Bay Area Architecture & Design Summit

As Managing Director for Gensler’s San Francisco office, Hao leads with design and is focused on building a dynamic practice through an open and collaborative culture. An inquisitive architect by nature, he is passionate about transforming experiences based on a deep understanding through research, the craft of technical excellence and a rigor of intellectual thought, all while striving to design beautiful places that impact people for the better. Working with diverse and talented teams, Hao’s projects such as The Tower at PNC Plaza, NVIDIA Headquarters, and Mercedes-Benz USA Headquarters have elevated the firm’s national and international profile and are well known for their high level of innovation and quality. Hao serves as a member of Gensler’s Board of Directors. He is an alumnus of UC Berkeley, where he graduated with Highest Honors, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Mark Cavagnero, FAIA, founded Mark Cavagnero Associates in 1988, and has guided its growth into a design-centered practice serving clients internationally. His work embodies a timeless quality, visible in a broad range of renovation and new construction work. Mark is focused on creating tangible spaces that encourage the ephemeral aspects of human interactions. As the founding principal of the firm, Mark provides leadership over the design of all projects within the office. He brings over three decades of expertise in the planning, design and construction and has been recognized for seamlessly integrating environmental, cultural and contextual strategies to curate a holistic design approach, through various building types from education, museums, civic buildings, theaters, and residential buildings. His projects are known for careful attention to balanced natural light through all parts of the building, in support of activities and wellness of the occupants. Mark Cavagnero Associates’ approach in design has garnered the firm more than 100 awards from international, national, state, and local organizations. Mark has personally been recognized with the AIACC 2010 Distinguished Practice Award and the AIACC 2015 Maybeck Award for outstanding lifetime achievement, among many other accolades. He is currently engaged on projects throughout North America, including the new San Francisco Moscone Center Expansion; San Francisco Conservatory of Music; the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Quest Diagnostics headquarters in New York; as well as projects for Salesforce spanning across Asia, North America and Europe.

David Hart is the President and CEO of Steinberg Hart, an international Architecture, Interiors, and Planning firm headquartered in Los Angeles. Founded in 1953, the firm’s seven offices focus on higher education, urban mixed-use residential, performing and visual arts, hospitality, government, civic and commercial projects. David developed Steinberg Hart’s reputation as a leader in Higher Education through the design of inspirational, sustainable projects that shape the way students learn and socialize for institutions such as Stanford, UCLA, and USC. He now leads the firm’s large-scale mixed-use practice in urban cores, with projects such as Los Angeles’ Vision on Wilshire and San Jose’s Miro Towers. Leveraging his experience working with public agencies, institutions, builders, and developers, he works to advance complex public-private-partnership projects with an emphasis on responsible density, affordability, community impact and value creation for clients. As a thought leader, David speaks regularly at conferences both nationally and locally, including Greenbuild, P3C, SCUP, Educause, and NACUBO, and he has been tapped by publications such as GlobeSt, Monocle, the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and Bloomberg CityLab for his insights on design and urban issues of our time. David serves on the ULI Urban Revitalization Council, the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics Policy Advisory Board at the University of California at Berkeley, the Los Angeles Business Council Board of Directors, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

