Mary is a Senior Associate and architectural historian at Architectural Resources Group in downtown Los Angeles. She specializes in historic resource surveys, landmark nominations, and historic context statements. Also an archaeologist, Mary is particularly drawn to vernacular and less visible sites that tell the stories of the historically underrepresented people of Los Angeles.
Nastassja Lafontant is a South Florida native from a Haitian/Colombian family, and is a recent architecture graduate from the University of Southern California. During her time in California, Nastassja held an internship at Studio One Eleven, where she was a part of a team that spearheaded an American Institute of Architects project about Roy Sealey. She was also a final contestant in the AIA Film Challenge, for which she created a film that shed light on the homelessness in Bellflower City. Nastassja is currently pursuing graduate studies in architectural urban development and landscaping at Harvard University.
Wolfgang Wagener is a German-American architect, author, and development advisor. He holds a PhD in architecture from RWTH Aachen University in Germany and an advanced management degree in real estate from Harvard University. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Institute of Architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, having followed his passion for Mid-century modernism from western Europe to the coast of California.
Leslie Erganian is an American artist, designer, and writer. Her artwork is in the permanent collections of the California Museum of Photography and Xerox Corporation. She contributed her design talents to the production of feature film projects for MGM, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., and Showtime. She has been a writer and correspondent for NBC, Discovery, and Hallmark. Leslie was a contributing writer to the architectural monograph Raphael Soriano for Phaidon Press, and is co-author of NEW WEST: Innovating at the Intersection, published by Hirmer Verlag. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Art + Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and obtained an M.F.A. in film production from the University of California, Los Angeles. Leslie is a lifetime member of the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter and a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.
Read Leslie’s biography about Raphael Soriano here.
Inspired by diverse communities and their geographical relationships toone another, Oquendo enjoys researching the 88 cities in Los AngelesCounty, highlighting unique bus or train stops that inspire his series,METRO, an anthology of short, scripted stories connected via public transportation in LA.
METRO has premiered in festivals all over the world, including the Seoul WebFest in South Korea (2018), Bogota Webfest in Colombia (2019), winning ‘Best Drama Series’ at the Hollywood Webfest (2019), and with notable premieres at the American Film Institute and UCLA.
Ron Yeo was born on June 17, 1933 in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1959. He was officially licensed in 1960 as an architect. In 1963, he founded Ron Yeo, Architect, Inc. With his office located in Corona del Mar, he worked on a variety of projects located in and around Orange County. In 1965, he was appointed to be on the board of directors for the University of California, Irvine’s “Project 21,” which had the goal to ensure that Orange County entered the 21st century with a well-planned area. He led one of the multiple study groups titled, Open Space. He was a member of the Orange County Planning Commission from 1972-1973, and again from 1975-1976. In addition, he was the chairman of the Orange County Housing and Community Development Task Force in 1978. He assisted in the development of the Upper Newport Bay Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center and Back Bay Science Center, which eventually opened in 2001. He has been listed as a notable architect by Marquis Who’s Who in 2004.
As a national correspondent for Yahoo News, Romano reports on national affairs from Los Angeles; he previously covered three presidential campaigns and authored numerous cover stories as a senior writer for Newsweek. In his spare time, Romano geeks out over architecture and design on Instagram (@andrew__romano) and contributes related stories to Monocle, Apartamento and The New York Times T Magazine. In 2018, Romano published a small book about his house (The Walker House, RM Schindler) with Apartamento.
Emily Bills is an educator, curator, and author with research interests in urban history and architectural photography. She is Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Urban Studies program at The New School in New York and directs the development of new sustainability programs for Woodbury University in Burbank, CA. In her former role as managing director of the Julius Shulman Institute she collaborated on exhibitions featuring photographers Hélène Binet, Pedro E. Guerrero, Catherine Opie, and Richard Barnes, among others. Emily is the coauthor of California Captured: Marvin Rand Mid-Century Modern Architecture (Phaidon, 2018), and the author of Wayne Thom: Photographing the Late Modern (The Monacelli Press, 2020). She is currently curating an exhibition on Thom’s work for the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA which opens in October, 2022.
As Senior Director of Advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy, Adrian Scott Fine oversees the organization’s outreach, advocacy and response on key preservation issues within the greater Los Angeles area. Previously he was with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. He currently serves as the President of the board of trustees for the California Preservation Foundation, is a founding member of Docomomo US/Southern California, and teaches at the University of Southern California Heritage Conservation Summer Program, the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and as part of the Getty Conservation Institute’s (GCI) Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative.
Architect Dplg, PhD in Art History, Dominique Rouillard is founding member of Architecture Action sarl, office for architecture and urban design. She is scientific director of LIAT (Laboratoire, Infrastructure, Architecture, Territoire), research laboratory habilitated by the Office of Architectural, Urban and Landscape Research under the Direction of Architecture and Civil Heritage (BRAUP-DAPA). She is member of the National Historical Monuments Commission.
Dominique Rouillard is a tenured professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais (ENSAPM), and adjunct professor at AMUR masters program (Architecture and Urban Planning Project Management), École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. She has been visiting professor in different international universities, and at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale of Lausanne in 2008.
Consultant for various exhibitions at the Georges Pompidou Center, Paris (Les années 50, La Ville, Archigram), her researches are focused on immediate history of contemporary architecture and infrastructures.
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