Richard Parker, AIA, LEED
Principal, 450 Architects

Richard has more than thirty years of experience providing comprehensive architectural design services. As principal and co-founder of 450 architects, Richard has been responsible for design and project management on a diverse range of projects and has extensive experience leading neighborhood community design workshops. Richard advocates for changes to state and local building codes to facilitate green building, social and environmental justice, and received the SAFE-BIDCO 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Certificate of Recognition from the California State Assembly. He volunteers his time with non-profit groups including Education Outside (formerly the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance), San Francisco Urban Agriculture Association, the Youth Leadership Project for a Sustainable Future, The Local Investment in Child Care Project, and has mentored youth through the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco. Currently, he serves on the Advisory Board of Directors for the California Academy of Science’s Teacher Institute for Science and Sustainability (TISS) and the International Schoolyard Alliance. Richard has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and is a licensed architect in California.

Henry Gao, Gao Design

Henry is a San Francisco-based architectural designer, illustrator, artist, and photographer. He take every bit of inspiration from his childhood into his everyday work. He doesn’t just design spaces – he tell stories through them. He started sketching when he was 6 years old. When his parents saw that he could do more than stick figures, they began taking him out to architectural significant sites in China. He'd spend half and full days just sitting out there with his big sketchbook. He'd be mesmerized by their proportion, symmetry, and details, and most importantly, how he felt every time he looked up. Whether he's designing a project for a client or filming educational videos for the architectural community, there is nothing else that feels more like home for Henry.

Douglas Wittnebel, AIA IIDA LEED AP BD+C

As a practicing architect, one of my prime means of communication is with on demand sketching and design drawing. With the immediacy of the sketch and the drawing comes the slow increase of delight as the sketch is created, line by line, dash and dot, hatch and scribble. This feeling of delight comes from the sensation of the mind and hand working together in tandem, and can be described as a feeling of “in the flow” calm at times and of frenzied energy at other times. The action of drawing on paper, on a wall, or on a digital tablet are all a part of the creative process of the engagement of the hand and the mind in a very cool flow of energy from within to without and on to the receptive surface. Doug is always prepared to investigate ideas and problems through many varieties of drawing and painting techniques, and at the ready to encourage the guesses and the attempts that will allow me to see all of the other possibilities that lie within a scenario or a problem. When you draw, your sensibilities awaken to the other layers and the understanding of the problem gets denser and richer and links to other real and imagined realms.