John Marx, AIA, is a co-founding principal and chief artistic officer of Form4 Architecture in San Francisco, California. He is responsible for developing Form4 Architecture’s design vision and philosophical language. In order to return a sense of humanity back into architecture, he advocates for the inclusion of Philosophy, Art, and Poetry in the thoughtful making of place by creating emotionally resonant architecture and urban spaces. He is a part time student of Absurdity, Paradox, Kindness, and Balance. John’s design work and writing have been published in over 100 national and international publications. In 2018, the Architectural Review published his monograph “The Absurdity of Beauty - Rebalancing the Modernist Narrative”.  In 2023 he co-edited "Towards Abundance - The Delightful Paradoxes of Gender" with the Architectural Review. He has widely lectured on the topics of Design, Placemaking, Emotional Meaning and Cultural Vibrancy in Silicon Valley and places as diverse as Korea, Italy, Austria, Australia, Canada and the Technion in Israel. John has been going to Burning Man since 2015 and has also written about the importance of its participatory culture with regard to the design process and as a catalyst for social change. Last year, John Marx was lead artist on "Andromeda Reimagined”, a widely celebrated architectural pavilion at Burning Man. In 2020 John was Architect and Co-Lead Artist for the Museum of No Spectators, which debuted virtually in July and was built in 2023. Form4 Architecture has received over 230 design awards and in 2017, John became a Laureate of the American Prize for Architecture. Curated by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture the award is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America’s highest public tributes for architecture in the United States. The American Prize for Architecture, is bestowed to an “outstanding practitioner in the United States that has emblazoned a new direction in the history of American Architecture with talent, vision, and commitment and has demonstrated consistent contributions to humanity through the built environment and through the art of architecture.” He also won the 2017 Upstart Award which honors the most innovative, disruptive, and creative business professionals throughout the SF Bay Area. GAFF/ ECC showed John Marx’s work at the Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy in 2016. In 2018, they exhibited his research on ‘2 nd  Century Modernism – Reflections on Abundance’. 2021 sees the exhibition of his watercolors and poetry at Palazzo Mora during the Venice Biennale. ORO press has recently published an award winning 160 page book entitled “ ETUDES The Poetry of Dreams + Other Fragments”. This book focuses on 84 of John's watercolor paintings as well as 42 poems. In 2020 ETUDES won an Indie Book Award for Illustration, and in 2021 John received the James Gates Percival International Prize for Literature. John has served on the Board of the Magic Theatre in San Francisco from 2009 thru 2020 and has chaired its Board over five years. The Magic Theatre honored him with the Sam Shephard Legacy Award in 2018.  John joined the board of the San Francisco Art Institute in 2020 and was Co- Chair from 2021-2023. SFAI is one of the oldest and most prestigious art schools in the United States.

Marvin Wheat is a construction executive advancing companies to the next level in growth and profitability. As vice president of the northern California region, Marvin focuses on maximizing market penetration while building client relationships. With a 47-year career that traverses both northern and southern California, Marvin is a leader who actively promotes best practices with a team-centric approach and encourages a positive corporate culture. He is well-known for projects valued at over $250 million, and enjoys the intricacies associated with complex projects. He has played a pivotal role in the successful completion of several high-profile projects. With over $6 billion in completed projects; among his notable achievements are the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, the Google Spruce Goose Hangar Conversion, the Four Seasons Westlake Village and the Landmark II, a 34-story luxury apartment in Brentwood. His hands-on approach and attention to detail have been instrumental in the timely and quality delivery of these iconic structures. Marvin's commitment to excellence positions him as a respected figure in the construction industry. As Vice President of Northern California, he continues to lead teams in constructing projects that shape the skyline and contribute to the evolution of architectural landscapes. Marvin graduate from Harvard in 1978 with a degree in Visual / Environmental Studies and Economics and serves on the Advisory Board for Cassette Systems, a modular housing corporation in California.

Susan is a design leader with 35+ years in the commercial design industry, she is Principal at DLR Group and has worked for other World class Architectural design firms such as SOM, Gensler and HOK. For Susan, her most valued partnerships are with clients who value knowledge sharing, and who look to design to transform their organizations. Across her career, Susan has drawn inspiration from humanist Architects and designers from Eileen Gray to Suzanne Tick, (Interior Design Hall of Fame Textile designer). By learning from masters of timeless design Susan now applies her own set of design maxims, which hinge on dimensionality, comfort, color theory, wellness and balance. Drawing from both industrial design and her father’s career as a Hanna Barbera cartoonist, Susan often explores different mediums for communicating ideas, from hand sketching to rapid 3D prototyping. This pendulum of growth through learning has now swung in a new direction: her mentorship of the next generation of design talent is focused on confidence building for underrepresented groups. Susan believes that in this digital age, design should be used to plug people into networks of other people – to build human connection. From a building’s approach to its most personal detail, the environment is absorbed both emotionally and physically. Susan thrives on finding harmony between these connections of scale, place, and people. “Function and beauty are not mutually exclusive, and when brought together they are transformational.”

