PEOPLE

THOM MAYNE

Founder, executive director

Thom Mayne has been a committed educator in architecture for over 40 years. His firm, Morphosis, is engaged in broader social, cultural, urban, political and ecological issues, which he brings to his teaching and research at the NOW Institute. Mayne’s distinguished honors include the Pritzker Prize (2005) and the AIA Gold Medal (2013). He was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 2009.
Mayne’s significant contributions to architectural education include being a co-founder of SCI-Arc and having taught in several leading universities, among other as a distinguished professor at UCLA.  Under Mayne’s direction, his students won the 2005 PA Award for L.A. Now vol. 3/4. There has always been a symbiotic relationship between Mayne’s teaching and practice, evidenced in his commitment to innovative and challenge issues that affect urbanism and society. Currently, he serves as the coordinator of the postgraduate degree MS Design of Cities at SCI-Arc.

EUI-SUNG YI

Director

Eui-Sung Yi is a professor at USC School of Architecture and the director of The NOW Institute.  He is also partner at Morphosis Architects with a focus on urban planning and Asian projects. His professional and academic discourse speculates on contemporary urbanism with an emphasis on the dynamic and unorthodox Asian context.  He has built a wide range of projects from the Korean Embassy in Tokyo to the tallest detached core steel tower in the world. He has been an executive committee member for DOCOMOMO and co-author of Haiti Now and 100 Buildings. He has also taught and lectured extensively globally.  He received his B. Arch from Cornell University and his M. Arch from Harvard University.

NOELLE SUH

PROJECT DESIGNER, HEAD RESEARCHER

Noelle has been a part of the NOW Institute since 2018, with two past research internships with our team. After graduating with honors at the University of Chicago with a Bachelors in Environmental and Urban Studies and Public Policy, she has returned to the NOW as our project designer and head researcher. Noelle is involved in all current NOW Institute projects, as well as contributing writing and research to Morphosis Architects projects. She is also pursuing a Masters in City Planning at the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design.

KAREN LOHRMANN

Karen Lohrmann practices across the arts, urbanism and education focussing on editorial processes as critical and projective tools in the narration of landscape. In 2001, she founded SdMKLm with Stefano de Martino.  Addressing spaces in transformation, cultural manifestations and resultant landscapes they have published three monographs, initiated the platform Urban States, the edition Correspondents, and the testing ground Bay of Mars. Their cycle of works, Waiting Land, was a conceptual segment of the FRAC Orleans 2019-20 Biennale, Years of Solitude. 
Karen trained in architecture, art history and scenic design at Aachen University, ETH, Zurich University of the Arts, and TU Berlin. Currently a professor in the Design of Cities postgraduate program at SCI-Arc, she previously taught at Innsbruck University, Harvard GSD, UCLA AUD, and TU Berlin.  In 2020, following earlier engagements with the NOW Institute, Karen has served NOW as its program manager.

PHILIPPE MAMAN

Philippe is a digital designer and urban researcher. He spent two years as program manager with The NOW Institute where he guided UCLA M.Arch students in the execution of their studio projects, contributed to urban design competitions and helped get Haitian community development projects off the ground. As a part of the Haiti NOW and other Haiti projects, Philippe has traveled extensively to Haiti for hands-on research and community involvement. He has also researched and wrote publications on a wide variety of topics in urban design and developed accompanying data visualizations.

Philippe received his Bachelor’s in Cognitive Psychology from Tufts and his Master’s in Architectural Technologies from SCI-Arc. He is now living in San Francisco and working as a product designer for shared mobility startups.

NOW ADVISORS

Hitoshi Abe Frances Anderton Claude Alexandre Orhan Ayyüce Iwan Baan Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin Rev. Canon Ogé Beauvoir Alan Berger Alex Bellande Jacques Bilodeau Robin Blair Gene Block Natalie Brunet Nadège T. Clitandre Matthew Coolidge Heidi Creighton Dana Cuff Kenny Cupers Guy Custis Michael Dear Stefano de Martino Neil Denari Robin Derby Hernan Diaz-Alonso Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis David Eisenmann John Enright Bill Fain David Fletcher Tom Gilmore Rose-May Guignard David Herd Con Howe Casey Jones Dana Hutt Michaëlle Jean Nathalie Jolivert Victor Jones John Kaliski Richard Koshalek Micheline Laflamme Wilson Laleou Sylvia Lavin Lars Lerup Andrew Liang Ben Loescher Michael LoGrande Julia Lowell Greg Lynn Frederick Mangones Claudine Michel Greg Otto Jan Perry Kesner Pharrell Albert Pope Stephanie Reich Nelson Rising Ian Robertson Annunzie Roi Dan Rosenfeld Hervé Sabin Roger Sherman Michael Speaks Nicola Twilley Frantz Voltaire Charles Waldheim Christopher Waterman Richard Weinstein Brandon Welling Deborah Weintraub Jean Wiener Laura Zakaras Regine Zamor Judith Zeller

