaces played in shaping the built environment and urban economy of Los Angeles through federal and local urban renewal policy after World War II.
Fellowship Recipient
In the City was a Garden: South Los Angeles Garden Apartments
Liz Falletta is a licensed architect teaching design across disciplines to urban planning, real estate development and public administration students at the Price School of Public Policy at USC. She has two masters degrees, one in architecture from SCI-Arc and another in real estate development from USC and nearly 20 years of teaching experience. In addition, she serves on the city’s Zoning Advisory Committee for their new zoning code, developed one of the early small lot subdivisions in Los Angeles and recently published a book studying important housing design precedents in Los Angeles and their related development types.
Fellowship Recipient
The House that Mary Built: The 1936 California House and Garden Exposition
In January 2015, Jenna Snow launched an independent historic preservation consulting practice with an office in Los Angeles. With nearly twenty years of professional experience, Ms. Snow has a strong and broad understanding of best historic preservation practice, including federal, state, and local regulations. She has worked on a wide range of projects on both the east and west coasts, as well as internationally. Ms. Snow holds a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a B.A. in Fine Arts focusing on architectural history from Brandeis University. She meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualifications Standards in Architectural History. Throughout her career, Ms. Snow has authored, co-authored, and/or served as project manager for over 100 historic preservation projects, including a wide variety of historic resource assessments, National Register nominations, and historic resources surveys.
She regularly contributes to environmental impact reports, historic preservation certification applications, Section 106 reviews and other work associated with historic building rehabilitation and preservation planning. Ms. Snow has prepared multiple National Register nominations, including the Twohy Building in San José, CA; the Beverly Hills Women’s Club in Beverly Hills, CA; the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Compound in Rancho Cucamonga, CA; the Boyle Hotel/Cummings Block in Los Angeles, CA; the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Historic District in Los Angeles, CA, and Temple Ohave Israel in Brownsville, PA.
She has completed historic resources surveys, including coauthoring historic context statements in Hollywood, Whittier, CA, and South Los Angeles. Prior to her consulting work, Ms. Snow worked for the New York City Department of Design and Construction in New York, NY, the Freedom Trail Foundation in Boston, MA, and the Neighborhood Preservation Center in New York, NY.
Fellowship Recipient
Five Houses by Hunt
Through photography, I wish to foster a stronger sense of global community. This has been my mission statement for the past fifteen years and has guided me in choosing which projects to pursue. I focus on trying to illuminate and improve – especially the underprivileged. By generating an appreciation for our heritage, we provide hope for building a better community. Through story telling, we understand and care. It is my wish that my work provides that inspiration.
My photography is part of the permanent exhibition, “Becoming Los Angeles” at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It is a portrait of one of the U. S.’s first modern day slaves from the famed 1995 El Monte Thai Garment Slavery Case. My images can also be found in the book, “180 Years. Two Nations, One Friendship.” The book celebrates the 180-year bond between the United States and Thailand. Also, the United States Bangkok embassy sponsored my traveling photography show, “City of Angels. Two Cities – One Name,” that toured Thailand. Locally, I have worked with the non-profit, Walking Strong, to create content to inspire their donors to give. Our last video generated over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in donations in a single evening. (All contributions go directly to families whose children have been diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.) I love partnering with other agencies helping them to convey their message and communicate their needs. It is through this grant that I hope to inspire others and help them understand how our actions shape the future. Pasadena has a rich history providing many examples of successes and failures that improved the community. By telling our history, we find examples of courage, fortitude and vision to aid us in our path forward.
