“Edges of Practice”

Thom Stauffer - Professor at Kent State University and Principal of ITO + Stauffer Architects

Mika Ito - Principal of ITO + Stauffer Architects and Adjunct Faculty at Kent State University

Christopher Leong - Principal of Leong Leong

itostauffer architects partnership was formalized in 2012 in Kent Ohio as a highly productive and collaborative design studio and urban planning workshop. Each project is undertaken as an original investigation informed by programmatic requirements, client intentions, and the specific conditions of site context and community. The configuration/reconfiguration of architecture is a complex association of restoration, renovation/addition, new construction and interior design. Ideas are rigorously investigated and presented as mapping, diagramming, sketching, modeling digital/analog maquettes from concept to real/life size, and on-site concurrent design decision making.

Christopher Leong is a founding partner of Leong Leong. He is currently a visiting lecturer at MIT School of Architecture and Planning and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he teaches Advanced Design Studio. As partner at Leong Leong, he has overseen the direction of multiple mixed-use projects including the Anita May Rosenstein Campus of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the AAFE Center for Community and Entrepreneurship, and the City View Garage. He is currently on the board of Triple Canopy, a publication that encompasses digital works of art and literature, public conversations, exhibitions, and books. He received his Master of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Berkeley.