September 6, 2023
APDesign opens fall 2023 Ekdahl Lecture Series with Gensler's global director of workplace research
The College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, will open its fall 2023 Ekdahl Lecture Series with Janet Pogue McLaurin, Gensler's global director workplace research. Pogue McLaurin will present “Designing for the Human Experience" at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, in Regnier Forum, 1117 Regnier Hall, on the K-State Manhattan campus. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Janet Pogue McLaurin is a global leader of Gensler’s work sector practices and research initiatives. As the firm’s global director workplace research of one of the six centers of the Gensler Research Institute, she has been instrumental in leading Gensler’s global workplace surveys and Workplace Performance Index, or WPI, client tool, which measures space effectiveness and workplace experience on projects.
She is active in developing workplace strategies and designing innovative workplace environments for a wide variety of clients, including Vanguard, GSA, Capital One, Gallup and The Coca-Cola Company. Janet has spent nearly four decades in Gensler’s Denver and Washington, D.C., offices. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a registered architect who has served on Gensler’s board of directors for the past two years, and she currently serves on Gensler’s Practice Area Management Committee.
The series continues with:
Liz Butler – 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25, in Regnier Forum
Butler concentrates her practice in the areas of land use, zoning, entitlements, urban planning, public incentives, historic preservation and economic development, as well as general real estate transactions. She advises owners and developers of institutional, residential, commercial and industrial property in acquisitions, dispositions, zoning entitlements and economic development incentives. Liz counsels private sector clients in their interactions with the city of Chicago and suburban municipalities, working to build consensus between neighboring property owners, government representatives and community stakeholders.
Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA – 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 4, in Regnier Forum
Ehrlich is a founding partner of EYRC Architects and a self-proclaimed "architectural anthropologist," learning early on the significance of how architecture responds to the culture and the environment. Upon graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Architecture, Ehrlich spent six years living and working in Africa, serving for two years with the Peace Corps as their first architect in Marrakech, Morocco. He later traveled across the Sahara and taught architecture at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. The lessons of indigenous building were instrumental in forming Ehrlich's approach to design and continue to influence the firm's work today.
View a full listing of all the Ekdahl Lectures and the previously recorded lectures.
The Oscar S. Ekdahl Distinguished Lecture Series in Architecture and Design brings the finest professionals in the design and planning disciplines to APDesign and the K-State community. These individuals are selected to avail faculty, staff, students and regional professionals of the potency of design and planning in addressing the issues we face as a global society. The series honors Ekdahl, who received his Bachelor of Architecture from Kansas State University in 1933 and was a founding partner in Ekdahl, Davis, Depew, Persson Architects PA in Topeka.