Lola Ben-Alon is an Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP and director of the Natural Material Lab and the Building Science and Technology curriculum. She specializes in earth and bio-based building materials.

Lola has a background in biomedical engineering, civil engineering, and curatorial design, and she shares her experience cofounding a lab at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology called the Experimental Art and Architecture Lab. She shares how her experiences formed the basis for who she is today, how she found her lexicon for working in a site-specific, participatory practice, what is currently happening at the Natural Material Lab, and how we can implement changes in our architecture practice to include earth and bio-based materials.

Lola's Links:

lolabenalon.com

Columbia GSAPP

Instagram: Natural Materials Lab

Laurel Chądyzński came to talk with us about healthy materials and her work within the mindful Materials team, her sustainability consultant work at Parallel, being an architect at a minority lead firm, but also being a mom. We discussed how she followed her passions to becoming who she is today and how she juggles all her hats.

Laurel's Links:

mindful Materials

Parallel

Dyer Brown & Associates

Poem by Frank X Walker (click on 'Read the Poem'), Love Letter To the World

visit us at COOKFOX Architects

In this episode, we're talking to members of our Studio in the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

We discuss Pride Month — from what it means to each person, how they celebrate, and what historical events are important to them. Other topics revolve around their personal experiences with work and life in New York City.

We all need places of refuge, places to recharge and heal. We talk queer spaces and what they mean to the individual and to the broader community. Today we have four guests from our COOKFOX studio in NYC: Jared, Associate Partner and Director of Communications; Liam, Associate; Michael, Associate; and Luca, Associate Partner.

This episode was recorded in the beginning of August 2024. Having recently hosted a Pride celebration in our Studio, conversations surrounding these topics were front of mind, and those personal stories turned into a podcast. We hope you enjoy listening to some of the shared stories from our office.

In our inaugural episode, COOKFOX Senior Associate Patricia Lozano and Associate Agathe Ceccaldi sit down for a candid conversation with Julie Rosen, a preservationist at Higgins Quasebarth & Partners.

Julie Rosen is an associate at Higgins Quasebarth & Partners, where her work is informed by her background in historic preservation, facade restoration/conservation and construction management. From her thesis work on 20th century brick at University of Illinois to her work on 378 West End Avenue with Higgins Quasebarth & COOKFOX, she tells us her unique journey to becoming a preservationist. Throughout her story, the discussion revolves around what is preservation, what do we preserve, how do we preserve it and why.