Episode 13
Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter is an architect, educator and community leader advocating for architecture to advance environmental and social justice. She currently serves as President of Architecture for Communities Los Angeles (ACLA), a non-profit organization launched by AIA LA to focus on education and community outreach. She also serves as Chair of the Education Committee for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), and is Professor in the Architecture Department at East Los Angeles College, California’s largest community college.
In partnership with Roland Wahlroos-Ritter, her architectural practice, W-ROAD, navigates transdisciplinary territory in the diverse type and scale of projects, and she has collaborated on multiple award-winning projects as architect and façade consultant. One of their latest projects is the renovation of the Los Angeles Mission, at 156,000 sf, one of the nation’s largest service providers of the unhoused.
Ingalill has forged educational pathways and launched programs that support her vision of education for all. She served as Dean of Woodbury School of Architecture from 2016-2021, and has taught at Yale, Cornell, the Bartlett (UCL), and SCI-Arc. As founder and Director of WUHO, the Woodbury University Hollywood gallery, she produced over 100 exhibitions celebrating social justice-focused design. She was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2018, received the 2018 AIA|LA Presidential Educator of the Year Award, the 2016 AIA California Council Educator Award, and was recognized by DesignIntelligence as one of the nation’s Most Admired Educators in Architecture and Design in 2018 and 2019.
Show notes and Ingalill’s Five Places:
1.10,000ft above LA (preferably in a small aircraft, but also in a commercial plane)
2. Grand Park, designed by Deborah Sussman / SussmanPrejza
3. Angel City Football Club games at Gensler-designed BMO stadium, and the walk from Metro, through Exposition Park with the Rose Garden, the CAAM, the upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Coliseum.
4. The back yard, in general, Ingalill’s family’s back yard in particular, and the view from her deck which includes the DWP Building, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles City Hall, and Dodger Stadium.
5. Community colleges in general, ELAC in particular, whose campus includes the Vincent Price Art Museum by Arquitectonica, EYRC student center building. HGA, house & Robertson. Los Angeles Mission renovation by W-ROAD.Downtown Library Art (Docent Tours).
Honorable Mentions: The Downtown Public Library, The Whiskey a Gogo, Busch gardens, Hollywood Blvd.
Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? Ingalill’s students, and also: Barbara Bestor, Doris Sung, Carmen Suero, Demar Matthews.
Interview Date: 08-08-23
Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:
Lawrence Weschler, “L.A. Glows,” The New Yorker, February 15, 1998.
Rebecca Ellis, Julia Wick, “Downtown L.A.’s Grand Park to be renamed in honor of longtime Supervisor Gloria Molina,” The Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2023.
Alissa Walker, “The Designer Who Helped Give LA its Look,” The New York Times’ T Magazine, December 17, 2013
Christopher Hawthorne, “Deborah Sussman Loves L.A. (and She Always Has),” Metropolis, March 12, 2014.
Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, “DEBORAH SUSSMAN (1931–2014),” ARTFORUM, October 15, 2014
Oliver Wainwright, “More is More: The Gaudy Genius of the Late Deborah Sussman,” The Guardian, August 27, 2014.
Diana Budds, “The Woman Who Made The 1984 Olympics A Masterpiece Of Design,” Fast Company, May 18, 2016.
The Los Angeles Olympics project overview, Sussman Prejza.
Emma Kemp, “Meet Angel City FC, the women’s team owned by Natalie Portman and a host of stars,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 5, 2023.
HBO special on Angel City Football https://www.hbo.com/angel-city
Jen Carlson, “Photos: The Charming Mid-Century Dingbats Of Los Angeles,” LAist, Sep 7, 2015.
Anderton, Frances. Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles, Angel City Press, October 18, 2022.
M. Nolan Gray, “The UCLA Students Who Live in Their Cars,” The Atlantic, August 3, 2023.
Liam Dillon, “‘Gimme Shelter’: California’s housing crisis forces college students into homelessness,” The Los Angeles Times, Nov 17, 2022.
Janna Ireland’s Regarding Paul R. Williams
Visual Intelligence by Amy Sherman, with a Deborah Sussman graphic design on the cover
Credits:
Ingalill’s headshot photo: Monica Nouwens (graphic treatment by Anali Gharakhani)
Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)
Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)
Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com
Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design
Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Quynh Nguyen
Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier
This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.
© 2022 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES