See Los Angeles through the eyes of our city’s most talented architects and interior designers and discover the influences that have shaped this vast cityscape.
ALOUD and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles are proud to celebrate the Centennial anniversary of our Central Library with an all-star panel discussion featuring Barbara Bestor, Leo Marmol, and Pamela Shamshiri, moderated by Frances Anderton.
Over the last hundred years, Los Angeles has transformed from a sleepy coastal town to a landscape of architectural experimentation. Since the 1920s, LA has built itself up as the home to contrasting movements: From Spanish Colonial Revival to filigree and wrought iron, Modernism like Schindler and Neutra to bold Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern’s elegance in the Stahl and Eames houses to big, bold statement architecture like Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and Moneo’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
It is through — not despite — these contrasting influences that Los Angeles builds its civic character. Join us as we journey through the sum of LA’s architectural legacy and its parts over the last 100 years of design innovation.
Featured Speakers and Moderator:
Barbara Bestor
Barbara Bestor, FAIA is the founder and principal of Bestor Architecture, an Los Angeles–based studio recognized for experimental architecture that engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Her practice reinterprets modernism for contemporary living and cultural life, guided by a belief in “strange beauty” as a way to enrich everyday experience. Bestor’s work spans a wide range of typologies, from cultural institutions and workspaces to housing and interiors, and includes Ashes & Diamonds Winery in Napa, the ICA Los Angeles, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, the IKAR Center for Jewish Life, and Nike’s LA Headquarters. The studio is also known for the sensitive restoration of iconic modernist works by John Lautner, Rudolph Schindler, and others. Bestor is a four-time AD100 honoree and the author of Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake.
Leo Marmol
Leo Marmol, FAIA, is the co-founder of the architect-led design-build practice Marmol Radziner, established in 1989 with Ron Radziner, FAIA. Based in Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco and New York, the firm is known for its design-build approach that includes architecture, construction, landscape architecture, interior design, and fabrication.
Marmol Radziner’s unique business practice and commitment to design excellence were rewarded with the honor of being named the American Institute of Architects California Council’s Firm of the Year. Marmol Radziner’s residential projects have received numerous AIA California Design Awards, AIA LA Residential Architecture Awards, and American Society of Landscape Architect Awards. Marmol Radziner was inducted into Interior Design Magazine’s Hall of Fame and the firm has been listed on Architectural Digest’s AD100 for eleven separate years.
Pamela Shamshiri
Born in Tehran, Pamela Shamshiri, moved to Los Angeles at age nine, following the Iranian Revolution. She grew up immersed in design, playing in her father’s furniture showroom and absorbing the power of storytelling through space. Pamela studied art history and architecture at Smith College, followed by a master’s in production design at NYU. After co-founding the acclaimed firm Commune in 2004, where she helped earn a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, she co-founded Studio Shamshiri in 2016. Based in a historic Hollywood building, Studio Shamshiri has earned a reputation for its holistic approach, merging architecture and interiors into deeply layered, narrative-driven spaces. The studio has been featured in Architectural Digest, Vogue Living, T Magazine, The World of Interiors, and consistently appears on global AD100 lists.
Frances Anderton
Frances Anderton covers Los Angeles design and architecture in print, broadcast media and public events. She is the author of Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles. Anderton was longtime host of DnA: Design and Architecture, aired on KCRW public radio station, and producer of KCRW’s current affairs shows Which Way, LA? and To The Point. She currently contributes on-air reports and writes a regular DnA newsletter for KCRW. She co-created The Angeleno Porch: Six Social Spaces Shaping L.A.’s Affordable Housing, an exhibit for the US Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. She teaches at USC School of Architecture.
