September 21, 2022
APDesign opens fall 2022 Ekdahl Lecture Series with Ernest C. Wong
The College of Architecture, Planning & Design will open its fall 2022 Ekdahl Lecture Series with Ernest C. Wong, founding principal of site design group ltd. at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, in the Regnier Forum, Regnier Hall. All lectures are free and open to the public.
As the founding principal and president of site, Wong has been instrumental in the evolution of the firm as a multicultural cutting-edge design entity and fostering the landscape architecture profession in the city of Chicago. In managing the firm for more than 31 years, site has established a reputation for creative design solutions and developing thoughtful, community-oriented urban spaces.
Wong serves on the board of numerous public service organizations and professional juries, including the Driehaus Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design, Chinese American Service League, Near South Planning Board and as the chair of the Chicago Landmarks Commission. He is a frequent speaker at universities and at design, business and diversity conferences. In 2013, Wong was elevated to the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows for his exceptional leadership, extensive community service and outreach work.
The series continues with:
• Kay Sargent, director of HOK’s global WorkPlace practice, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5. With a passion for using design to transform how and where people work, Sargent spends her days — and many nights — working with clients on workplace strategy and design.
Based in Washington, D.C., Sargent leads project teams that solve clients' business and organizational challenges related to real estate business processes, strategic planning, workplace strategy and change management. She collaborates with organizations ranging from tech startups to Fortune 500 companies to optimize their real estate portfolios and create the most innovative work experiences.
In 2021, the International Interior Design Association announced the induction of Sargent into its prestigious College of Fellows. Admission to the College of Fellows is the highest honor given by the association and recognizes those whose design work has significantly influenced the profession.
• Alan Organschi, principal and partner at Gray Organschi Architecture at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24. Gray Organschi Architecture is an architectural practice in New Haven, Connecticut, recognized internationally for its integration of design, construction and environmental research. Organschi is also the founder of the fabrication workshop and construction management firm JIG Design Build, which in 2018 created the Ecological Living Module, a fully self-sustaining micro house for the United Nations Environment Program.
In April 2021, Organschi was appointed director of the Innovation Lab at the Bauhaus der Erde — Earth Bauhaus — a global interdisciplinary initiative that seeks to transform the building sector from a major source of anthropogenic environmental and social impact into a regenerative and ecologically sensitive means to meet the housing and infrastructural needs of an urbanizing global population. In that capacity, he will direct the development of the lab, its experimental projects, public programs and trans-sectoral collaborations with global partners.
Organschi continues as a senior member of the faculty at the Yale School of Architecture where he has taught architectural design and building technology for two decades. During the 2019 and 2020 academic years, he also served as the Portman critic at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Architecture. The findings of the research and design work of the studios he conducted were published in the two-volume collection "Technosphere/Biosphere."
View a full listing of the 2022 Ekdahl Lectures and previously recorded lectures.
The Oscar S. Ekdahl Lecture Series in Architecture and Design brings the finest professionals in the design and planning disciplines to APDesign and the K-State community. These individuals are selected to avail faculty, staff, students and regional professionals of the potency of design and planning in addressing the issues we face as a global society. The series honors Ekdahl, who received his Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University in 1933 and was a founding partner in Ekdahl, Davis, Depew, Persson Architects PA in Topeka.