People
Faculty Fellows
SERGIO PALLERONI, Director
Professor Sergio Palleroni is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University, and a founding member and faculty of the federally funded Green Building Research Lab. Professor Palleroni’s research and fieldwork for the last two decades has been in the methods of integrating sustainable practices to improve the lives of communities worldwide typically underserved. In 1988, to serve the needs of these communities he founded an academic outreach program that would later become the BASIC Initiative (www.basicinitiative.org), a service-learning fieldwork program. Today, the BASIC Initiative continues to serve the poor in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the U.S. In addition, Professor Palleroni has worked and been a consultant on sustainable architecture and development in the developing world since the 1980s, both for not-for-profit agencies and governmental and international agencies such as UNESCO, World Bank, and the governments of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua and Taiwan. Palleroni holds a Master of Science in Architectural Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon.
TODD FERRY, Associate Director
Todd is Associate Director and Senior Research Associate at the CPID. Before earning a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Todd worked for over a decade in the nonprofit field. His current work investigates how social needs can be addressed by architecture in underserved communities and seeks to develop new tools and models of engagement to aid in this effort. Recent projects at the CPID include the design of a sustainable community center in Inner Mongolia, China; a collaboration with the Portland Opera to create a mobile opera stage to bring the arts to more communities; and the POD Initiative to provide new visions for addressing houselessness in Portland using a participatory design and construction process. Todd is a registered architect, a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, Director of the Architecture Summer Immersion Program at the PSU School of Architecture, coordinator of PSU’s Graduate Certificate in Public Interest Design, and Co-Founder of PSU’s Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative.
MARGARETTE LEITE
Margarette Leite is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Portland State University and teaches architectural design and building tectonics. Her work has garnered awards for civic engagement and have been the subjects of numerous publications and documentaries. She has been a featured speaker at various forums nationally on public interest design. These initiatives with students includes projects with local school districts for the design of sustainable learning spaces as well as a current statewide initiative to build and distribute a greener, affordable modular classroom across Oregon and the nation. The SAGE Classroom was awarded an international SEED award in 2013 and serves as a model for how the profession can engage communities in solving critical social issues. Her tectonics classes focus on the responsible use of sustainable and reusable materials as well as the promotion of hands-on making as a life-long habit for students of architecture. She is also a partner in PLDP Architecture, a firm that designs and promotes sustainable buildings and communities with particular emphasis on disaster relief.
TRAVIS BELL
Travis Bell is is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at Portland State University. He received a Bachelor of Science in Philosophy from PSU and Master of Architecture from the University of Washington. Travis’s primary interest lies in making architecture that is in closer alignment with the natural patterns of our environment. This primary interest grounds a research, teaching and design agenda focused on appropriate material choice, the prioritization of authentic craftsmanship, passive systems design, adapted historical technologies, Critical Regionalism and temporary architectural solutions. Recent projects at the CPID include the design of a community-based material recovery and recycling center. He also leads the annual design and construction of a stage for the Pickathon music festival with students focusing on sustainable material investigations, which won the 2015 AIA Portland Jury Award.
ANNA GOODMAN
Dr. Anna Goodman is Assistant Professor of Practice in the PSU School of Architecture. She has focused her work on the politics of architectural practice and the role of making and craft in defining the borders of professional identity. Her most recent project examines the concept of the citizen architect and the ways in which architectural educators have influenced the development of the profession through the instigation of humanitarian design-build projects in the twentieth century. She has published articles and reviews in publications including DIALECTIC, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Planning Perspectives, and others. She received her doctorate in Architecture with an emphasis on Global Metropolitan Studies, from University of California, Berkeley, in 2015. She also holds a Master of Science in Architecture from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University.
