We are entering what some have called the “Post-pandemic Era,” and the question asked is how we will live change. The pandemic has not necessarily uncovered new problems, but rather has brought a new sense of urgency to the problems we have not yet resolved: social justice, economic disparity, healthy communities, and climate change. All of these are connected, and affected by the built environment. Design matters!

We have asked two design professionals involved in the building of our communities, Megan Groth and Frank Wolden, to speak to these issues from their generational perspectives. And, to speak to the role of the design professional resolving these issues. Mike Stepner will moderate.

Megan Groth is a designer, urbanist, and educator, with a master’s of architecture from the University of Washington and a master’s of sociology, in city design, from the London School of Economics. She is the practice coordinator at Woodbury University School of Architecture at the San Diego campus in Barrio Logan.

Prior to coming to Woodbury in 2019, Megan taught at Oxford Brookes University in the UK and worked at the London School of Economics Cities International Research Center, where she managed and co-edited the book Shaping Cities in an Urban Age (Phaidon, 2018). While at the University of Washington, Megan studied in Australia with Glenn Murcutt and received a Valle Scholarship to attend the Wood Program at Aalto University in Finland. Upon graduation from UW, Megan practiced architecture and urban design in Seattle where she was a member of the Seattle Design Commission. Megan’s recent research deals with proposed changes in the architectural profession to better address the current climate crisis and social inequities.

Frank Wolden recently formed a new studio, Wolden Design, where he has forged collaborative relationships with a number of high-profile design firms. His transdisciplinary design process, referred to as “city design,” seeks to break down the barriers between architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning, in favor of an integrated approach.

He was a member of an elite design team at the Jerde Partnership in Los Angeles, as project architect for Horton Plaza shopping center. He founded City Design and merged with Carrier Johnson + Culture, where he served as design principal for 16 years. For the past eight years, Frank led Skyport Studio where he joined forces with AVRP in 2015, becoming AVRPSKYPORT. He is an adjunct professor at NewSchool of Architecture & Design, and has held positions at the University of Europa de Madrid, University of Michigan, and Bjarke Ingels Group.