Join us on Thursday, May 5th, 6:30-8:30 pm, for a reception, lecture, and discussion with Peter Tolkin and Sarah Lorenzen, TOLO Architecture

In collaboration with the Helms Bakery District and the Cal Poly SLO LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design

HELMS DESIGN CENTER        
8745 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232

Free Parking is available at the corner of Helms Ave. and Venice Blvd.

Lecture is Free and Open to the Public

TOLO Architecture

Peter Tolkin + Sarah Lorenzen Architecture (working under the moniker TOLO) design projects that are meaningful to the people that use them, and that are reflective of the time and place in which they are built. We work out of a renovated warehouse at the nexus of the Arts District, Little Tokyo and Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. First founded by Peter Tolkin in 2000, our studio has designed and built projects of various types and scales, including creative workspaces, single and multi-family housing, mixed-use and retail, restaurants and hotels, and arts-based projects. TOLO’s designs draw from the rich material and cultural conditions that characterize the world we live in. Rather than conceiving our architectural role as primarily inventors of form, we also see our role as one that interprets and shapes relationships and situations.

Peter Tolkin, AIA is managing principal of TOLO Architecture. Peter founded the practice, previously called Peter Tolkin Architecture, in 2002 and since then has led the design of dozens of residential, commercial, cultural and arts-related projects. At TOLO, Peter advocates for the social and cultural agency of architecture, an approach informed by his prior work as a documentary photographer and his studies with American artists Allan Sekula and Lewis Baltz. Peter first rose to prominence in 2002 when Architectural Record named him one of its ten emerging international “Design Vanguard” architects. Peter received a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Art History from UC Santa Cruz, a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.

Sarah Lorenzen, AIA is principal at TOLO Architecture and an architecture professor at Cal Poly Pomona (where she was department chair from 2012-2016). Sarah has practiced architecture for more than 20 years, working on a variety of building types including educational, residential, institutional, and arts-related projects. Prior to TOLO Architecture, Sarah worked as a project architect at a number of award-winning firms in Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Drawing at Smith College and at the Atlanta College of Art, and has two Master of Architecture degrees, the first from Georgia Institute of Technology and the second from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc). Sarah has published and edited articles on architecture and urbanism, and has received multiple design awards and grants including several Graham Foundation grants, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a travel fellowship to China.

Photos (Left to Right): Image of Peter Tolkin, Image of Night Gallery, 2022, Image of Sarah Lorenzen.

Introduced and moderated by Stephen Phillips, FAIA, PhD, Principal of Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS) and professor, director, Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) and Jimenez Lai, Principal of Bureau Spectacular and faculty, Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)