Designer Spotlight
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Thom Mayne
Thom Mayne is a widely recognized Los Angeles based architect. Educated at University of Southern California and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC). Since then he has held teaching positions at SCI-ARC, Cal Poly Pomona and UCLA.
He is principal of Morphosis, a renowned architectural office located in Santa Monica, California. Morphosis has grown into prominent design practice, with completed projects worldwide. Under the Design Excellence program of the United States government's General Service Administration, Thom Mayne has become a primary architect for federal projects.
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David Rockwell
David Rockwell does dramatic design, from the sleek interiors of Nobu and the W Hotels to the exuberant Mohegan Sun Casino, from the pop-tastic scenery for the Broadway musical Hairspray to the sublimely hilarious high-modern sets for Team America: World Police.
He won the Presidential Design Award for his extraordinary work renovating New York's Grand Central Station, and his firm, the Rockwell Group, is designing the interior for the JetBlue terminal at New York's JFK Airport. Rockwell has published several books on his architectural and design process, including Pleasure and Spectacle, two qualities that abound in his work.
David Rockwell draws on his love of drama and spectacle to create fantastic, high-impact restaurants, malls, airline terminals and theater sets. Shortly after 9/11, he collaborated with other designers and architects to create a viewing platform at Ground Zero in New York.
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William Pedersen
William Pedersen is the principal Design Partner of KPF, which he founded in 1976 with A. Eugene Kohn and Sheldon Fox. KPF has earned the Architectural Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects and the Gold Medal of Honor by the New York Chapter of the AIA.
Bill has received the AIA National Honor Award six times in recognition of each of the following projects: 333 Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois (1984); the Procter & Gamble World Headquarters in Cincinnati (1987); the World Bank in Washington D.C. (1998); the New Academic Complex, City University of New York/Baruch College (2003); Westendstrasse 1/DG Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany (1994); and the Gannett/USA Today Headquarters in Virginia (2005). Other major projects include the highly publicized World Financial Center - now under construction - in Shanghai, and the New York Sports and Convention Center in Manhattan.
He received the Gold Medal for lifetime achievement in architecture from Tau Sigma Delta, the National Honor Society for Architecture and the Allied Arts. Additional honors include the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture for Contributions in Architecture as an Art (1985), awarded by the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters; the 1990 University of Minnesota Alumni Achievement Award; and the Rome Prize in Architecture (1965), awarded by the American Academy in Rome.
Bill lectures internationally and serves on academic and professional juries and symposia. He has been a visiting professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia University, and Harvard University, and he has held the Eero Saarinen Chair at Yale University. He has also been the Otis Lecturer in Japan. In 1989, he was honored as the Herbert S. Greenward Distinguished Professor in Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has degrees in architecture from the University of Minnesota and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. -
Scott Wilson
An accomplished designer with experience developing iconic, industry-leading products, the pervasive theme throughout Wilson's work is the intimate relationship between the user and the product. Wilson strives to create a balance within his products that speak rationally and emotionally to the consumer, ultimately ensuring a higher probability of market success and endurance.
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Alex Vitet
Alex Vitet was born in Mende, France, and studied industrial design at Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts at St. Etienne, France. He opened a design studio in Paris in 2003, and a showroom for his ceramic tableware collections in Paris in 2004. He has exhibited his designs at International Fairs, including ICFF (New York City) and Maison & Objet (Paris). His product lines are sold in stores in Paris, the USA, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, and India.
Alex creates contemporary designs which connect imagination and functionality, the interaction between object and human beings, product and user.
ALEX VITET DESIGN is a design-oriented company having a strategy of design innovation and new product development together with the use of the latest/oldest manufacturing techniques through material experimentation.
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Michael Morris and Yoshiko Sato
New York based designers Michael Morris and Yoshiko Sato. The work of Morris Sato Studio ranges from industrial and residential design to institutional projects and exhibition designs.