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Informal Formalism - Toguchi Lecture

Barbara Bestor is the principal and founder of Bestor Architecture. Barbara’s award-winning studio is recognized for experimental architecture that engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life by creating “strange beauty” that enhances everyday life experience.

The studio's work reinterprets modernism for contemporary living and cultural activities. Projects include: Ashes & Diamonds Winery in Napa, LACMA’s Scandinavian Design and the US exhibit, Summaeverythang Community Center, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, Nike's LA Headquarters, the restoration of Lautner, Schindler, and other iconic modern masterpieces, and new buildings at the historic Sunnylands compound in Rancho Mirage.

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealth density” Blackbirds housing, innovative new single family residential design, retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces, and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

See more of her work at bestorarchitecture.com.