CINDY ALLEN
Editor In Chief
Interior Design Magazine
CINDY ALLEN
Editor In Chief
Interior Design Magazine
Cindy Allen has established herself as a force in elevating the design profession’s importance and exposure—acting as an ambassador and fervent supporter of architects and designers, while providing a platform and vehicle of growth for the design industry.
Allen is an industry champion, promoting the Giants of Design as well as emerging talents. A self-proclaimed design junkie, she brings an unbridled passion for design that is manifested in 17 print issues each year, a digital platform reaching a global audience of over 8 million. With Allen’s direction, Interior Design is constantly evolving to best celebrate designers and their process.
www.interiordesign.net | @thecindygram
MALENE BARNETT
Artist, Designer & Founder
Black Artists + Designers Guild
MALENE BARNETT
Artist, Designer & Founder
Black Artists + Designers Guild
Malene Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, ceramicist, and textile designer, based in Brooklyn, New York. She is also the founder of theBlack Artists + Designers Guild, a curated collective of independent Black artists, makers, and designers.
Malene is interested in finding ways to define the black narrative while raising awareness about racial inequality in America. Her artistic practice is inseparable from her work as an activist. Through her sculptural ceramic tiles and vessels, mixed media paintings and handwoven rugs, she shares her African heritage with a global audience. She has been recognized by several national and international publications and invited to speak by MSNBC and TEDx. Malene’s clients include Marriott, Viacom, Saks, WeWork, Avalon Communities, and the MetLife Building.
www.maleneb.com | @malene.barnett
ELISSA BLACK
Executive Director
NYCxDESIGN
ELISSA BLACK
Executive Director
NYCxDESIGN
Elissa Black is the Executive Director of NYCxDESIGN, a not-for-profit organization that unites the City’s design disciplines, people, studios, events, districts, makers, manufacturers and design leaning institutions under one umbrella, ensuring design and creativity in NYC remains bold and resilient, and a core part of the city’s DNA. With exceptional year-round programs, including NYC’s premiere Annual Design Festival in its ninth edition, NYCxDESIGN prioritizes cultural placemaking, spotlighting NYC’s design creativity and innovation nationally and internationally, creating more and equitable opportunity for NYC’s design sector, building its diversity, and educating and inspiring NYC’s young adults to become the city’s designers of tomorrow.
www.nycxdesign.com | @nycxdesign
GULLA JONSDOTTIR
Principal
Gulla Jonsdottir Architecture & Design
GULLA JONSDOTTIR
Principal
Gulla Jonsdottir Architecture & Design
Gulla Jonsdottir, a groundbreaking Icelandic Architect and Interior designer, is known for her work exemplified by its dynamic use of curved forms and sensuality. Her iconic style focuses on bringing unique spatial experiences that respond to nature and the surrounding site, always echoing the integration of organic beauty and function. Unlocking a visual landscape that is both futuristic and a warm evocation of yesterday’s world of tomorrow.
Gulla was born in Iceland, schooled in mathematics and biology before moving to Los Angeles to study architecture at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture). Prior to opening her own firm, she worked at Richard Meier & Partners, Walt Disney Imagineering and Dodd Mitchell Design. Establishing her own practice based in Los Angeles in 2009, Gulla is able topursue her ambition of altering the contours of modern design and progressive architectural vision. Her atelier is a team of international designers, working across fields of hospitality, commercial & residential design, museums and wellness projects worldwide. Gulla thrives to transform the way we think about design and the language of Architecture. The artist within has sought to question everything taken for granted and as a result, created spectacular and unique spaces.
The genesis of Gulla’sdesign begins in her sketchbook with superfluid drawings, that reflect her belief in the connection between, art, architecture, interior design, furniture design and nature.
www.gullajonsdottir.com | @gullajonsdottir
DEBBIE MILLMAN
Host
Design Matters
DEBBIE MILLMAN
Host
Design Matters
Debbie Millman is host of the award-winning podcast Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest running podcasts; Chair of the first ever Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts, Editorial Director of PrintMag.com, and the author of seven books on design and branding. She has worked on the design and strategy of over 200 of the world’s largest brands. Her most recent book, Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People, will be published by Harper Collins in 2022.
