This series of dialogues about design joins an architect with a critic, journalist, curator, or architectural historian to discuss current architecture design issues. Friday night is not “Friday Night” without the appropriate beverage. We’ll provide a custom-crafted cocktail—one inspired by the architect’s work and created especially for this event.

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien founded their eponymous New York architecture office in 1986. Their studio is committed to contributing and inspiring their surrounding communities, focusing on projects such as schools, museums, and not-for-profits. Notable projects include The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center. In 2016, they were selected as the architects for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Over the past three decades, their work has received numerous national and international citations, including the National Medal of the Arts from President Obama and the Firm of the Year Award from the American Institute of Architects. They are deeply committed to making a better world through architecture.

Karen Stein is an architectural advisor and Executive Director of the George Nelson Foundation. Previously, she was Editorial Director of Phaidon Press and, prior to that, Senior Managing Editor of Architectural Record. She has been a member of the faculty of the Design Criticism program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is the author of Aldo Rossi Architecture 1981-1991 (Princeton Architectural Press), a contributor to The Writings of Donald Judd (Chinati Foundation), and 30 Years of Emerging Voices: Idea, Form, Resonance (Princeton Architectural Press). Her writing has also been featured in a variety of publications including: Architectural Record, New York Magazine, a+u, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, and The World of Interiors. A graduate of Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, she was awarded a Loeb Fellowship in Environmental Studies by Harvard University. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors of The Architectural League of New York and The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Stein also served on the jury of The Pritzker Architecture Prize from 2003 through 2012.