Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge Jury Panel

Buildner is pleased to announce the jury list for the Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge Competition! 

Craig Galati, LGA
Avi Friedman, McGill University
Persis Lam, Diamond Schmitt Architects
Dr. Steffen Lehmann, UNLV School of Architecture
Christina Lennox, Brownstone
Maya Mahgoub-Desai, OCAD University
Fotini Pitoglou, FORREC
Dr. Caitlin J. Saladino, The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West
Andreas Tjeldflaat, Framlab 

Craig Galati is a Principal and Shareholder of Las Vegas*based architecture firm LGA. Craig has received numerous honors including the AIA “Nevada Service Award,” the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce “Community Achievement Award for Business,” and the American Planning Association “DeBoer Excellence in Planning Award” for his outstanding service on the City of Las Vegas Planning Commission. Craig is also a recipient of the AIA Nevada Silver Medal and joined LGA in 1988. His current community work includes membership in both the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee and the Downtown Alliance. Craig also is a Board Member of The Mob Museum, and is a past national Society President for the Society for Marketing Professional Services. Craig authored “Admit it!  21 things you already know but apparently have forgotten regarding client service,” in 2005, “A Man in Transition, Reflections on Relationships, Leadership, and Life,” in 2007, “Business From the Heart” in 2010, and “The Reluctant Leader” in 2021.

Avi Friedman is a professor of architecture at McGill University Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, a visiting professor at Lancaster University, UK, and president of Avi Friedman Consultants, Inc., a design firm with a focus on affordable and sustainable residential environments. He has written twenty eight books and his design work and projects have been cited in magazines, newspapers and TV shows, including Good Morning America, Dream Builders and Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn. In 2000, Wallpaper* included him in their list of ten people 'most likely to change the way we live'.

Persis Lam is an associate at Diamond Schmitt Architects, based in Toronto. She loves architecture for the constant strive for balance between art and science.  Her drive for better design solutions to solve real problems stems from a technical design sense.  Persis is also an executive member of Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT).  She continues to champion collaboration across different professional industries, enjoys spending time with her two young children and plays in the office rock band.

Dr. Steffen Lehmann, Assoc. AIA, (born in Stuttgart, Germany) is an internationally recognized educator, scholar, author, designer, scientific researcher, and strategic leader. He is a tenured full Professor of Architecture and former Executive Director of schools of architecture, including the UNLV School of Architecture in Las Vegas. He is also Director of the interdisciplinary Urban Futures Lab, and CEO of the Future Cities Leadership Lab Institute (see links below), where he is translating a strategic outlook into programmatic initiatives and impact, dealing with a rapidly changing profession and transforming society. Before joining UNLV, Steffen Lehmann was the chair-holder of the UNESCO Chair for Sustainable Urban Development for the Asia-Pacific Region.

Christina Lennox is the Cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Brownstone - a shared housing company based in Palo Alto. Brownstone makes sleeping pods that transform existing homes into affordable shared living arrangements without construction. Christina designed Brownstone’s sleeping pods and arranges the homes to accommodate everyone. She enjoys the challenge of making smaller spaces feel like home.

Maya Mahgoub-Desai is the Chair of Environmental Design at OCAD University and a practicing Urban Designer and Planner with Moriyama Teshima Architects. Her interdisciplinary research interests focus on public health, socio-ecological models of urban development, and decolonization of design pedagogy. Her current SSHRC-funded research projects investigate environmental health, public realm design, and inclusive approaches to community collaboration.

Fotini Pitoglou is a licensed architect in Ontario, Canada, the UK and Greece. She is a lead architect on hospitality projects at Toronto-based FORREC. She holds master's degrees from the University of Waterloo and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she conducted extensive research on tourism, and community building. Fotini is an executive member of BEAT - Building Equality in Architecture Toronto, the former chair of RAIC Emerging Practitioners Committee, and a member of FORREC's Diversity Equality and Inclusion Task Force.

Dr. Caitlin J. Saladino serves as the Director of Strategic Development at The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West. The Lincy Institute is a public policy think tank organized to conduct and support research improving health, education, economic development, governance, non-profits, and social services in Nevada. Brookings Mountain West is a partnership between UNLV and the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution which brings high-quality, independent, and impactful research to the issues facing the dynamic and fast-growing Intermountain West region. Dr. Saladino holds a master’s degree in communication studies, and a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Andreas Tjeldflaat is the founder of Framlab, a New York and Bergen-based design studio. He is an advisor for Antler and member of the Real Estate Market advisory group for UNECE. In addition, Andreas has held teaching positions at institutions such as Columbia University and Cornell University.

The Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge is part of Buildner’s Affordable Housing series, in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, showcasing projects that invent new means for driving down housing prices. Designers are tasked with proposing a flexible, innovative, pilot-phase concept for affordable housing in and around Las Vegas. Winning projects will be featured in ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ second edition of its publication, What is Affordable Housing?