About the Finalist Judging Panel
Frances Anderton
Frances Anderton covers Los Angeles design and architecture in print, broadcast media and public events. She is the author of the book Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles, published in 2022 by Angel City Press. Also in 2022, she co-produced 40 Years of Building Community, a short film about the influential affordable housing developer Community Corp of Santa Monica; and she co-organized Art for Earth’s Sake, a series at MOCA about the art world and its environmental footprint. She co-produced Low Rise, Mid Rise, High Rise: Housing in L.A. Today, a pop-up exhibition displayed at Helms Design Center in spring 2021. For many years Anderton hosted KCRW’s DnA: Design and Architecture radio show, and produced Warren Olney’s current affairs shows Which Way, LA? And To The Point. She continues to contribute reports to KCRW, for shows including Greater LA. Honors include the Esther McCoy Award, from the Architectural Guild of USC School of Architecture, for her work educating the public about architecture and urbanism.
Michael Eliason
Michael Eliason is the founder of Larch Lab - part architecture and urbanism studio, part 'think and do' tank - focusing on research and policy; decarbonized, climate-adaptive, low-energy urban buildings; and sustainable urbanism. Michael is also a writer, and an award-winning architect specializing in mass timber, social housing, baugruppen (urban cohousing), and ecodistricts. His career has been dedicated to advancing innovation and broadening the discourse on sustainable development, passivhaus, non-market housing, and decarbonized construction. His professional experience includes work in both the Pacific Northwest, and Germany.
Sofie Kvist
Sofie Kvist is trained in Urban Design at Aarhus School of Architecture, in Denmark. With 16 years of experience working across the globe, from Scandinavia and Europe to Asia, Australia, and the Americas, she bridges her passion for people-centered design across all scales, from public realm strategies to urban transformation and public space design. Prototyping and engagement are central pillars in all her projects, and Ms. Kvist strongly believes that without people and process, there is no project. User-oriented design at all scales starts with understanding what people need, want and care about. Currently Ms. Kvist is the consultant associate project lead for The Future of Stephen Avenue in Calgary, Redevelopment of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Castro Street in Mountain View, and Downtown Virginia Street Placemaking in Reno, among other projects. Ms. Kvist is from Copenhagen, but currently lives in San Francisco where she works for Gehl Studio Inc.
Ivory Rose Parnell-Chambeshi
Ivory Rose Parnell-Chambeshi is a South Central L.A. native and justice-focused urban planner. She currently serves as Director of Neighborhood Initiatives for Watts Rising, a place-based, community-driven sustainable community development collaborative which is implementing multimillion dollar California Transformative Climate Communities and U.S. HUD Choice Neighborhood Implementation grants, in concert with the $1B+ Jordan Downs public housing community redevelopment. Ivory has a passion for cultivating environments of choice, rootedness, and opportunity for children like her two daughters whom she and her husband are blessed to steward. When not facilitating a community design session or writing myriad reports, she enjoys hiking, HIIT training, and checking out way too many books (and reading some) from the L.A. Public Library.