NOW Contributors since 2001  

Shareefa Abdulsalam Bridget Ackeifi Raffi Agaian Geoff Aiken Xuequi Bai Lily Bakhshi-Sheppard Joe Baldwin Jesus Bañuelos Dylan Barlow Brian Barnes Andrew Batay-Csorba Samuel Bent Aiden Carty Natalia Traverso Caruana Wilson Ka Leung Chan Weng Chao Perri Chasin Yitao Chen Emily Cheng Nate Chiappa Pakling Chiu Sookhee Cho Ihwa Choi Sabrina Chou Esther Chung Mario Cipresso Jessica D’Elena Brian Davis Ian Romano Dayagbil Laura Decurgez Çagdas Delen Alex Deutschman Ryan R. Doyle. Patrick Dunn-Baker Annie Eby Zhuoxin Fang Liang Feng Weitao Fong Ken Ford Alexios Fragkiadakis Linda Fu Sachie Fujimori David Garnett Svyayoslav Gavrilov Jonathan Gilliam Grady Gillies Niloufer Golkarhagh David Grant Costanza Guerini Cheng Ha Naqsh Haider Vicki Hanson Omar Haque Christopher Harris Anush Harutyunyan Ed Hatcher Yu-Liang Hsu Yifan Huang Dana Hutt Jane Hyun Ron Israeli Shobitha Jacob Sarah Jafarpour James Janke Maia Johnson Mark Johnson Chaitanya Karnik Jennifer Kasick Barak Kazenelbogen Matthew Kendall Andrew Kim Wayne Ko Laura Kos Richard Koshalek Pegah Koulaeian. Edit Kozma Jai Kumaran Jacob Kwan Jennifer Landau Sing Yeung Lau Karen Lee Chenguang Li Andrew Liang Xi Liao Daniel Lid Changsuk Lim Mark Lipson Deborah Liu Alexandra Loew Ziliang Lu David Magid Philippe Maman Andrea Manning Hugo Martinez. Saji Matuk Marieh Mehrannezhad Angel Burgos Melendez Rose Mendez Yang Ming Narineh Mirzaeian Julianna Morais Shanar Moslehy Arutyun Nazayan Greg Neudorf Carolyn Ng Chinh Nguyen Brent Nishimoto Jungmin Oh Elisabet Ollé Daniel Opera Beyza Paksoy Zach Pauls Layton Peterson Apurva Purandare Aaron Ragan Rupal Rathi Monica Ream Ian Ream Stacey Rigley Stephanie Rigolot Travis Bennett Russett John Paul Sacido Masako Saito Sepa Sama. Robyn Sambo Pablo Sepulveda Lawrence Servis Dunia Abu Shanab Luyan Shen Kevin Sherrod Kevin Short Andre Simapranata Erin Smith Calvin Siu Yin Sin Jihun Son Niketa Sondhi Seung Song Jiani Song Josh Sprinkling Legier Stahl Xiaoxiao Su Satoru Sugihara Myungsoo Suh Martin Summers Tuo Sun Aleksander Tamm-Seitz Devika Tandon Wei Tang Clayton Taylor Alonso Toledo Marie Trabold Brian Tranbarger Wei-Chie Tsai Rizzie Walker Yining Wang Duo Wang Yang Wang Yake Wang Shuoyang Wang Jue Wang Runzhi Wang Brandon Welling Elizabeth Wendell Chao Weng Ryan Withacre Karen Wolfe Susan Wong Kun Yang Boacheng Yang Hun Tao Yu Nina Yu Yun Yuan Halina Zárate Ziao Zhou