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Architect Selection Advisory Panel for Central Library Biographies
Return to Oversight and Citizen Review
Tom Alberg is principal, Madrona Investment Group.
Dennis A. Andersen is pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in the Green Lake neighborhood and is a resident of Queen Anne Hill. He has lived in Seattle since 1973. Following graduate studies in Germanic languages and literature at the University of Washington, he worked for seven years in charge of photographs and architectural drawings in the Special Collections Division of the University of Washington Libraries. His strong interests in historic preservation and architectural history have been expressed through his six-year service on the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, including two years as chairman and his essay and editorial contributions to Shaping Seattle Architecture (University of Washington Press, 1994). A frequent writer and lecturer on regional architectural and photographic history, he serves on the Board of Governors of the Book Club of Washington, as well as the Pacific Northwest Lutheran Historical Society. He was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of the Friends of the Public Library.
Ross C. Baker is senior external affairs manager/land use policy counsel for AT&T Wireless Services (formerly McCaw Cellular Communications/Cellular One) Washington state operations. His duties include directing Washington local government relations and state wireless government relations, directing land use, growth management and zoning policy, directing wireless siting policies and participating in overall wireless policy development on telecommunication issues. He also serves as a national resource for the company on these issues. Prior to working for AT&T, he practiced law for the Seattle law firm of Roberts & Shefelman and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also served as a policy analyst for the Seattle City Council. He currently serves as president of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Alliance of Black Telecommunications Employees, vice president of the Northwest Literacy Foundation and is a board member of the Association of Washington Business and of Epiphany School in Seattle. He is also a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee for Seattle's new Major League baseball stadium.
Phil Jacobson teaches in the University of Washington Department of Architecture. He worked at TRA from 1955 to 1991, where he was a partner and design director. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He has a bachelor's degree in architecture from Washington State University, studied urban planning at University of Liverpool, England on a Fulbright Scholarship and received a master's of architecture degree from the Finnish Institute of Technology on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Nora Jaso is principal of Studio Jaso, which designs houses, multifamily dwellings, workplaces, stores and markets and community places. Jaso has practiced architecture in the Puget Sound region since 1982, and is experienced in design and management of municipal, public and community projects. Studio Jaso designed the Phinney/Greenwood Neighborhood Kiosks, the Golden Gardens Tenn Center, the Queen Anne Thriftway, the Admiral Thriftway in West Seattle Issaquah Court, Northlake Grove Cooperative (Seattle Times/AIA Home of the Month for December 1997 and the Las Brisas del Mar Apartments (Daily Journal of Commerce Project of the Month, 1994, Seattle Times/AIA Home of the Month, June 1994). Jaso is currently on the Affordable Housing Action Task Force, AIA Seattle Chapter and was a panelist for Design Innovations for the 1998 Statewide Housing Conference. She served as a design review committee member for the Pike Place Market Historical Commission from 1992-1996.
Janet Wright Ketcham is an art collector, and serves on the executive of the Seattle Art Museum Board and is vice president of the board. She is also a member of the advisory committee for the Museum of Smith Collegeand is a past member of the Vancouver Art Gallery Museum and Building Committee. Ketcham has a deep appreciation for art and architecture, having attended the openings of Biloa and Getty. She grew up in the construction business, with her father, Howard H. Wright, responsible for the Howard S. Wright Construction Co. and brother, Howard S. Wright, founder of the Wright Runstad development company.
Paul Maritz is group vice president of Platforms and Applications for Microsoft Corp. As group vice president, Maritz oversees the groups contributing to the development and marketing of Windows family of operating systems, productivity software, development tools, database, messaging, workgroup and communications server products. The groups are: Personal & Business Systems Group (Windows client and server, distributed applications and database technology), Applications and Tools Group (Office Suite and other desktop applications, BackOffice suite and key server applications and Development Tools), and the Consumer Platforms Division (Windows CE and related products and WebTV). Maritz is also a member of Microsoft's Executive Committee. The group shares responsibility with Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief executive officer, for broad strategic and business planning for the entire company.
