SCI-Arc faculty Todd Gannon and Tom Wiscombe will serve as RIGHT NOW symposium emcees, setting the stage for unscripted conversations focusing on examining specific topics in contemporary architecture.

Todd Gannon is an architect, writer, and curator based in Los Angeles. A graduate of The Ohio State University (BS Arch, M. Arch) and UCLA (Ph.D.), he taught at Ohio State, Otis College of Art and Design, and UCLA before joining the faculty at SCI-Arc in 2008, where he teaches history, theory, and design studio; coordinates the Cultural Studies curriculum, and serves as editor of academic publications. Gannon’s research focuses on the history and theory of late 20th-century and contemporary architecture. His published books include The Light Construction Reader (2002), Pendulum Plane/Oyler Wu Collaborative (2009), Et in Suburbia Ego: José Oubrerie’s Miller House (2013), and monographs on the work of Morphosis, Bernard Tschumi, UN Studio, Steven Holl, Mack Scogin/Merrill Elam, Zaha Hadid, and Peter Eisenman. His essays have appeared in The SAGE Handbook for Architectural Theory (2012), The Mourning After: Attending the Wake of Postmodernism (2007), and in periodicals including Log, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Offramp. In collaboration with Ewan Branda and Andrew Zago, he curated the 2013 exhibition A Confederacy of Heretics at SCI-Arc, which examines the legacy of Thom Mayne’s 1979 “Architecture Gallery” in Venice, California. His next books, Reyner Banham and the Paradoxes of High Tech Architecture and Eric Owen Moss Architects/3585 are forthcoming. Currently, he is at work editing a compilation of Craig Hodgetts’ architectural writings and researching a monograph on the work of Franklin D. Israel. Gannon has lectured at institutions across the United States, in Europe, and in Asia, and is a frequent conference participant and jurist. He served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, where he directed publication efforts from 2008-2010. His work has been recognized and supported by the Graham Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Institute of Architects, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, The Ohio State University, and UCLA.

Tom Wiscombe is Chair of the B.Arch. program and senior faculty member at SCI-Arc, where he has been teaching for more than 10 years and coordinating the school’s applied studies track for six years. He is founder and principal of Tom Wiscombe Architecture, an internationally recognized design practice whose work stands out in terms of its mysterious figural features, alluring graphic qualities, and its tectonic inventiveness. His office is currently working on the high-profile Main Museum of Los Angeles Art with developer Tom Gilmore located in the historic core of Los Angeles. Wiscombe has developed an international reputation through winning design competitions and exhibitions at major cultural institutions around the world. In 2014, he received Second Place in the international competition for the Kinmen Passenger Service Center, Taiwan. In 2012, he was part of the joint design team organized by Morphosis to compete for the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, which received Second Prize. In 2011, he won first place in two competitions for the 2013 Chinese National Games, and was hired by the Interior Ministry of China to design the Beijing National Hotel. In addition to his teaching experience at SCI-Arc, Wiscombe has taught advanced research studios as Visiting Professor at PennDesign, and in 2012, he held the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professorship at Yale University. Previously, Wiscombe worked for Coop Himmelb(l)au, where he was Chief Designer for BMW World, Munich, the Museum of Confluences, Lyon, and the UFA Cinema Center, Dresden.