UCLA Architecture and Urban Design adjunct Natasha Sandmeier has been named as the next Executive Director of the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles (A+D), the institution announced on Monday.

In her new role, Sandmeier will work to “advance the next generation of museum programming and community building.” She has been serving in the position since June and replaces Anthony Morey, who stepped down in early 2021. 

The A+D Museum is going through a transition from its longtime brick-and-mortar location downtown to a post-Covid virtual programming format for the time being. A press release mentioned Sandmeier is working closely with its Board and Managing Director Camille Elston on the search for a new physical home. For now, she is helping to maintain the A+D’s calendar of slated exhibitions for the rest of the year.  

Sandmeier has taught at UCLA since 2019. She had previously worked as a project architect in OMA’s Rotterdam office and lectured at SCI-Arc and the Architectural Association, where she also completed her Master’s studies and was Director of the Summer School program from 2002 until 2018. Sandmeier is the author of the 2014 monograph Little Worlds and has since 2019 operated her own Los Angeles-based studio practice called O.UR. 

She sat down with us the same year to discuss her involvement with colleague Nathan Su in UCLA AUD’s IDEAS Entertainment Studio. Her work there was largely based on investigating technology's integration into the built environment and the related capacity to help architects deliver narrative and experience-based projects, positioning her well to helm an institution which is looking to take advantage of its shifting format in a digital economy. 

As she shared with us at that time: “Architects, now more than ever, need not only to design for the future but also to reveal the present. If the strangeness of now is anything to go by, the future will likely be full of unpredicted risks and surprising opportunities.”

“It’s exciting to join the A+D Museum and to lead an institution that is a beacon of architecture and design,” Sandmeier said of her career's important next step. “I am honored to work with our community of established voices, emerging designers, and creatives to strengthen the A+D as a dynamic and inclusive institution serving all of Los Angeles.”