Meet the Presenters!
Sophia Berman Ogiso
“Navigating New Waters”
Sophia Berman Ogiso is an entrepreneur, designer, and creative thinker, with experiences ranging from industrial design to her current role as an architectural designer at CannonDesign. She was a start-up founder and business owner before coming back to the world of architecture – and take that unique perspective with her as she continues to navigate new waters.
Sophia learned to swim when she was 18 months old, and started scuba diving when she was 16. She has been diving in 7 different countries and, in this presentation, she will share what she has learned and what she loves most about diving.
Cory Bonnet
“Building from Memory: Rekindling the Power of Human Ingenuity & Spirit for Sustainability”
Cory Bonnet is a Pittsburgh artist, preservationist, LEED AP working with salvage materials. In 2021, after acquiring an enormous collection of late 19th-early 20th century foundry patterns, Bonnet started the Patterns of Meaning (PoM) artist collaborative. PoM is a multidisciplinary group of Pittsburgh artists drawing inspiration and creating new traditional/contemporary artwork from salvaged wooden foundry patterns. Oil paintings, sculpture, ceramics, glass, wood, lighting, furniture and architectural design elements all honoring the sacrifices and contributions of the steel industry that built the foundations of our society and its current critical role in developing the necessary components used in building aerospace, next generation energy and infrastructure to move us into a sustainable future.
Patterns of Meaning has had the honor to work with the Heinz Endowments for the Arts and design installations and exhibits for The Andy Warhol Museum, Grohmann Museum Milwaukee, Pittsburgh Botanic Gardens and other corporate and private collections. The Patterns Workshop & Exhibit Hall is located at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District.
This presentation will cover why Cory loves working with salvaged material, how creative work provides meaning and fulfillment, technology as a tool, and inspiring future generations through your work.
Eric Fisher & Bea Spolidoro
“Top Models”
Eric Fisher, AIA and Bea Spolidoro, RA are the Principals at Fisher ARCHitecture. The firm’s work, which has been recognized internationally, fuses high artistic standards with practicality.
Physical models of architectural projects are fun to make and interesting to look at whether their purpose is to illustrate ideas, document project transformations, or provide full size replicas of design details. These models can be 3D printed, lasercut, or hand built. However they are constructed, they provide ways to examine projects in real space as the design develops—rather than only on a computer screen—ensuring that the end result demonstrates the architect’s vision.
In this presentation, Eric and Bea will present their favorite models which have helped them test, refine, and visualize their designs.
Mark Houser
“Top of the Class: Amazing Skyscraper Rooftops”
Mark Houser is an author and speaker who specializes in historic skyscrapers and the stories of the people who built them. Almost 2,000 people have gone on his rooftop tours in Pittsburgh.
This presentation will include a mix of Highrises art, photos and historic images from around the country highlighting architectural flourishes, sculptures, statues, beacons, steeples, and other oddities, and an explanation of why they got put up there.
Christine Mondor
Christine is an eternal optimist regarding the power of design in shaping an inspiring and sustainable environment. Christine has been active in shaping places, processes and organizations in the US and around the world through her work as an architect, educator, and activist.
Jessica Pfauth
“St. Fagan’s Welsh National Museum of History / Sain Ffagan Amgueddfa Werin Cymry”
Jessica has a lifelong appreciation of art, culture, history, and language and found a winning combination of those when she began to explore her Welsh ancestry and became active in the local Welsh heritage society. She’s a Welsh-language learner since 2015 (who has been told by native Welsh speakers that she’s fluent but flatly denies that) and enjoys travelling to “the old country” to get up close with thousands of years of history, unique cuisine, and Wales’ extraordinary arts and music scene.
Located in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and founded in 1946, St. Fagan’s is an open air museum modeled on the Skansen vernacular architecture museum in Sweden. Consisting of over 40 saved and reconstructed (and 2 recreated) buildings as well as museum galleries, craft and industry demonstrations, and native livestock breeds, St. Fagan’s spans every aspect of the history of Welsh folklife from the Iron Age through to present day. Get a teaser glimpse of what St. Fagan’s has to offer, and then book your next vacation to see the rest!
Emily Pierson-Brown
“My Month in Turkey: How I fell Back in Love with Architecture”
Emily is a practicing architect and planner with Perkins Eastman focusing on building diverse, equitable communities for seniors and others. She is one of the co-founding leaders of Women+ in Design PGH and champions DE&I through positive culture and relationship building.
After a somewhat lackluster experience getting her B.S. in Architecture and an aimless decade in practice, Emily had fallen out of love with architecture. She had forgotten why she wanted to go into this field in the first place. In this presentation, she will share about the month-long graduate school trip to Turkey that helped her find a new direction and embrace architecture once again.
Mike Schiller
“Why Getting Outside Makes the World a Better Place”
Mike has lived an eclectic career only to return to his roots. Growing up in the family-owned neighborhood grocery store where his dad built relationships with East End customers, Mike now owns a local boat-rental shop on Cape Cod where he builds relationships with visitors. In between, he spent a lot of time outside on six continents, started companies and nonprofits – like Venture Outdoors and Kayak Pittsburgh, ran the Green Building Alliance, worked as a guide on Mt. Rainier, volunteered as an EMT, teaches Wilderness Medicine as a NOLS instructor, and tried a bunch of things that didn’t work. In 2025 he will finally reach his seventh continent (Australia) to climb its highest peak.
You’ve likely heard someone else in your life say getting outside is good for you. Mike is here to tell you that it is good in many more ways than you ever thought, and that you should encourage as many people as possible to experience nature, fresh air, seawater, sunshine and starlight. Getting outside works its magic on many levels: it’s good for individuals; families, communities, the economy, and societies. In this talk he will be sharing stories about how this all works.
Doris Short
“Creating Cultural Impact Through Art and Design”
Doris Short credits her Scandinavian design heritage as the inspiration and influence for her success with branding global organizations. With more than 20 years of experience in the private, as well as the academic art sector specializing in strategic design and communication.
Doris is currently an Assistant Professor in art and graphic design at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
Arts and culture define and connect us, celebrate our diversity and unite us. A strong cultural foundation makes our communities resilient, sustainable and vibrant places to live and work. Windows of Slippery Rock University is a great example and provides an opportunity to connect a campus community by photography, paintings, drawings, digital art, and collages from SRU’s students, staff, faculty, friends, alumni, and the community. In this talk you will get inspired to get your community together and connect through art.
Michael Staresinic
“For the Love of Oak”
Michael Staresinic is a native Pittsburgher with 25 years living and working in Europe and Africa. As an Electrical and Computer Engineer from Penn State with a life-long broad exploration of the arts, Mike applies cross-disiplinary approaches to influence his professional work: leading large-scale organizational change, city transformations, and national political transitions in 45 countries. Mike’s Masters in Change Leadership from Oxford and HEC Paris has allowed him to help lead the Change Leaders Community of Practice at Oxford. He serves international organizations’ and community development boards. Mike boomeranged to Pittsburgh with his two sons in 2012.
Mike’s first memory at age 3 is of a giant oak behind his house causing him to love oak, trees, woodwork and wood sculpture over his life. This presentation will highlight significant points along that “For the Love of Oak” journey. The all-oak 1899 childhood home that is still in the family produced a lifelong exploration of oak and wood themes, leading to collecting African, European, and American wood sculptural arts from less-familiar corners many are unlikely to have been deeply exposed to. This theme connects fields of art, science, international affairs and learning not typically associated.