Chris Warren is the founding principal and design director of WORD.  His designs have won numerous awards–the studio was recently honored as one of ten international Architectural Record Design Vanguards for 2020 and Chris was also selected as one of four Emerging Talents in architecture by the prestigious Monterey Design Conference. With over twenty years of experience, Chris has played an essential role in projects ranging in scale from a 4,500 unit Olympic athletes’ village, to NOAA’s satellite operations headquarters near Washington DC, an adaptive re-use creative office, and a corner café in Los Angeles – all of which earned AIA Design Awards.

After receiving his masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Chris immediately moved to Los Angeles, where he spent his formative years working on over twenty commissions with Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne at Morphosis.  He later co-founded the award winning Studio Shift and also began teaching at the University of Southern California, where he delivered the commencement address to the School of Architecture’s class of 2011.  Most recently, Chris has taught programs in Shanghai, Rome, Como and was a visiting professor of urban design at Washington University of St. Louis.

As an experienced advocate for the power of the designed world, Chris wholly believes in its potential to enhance our lives.