www.debbiemillman.com | @debbiemillman
HAYES SLADE
Founding Principal
Slade Architecture
HAYES SLADE
Founding Principal
Slade Architecture
Hayes Slade AIA, IIDA is a co-founder and Principal of Slade Architecture and 2019 President of the NY AIA Chapter. At Slade Architecture, she has designed projects of varied scales and programs nationally and internationally. She is a licensed architect in NY and holds undergraduate and masters degrees in structural engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
www.sladearch.com | @sladearchitecture
JAMES SLADE
Founding Principal
Salde Architecture
JAMES SLADE
Founding Principal
Salde Architecture
James Slade, FAIA LEED-AP is a registered architect and co-founder of Slade Architecture. His award winning work has been widely published and exhibited. In addition to his practice, James teaches graduate level design studio, most recently at Pratt Institute and Parsons. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University and a MArch degree from Columbia University.
www.sladearch.com | @sladearchitecture
NADER TEHRANI
Principal
NADAAA
NADER TEHRANI
Principal
NADAAA
For his contributions to architecture as an art, Nader Tehrani is the recipient of the 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which he was also elected as a Member in 2021, the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in The United States.
Nader Tehrani is Founding Principal of NADAAA, a practice dedicated to the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with the construction industry. He is also Dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union.
Tehrani’s work has been recognized with notable awards, including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture, the United States Artists Fellowship in Architecture and Design, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture. He has also received the Harleston Parker Awardandthe Hobson Award. Throughout his career, Tehrani has received eighteen Progressive Architecture Awards as well as numerous national and international designawards. He served as the Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design at the University of Toronto and the inaugural Paul Helmle Fellow at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He has also recently served as the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. His office, NADAAA, for the past seven years in a row, has ranked in the Top eleven design firms in Architect Magazine’s Top 50 Firms in the United States, ranking as First three years in a row.
www.nadaaa.com | @nadaaainc
CALVIN TSAO
Partner
Tsao & McKown Architects
CALVIN TSAO
Partner
Tsao & McKown Architects
Graduating from UC Berkeley before receiving his Master of Architecture from Harvard University, Tsao forged his own path by founding Tsao & McKown in 1985 with his partner and fellow visionary, Zack McKown. He has orchestrated built environments across a variety of scales and locales; his significant works include the Sunbrella Headquarters in Burlington, NC; Sangha, At One Hotel in Suzhou, China; the renovation of the Jewish Museum permanent collection in New York, Brower Park Library in Brooklyn, Jianfu Palace Museum in The Forbidden City, Beijing, Suntec City in Singapore, as well as product design: a lipstick case for Shu Uemura.
Tsao envisions his role as that of a cultural mediator striving to harness global experience and technology to express the essence of local cultures and contexts. He has taught at the Harvard GSD, Cooper Union, Syracuse University, and Parsons School of Design.Hesits on the board of Directors for The Municipal Art Society of New York. He is also a trustee of The American Academy in Rome, the former Vice President for Design Excellence at AIA New York | Center for Architecture, and the President Emeritus of The Architectural League of New York. He is a recipient of the National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Legacy Award from the Museum of the Chinese in America, among other recognitions.
www.tsao-mckown.com | @tsaomckown
CLAIRE WEISZ
Founding Partner
WXY Studio
CLAIRE WEISZ
Founding Partner
WXY Studio
Claire Weisz FAIAis a founding partner ofwww.wxystudio.com, whose work as an architect and urbanist focuses on innovative approaches to public space, structures, and cities. Claire was awarded the Medal of Honor from AIANY in 2018 and was honored with the Women in Architecture Award by Architectural Record in 2019. Her firm, WXY, is globally recognized for its place-based approach to architecture, urbandesign, and planning, and has played a vital role in design thinking around resiliency.Among its award-winning projects are the SeaGlass Carousel and the Spring Street Garage / Salt Shed.In 2019 Fast Company named WXY one of the World’s Most Innovative Architecture Firms.
www.wxystudio.com | @wxystudio
KIM YAO
Principal
ARO
KIM YAO
Principal
ARO
Kim Yao, FAIA holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Columbia College: Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and has also taught at the School of Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School for Design, and Barnard College (2001-2011). She has lectured widely throughout the United States and abroad. Kim has been awarded the AIA New York (AIANY) Medal of Honor and the Beverly Willis Foundation Mentorship Award. She was President of AIANY in 2020 and serves on the Board of the Center for Architecture.
https://www.aro.net/ | @Architecture.Research.Office