Clint Pehrson, AIA, is principal with Clint Pehrson Architects. The firm, established in 1988, specialists in the design of community libraries, art facilities and custom homes. He has received local, regional and national awards. Pehrson is an active participant in the Seattle arts community and recently concluded his second term as president of Allied Arts of Seattle. Allied Arts promotes historic preservation, art in public places and quality design and planning. He is currently on the board of Seattle's Town Hall, a community cultural center located in a distinctive historic building downtown.
Jon Runstad is co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Wright Runstad & Co. since 1971. He is currently a trustee for Equity Office Properties Trust, a member of the Washington Roundtable, trustee of the Downtown Seattle Association and director of the Seattle Symphony.
Norie Sato is an artist who has lived in Seattle since 1972, with experience in both the execution of public art projects, from individual to collaborative team projects, and in the planning of larger public art projects and art plans. Her experience with public art began in 1975 when she joined the Seattle Arts Commission, where she was chair of the Art in Public Places Committee. She has done commissioned public artwork in Seattle, Vancouver, Dallas, Miami, Portland, Madison and Spokane. Her works involve a variety of difference media, including terrazzo, glass, metal, concrete and video, and both interior and exterior works. Her planning oriented projects include a Public Art Plan for Seattle Center, an integrated schematic design plan for the Alki-Duwamish Corridor in West Seattle, an art program for the Central Park Trail in Seattle's Central Area an a master plan for interpretive historic markers in Bellevue.
Linda Saunto has been an employee of Seattle Public Library for more than 25 years. She has worked in several Central Library departments, as well as Mobile Services and the Governmental Research Library in the Municipal Building. She currently works in the Business and Technology Department and is responsible for the cookery, gardening, and nutrition collections. She has been a longtime Library Employees Union activist, serving in various roles including president and most recently executive vice president.
(Alternate) Matthew Stadler is a Seattle native and author of four novels. Including "Landscape: Memory," "The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee," "The Sex Offender," and "Allan Stein." He has free-lanced for The Seattle Times, the New York Times, Spin Magazine, Frieze Magazine and The Stranger, where he is currently senior writer. He writes frequently about architecture for Nest Magazine, Frieze, and Wiederhall, a Dutch architecture journal that also sponsored two international conferences in Holland, where he presented his work about books, buildings and urban design. One of the talks explored Seattle's urban design on cultural productivity in the Seattle.
Richard Sundberg, FAIA, is a principal at Olson Sundberg Architects, Inc. His interests include the study of urban settings and the mystery of what makes cities work. He has been a member of the Seattle Design Commission for the past two years and currently serves as the chair. His firm, based in Seattle, is nationally acclaimed for its development of buildings that connect architecture and culture; for museums dedicated to art, music and cultural and natural history; for the creation of residences and urban villas for private art collectors nationwide; and for educational and religious buildings. James Olson and Richard Sundberg, both FAIA and Tom Kundig and Scott Allen lead the firm, which totals about 40.
Val Thomas, chairman of the Planning Commission, is principal of Val Thomas Inc., a development company specializing in high quality mixed-use and residential projects and consulting for real estate clients and public agencies. The firm is currently completing three projects. Pike Lofts, a 57-unit condominium project with ground level commercial; Madison Crossing, housing a natural foods grocery store plus 24 apartments; and Mondrian, a 20-unit condominium plus commercial on the Downtown Park in Bellevue. Val Thomas Inc. recently headed the team developing the new headquarters building for the Fremont Public Association on North 45th Street. Thomas is also a partner in the Broadway Market, which he developed. The project received an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. He was also responsible for the 1984 conversion of West Queen Anne School, a nationally certified historic rehabilitation of an 1895 school building into 49 condominium units. The project was exhibited at the White House as part of an award for excellence to the historic rehabilitation program by the National Endowment for the Arts. Thomas is a consulting partner for Cardwell/Thomas & Associates, Inc., where he worked on formulating the long-term plan for the completion of St. Marks Cathedral in Seattle. Thomas has resided in Seattle since 1974 when he came to assume the position as development manager for the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority. He currently serves on the University of Washington Professionals Council for the School of Urban Planning and is active on the Housing Committee of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
Professional advisors to the panel: Gordon Walker (gwalker@walkerarch.com) and Dan Dingfield (dingfield@msn.com).
Content modified: 24 May 1999
12/30/2005
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