As Executive Vice President of Design for Related California, Ms. Yee leads the architecture and interior design for all market rate and mixed-income residential developments throughout California. She is responsible for the creative oversight and management of the planning, design and engineering of every market rate development, from concept and delivery to building opening. Her direct involvement in all aspects of the building process includes directing architects, interior designers and engineers through each phase of construction to ensure that the completed work is true to the project’s design intent. She is the conduit with sales/leasing and marketing, operations, and development executives, assuring informed design, constantly evolving processes, and seamless execution. Since joining Related in 2006, Ms. Yee has been directly responsible for the design oversight and completion of numerous developments, including The Avery, Mason on Mariposa and 1550 Mission in San Francisco, and The Century, The Seychelle, The Waverly, The Emerson, and Argyle House in Los Angeles. A registered architect and former vice president at international design firm, HKS Architects, Ms. Yee holds a Master in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. She is a recipient of the Asian Women in Business Corporate Leadership Award, former editor of the Dallas chapter American Institute of Architects newsletter, and served on the Urban Design Advisory Committee for the City of Dallas. Ms. Yee serves on the Boards of Trustees for Sci-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) and the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and has been an invited speaker at AIA conferences, Urban Land Institute events, and housing symposium panels.

Melissa, a co-founder and partner of Blitz, performs many roles in the studio but primarily designs. When she’s not working on projects for innovative local technology workplaces and global retail, hospitality, and product brands, she spends her days managing operations, brand, and project delivery strategy for the studio. Melissa is a maker at heart and fell in love with creating things at a very early age. As the daughter of a contractor / fine wood-worker, building runs in her blood. Her parents encouraged her artistic expressions even at the expense of the furniture and walls. This sense of exploration and freedom to test ideas has been at the core of her world view ever since and still informs her process. Melissa feels privileged to be considered a champion for leading-edge design and regularly contributes her projects and design knowledge to technical and lifestyle publications such as Architect Magazine, Interior Design Magazine, Contract, Vanity Fair, GQ, The Atlantic, The NYT, and The Wall Street Journal.

With an education in architecture and business management, a background in project management, decades of experience in creative design, strategy for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500, and a passion for all things architecture and design, Joe serves as a consultant/advisor to architects, owners, and contractors all seeking expertise in achieving their architectural design visions through advanced manufacturers and cutting-edge solutions providers.

President of Tournesol Siteworks, Christopher Lyon, purchased the company in 1994. Over 25 years later, he's thrilled Tournesol has grown into a leading manufacturer of commercial landscape products. Tournesol’s product line consists of pots & planters, site furnishings and container irrigation made in North America. Tournesol has locations in California, Washington and Mexico. In June 2023 Tournesol acquired Greenscreen – the leader in commercial trellis systems and green facades located in Southern California. Chris is a big believer in stakeholder capitalism, and as Tournesol has evolved, Chris has focused on developing manufacturing processes to use more sustainable materials, with the intent of improving Tournesol’s environmental stewardship. Chris is currently the Chair of the American Society of Landscape Architect's Corporate Member Committee (ASLA.org), representing the manufacturing trade members. He previously served as a judge for Green Roofs for Healthy Cities' annual awards. In his spare time, Chris loves to tinker with vintage cars.

Jeff Brink has over 20 years of structural design experience with significant developments up and down the west coast, ranging from Performance Based Design high-rises to mixed-use projects at Candlestick Point, the SF Shipyard, and Yerba Buena Island. Current projects include the City of San Francisco’s new office tower at 1500 Mission Street and the Virgin Hotel adjacent to the Moscone Center. Jeff’s technical expertise at integrating innovative structural systems, combined with his broad understanding of the construction industry, allows architecturally decisive projects to be achieved while still maintaining the project budget.

Maximilian Wyzard is a lifelong Bay Area native that was always destined to work in the construction and architecture world. As the son of a flooring business owner, Max spent his early childhood carting samples from the warehouse to the showroom, developing an emphatic passion for all things design. After years of working in flooring and adhesives with clients all over the country, Max joined Schluter Systems in January 2022 to educate architects all over the Bay Area and Hawaii about how the company has revolutionized the world of tiling. In his free time, Max loves to travel, play basketball, explore the eccentric food scene in San Francisco and binge watch true crime TV shows with his fiancé, Danielle.