ANDREW SANTA LUCIA
Andrew Santa Lucia is Assistant Professor of Practice in the PSU School of Architecture. He was previously faculty with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he most recently taught courses in architecture, interior architecture, and designed objects. His research examines the ways in which the architectural discipline mediates culture, connecting design, pedagogy, and criticism through the creation of plastic propositions for lifestyle, with the aim of challenging the way we perceive architecture. He runs the architecture collaborative Office Andorus, which, as part of the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, designed No Place like House, a two-room installation of ritual and performance altars inside Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House at the Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois. Office Andorus also provides design services to community activists with the goal of influencing public policy through the architectural discipline. Santa Lucia has published articles in publications such as Ampersand, Architect’s Newspaper, Artlurker, and eVolo.
BARBARA SESTAK, FAIA
Barbara Sestak is a licensed architect and worked in architectural offices in Seattle and Portland from 1975 until joining Portland State University as the only full-time faculty member in architecture in Fall 1982. Barbara recently served as Dean of the College of the Arts at PSU, where one of her many accomplishments included securing an endowment for the Center for Public Interest Design. Barbara’s research and service centers around the integration of the profession and academia. She has been president of AIA/Portland and a delegate to the Architectural Council of Oregon. She served, by appointment of the governor, for 12 years on the Oregon Board of Architect Examiners. She currently served as the President of the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB). Her teaching encompasses design studio, structures, building technology, environmental design and leadership.Barbara’s research interests with the CPID cover a range of topics, including health and wellness as it relates to the built environment.
Fellows of Practice
SCOTT MOONEY
Scott is a Registered Architect, LEED-accredited professional, and Associate at SRG Partnership. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies: Architecture and Urban Design from Stanford University in 2001, and has been practicing in Portland since earning his Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon in 2005. His primary focus in practice has been to design enduring environmentally and socially responsible architecture for a variety of public and higher education institutions and clients. Scott has also provided pro-bono architectural services for Central City Concern, and was selected through the Cascadia Emerging Green Builders Competition to design Oregon Habitat for Humanity’s first LEED Platinum Homes. He has taught design studio at the PSU School of Architecture and the University of Oregon School of Architecture. Scott has recently collaborated with the CPID on efforts to design new housing solutions to homelessness.
JULIA MOLLNER
Julia is a designer at Carleton Hart Architecture and holds a Master of Architecture, Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Certificate in Public Interest Design. She is active in the local community and is currently involved in AIA Portland Emerging Professionals, ForWARD (Women in Architecture and Related Disciplines), and AIA Portland Board of Directors 2017-2018. This work is focused on mentorship, building collective knowledge, diversity, and equity in the profession, as are her efforts organizing events like the Portland Equity by Design symposium. She earned the Alpha Rho Chi Leadership Service Merit and Henry Adams Certificate of Merit in 2015, and was one of Portland's DJC 2016 "Women of Vision" honorees. Julia is an Adjunct Professor at PSU's School of Architecture and a former CPID Student Fellow.
Team
HANNAH LOPEZ
Hannah Lopez is a recent graduate from the Master's program in the Anthropology Department and graduate certificate program in Public Interest Design. Her unique educational training combines ethnographic and qualitative research methods to the field of design and design research. Prior to joining the CPID, Hannah worked in advertising, before pursuing her interests in a post-graduate education. Her current role at the CPID is on the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) team, where she works to employ an ABCD process to the design, development, and programming of affordable housing along the West Coast. She is a firm believer that Anthropology should play a more prominent role in the field of design, helping to push for a more empathetic, and people-centric approach to the design process.
SEAN SILVERSTEIN
Sean Silverstein is a Master of Architecture student and Student Fellow of the Center for Public Interest Design program. He brings with him an educational background in Environmental Sciences from the University of Oregon and several years of experience in healthcare recruiting to engage with people and place. His current role at the CPID is on the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) team, where he works to employ an ABCD process to the design, development, and programming of affordable housing along the West Coast. He applies his graphical communication skills toward asset mapping, diagramming, and community engagement opportunities to provide a visual tool for the benefit of the many stakeholders of affordable housing communities.
Past CPID Fellows
BD Wortham-Galvin, Founding Faculty Fellow (2013-2017)
Pedro Pacheco, Visiting Faculty Fellow (2016-2017)
Alex Salazar, Fellow of Practice (2016-2017)
Dylan Morgan, Fellow of Practice (2016-2017)