From Southern California to the Puget Sound, the American West Coast is home to some of the nation’s leading architects, engineers, and designers. The impact of their work is not only felt across the country, but throughout the four corners of the world. On December 3, the online Facades+: Enclosure Innovations on the West Coast conference, co-chaired by Olson Kundig principals Alan Maskin and Blair Payson, will highlight work in both the region and afar.

The symposium will kick off with an hour-long keynote address by MAD Architects principal partner Dang Qun and will be followed by three separate hour-long panels. The first, “Capturing Movement: Challenges and Solutions to Kinetic Design,” will highlight two significant projects: Olson Kunding principal Blair Payson and Fives Lund senior project engineer Wade Morris will co-present their renovation of the iconic Seattle Space Needle, and SHoP Architects associate principal Shannon Han and Heintges senior principal Karen Brandt will dive into Uber HQ’s expansive operable facade in San Francisco.

Tom Wiscombe Architecture founding principal Tom Wiscombe and LMN Architects associate Mark Nicol, and Olson Kundig principal Jamie Slagel as moderator, will join the second panel of the day “Research & Development: In-House Teams Driving Innovation.” Advances in facade design, especially in the realm of digital design and advanced fabrication, are fundamentally changing how architects work. Notably, firms across the country are increasingly relying on in-house teams to develop custom software and play an integral role in the design-assist of facade components. Both panelists will present their firm methodologies and their impact on recent case studies.

The last panel of the day, “ReSkinning an Icon: A Deep Dive into the Portland Building’s Renovation,” will be a deep dive into the project’s retrofit, and includes perspectives from DLR Group senior associate Erica Ceder, KPFF Consulting Engineers associate Ian Eikananas, Benson Industries vice president Jeff Heymann, and Facade Forensics president Michael Lewis.

The afternoon of the Facades+ conference is tied to AN’s CE Strong education series and will consist of four hour-long crash courses led by manufacturers. Notably, the conference will include a second-day of hands-on workshops, including “Embodied Carbon in Facades Think Tank,” led by Studio NYL; “Glass and Glazing Failures: And How to Present Them,” led by RDH Building Science; and “Research & Development: In-House Teams Driving Innovation.”

Further information regarding the days’ panels and workshops can be found here.