ABOUT STUDIO PALI FEKETE ARCHITECTS [SPF:a]
Founded in 1990, SPF:architects (spfa.com) is a Culver City-based multi-disciplinary architecture firm. Renowned for their award-winning team and highly sophisticated technical workshop, the studio’s projects range in size and scope from custom residences to large-scale institutional and commercial projects. SPF:a prides itself on its high level of hands-on principal-to-client involvement and its team is driven by the belief that architecture is a worthwhile and basic human act with the potential to transform our world into a better place.
Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA
Founder / Design Principal
Zoltan E. Pali founded SPF:architects with partner Judit M. Fekete with the mission of creating architecture that thoughtfully marries site, program, budget, nature, and culture. He is celebrated for his work on both historic and modern structures, and recognized for his rigorous pragmatic, holistic design philosophy.
With Pali helming SPF:a, the firm has received numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award for works completed on the famed 1928 Hollywood Pantages Theatre; an AIA Los Angeles Presidential Award for its role as executive architect on the $300 million renovation and expansion of the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu; and an AIA Los Angeles “Next LA” award, a LA Business Council award for “Best Civic Project,” and a California Preservation Award for the design of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
Pali has designed several modernist single-family homes throughout Los Angeles, all of which have won awards at both the regional and national level, and been widely published. Pali has been recognized by the New York Architectural League as an Emerging Voice, and in 2005 he was inducted into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. He is one of the youngest architects to have received such a recognition.
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GULLA JÓNSDÓTTIR ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
An International Architecture & Interior Design practice (gullajonsdottir.com) with headquarters in Los Angeles
Gulla Jónsdóttir
President & Founder
Gulla was recently coined as the new Zaha Hadid by the Huffington Post and has in her career worked on renowned projects in USA, Japan, Mexico, Iceland, Paris, Beirut, Bahamas and China.
Gulla Jónsdóttir creates unexpected and poetic modern architecture and interior spaces. Known for her sensual and dynamic forms that work in harmony with their surroundings, Gulla’s environmental compassion brings unique spatial experiences that repsond to nature and surrounding site, always echoing the integration of organic beauty and function.
Icelandic-born Gulla Jónsdóttir studied mathematics before moving to Los Angeles to study architecture at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture). Before starting her own firm in 2009, she worked for Richard Meier, Walt Disney Imagineering, and Dodd Mitchell Design.
Gulla is the principal of Gulla Jónsdóttir Architecure & Design, a Los Angeles-based design studio with a reputation for holistic work across the fields of architecture, interior design, graphic design, product design, and brand management. She has designed residential, commercial and hospitality projects worldwide, as well as having her own furniture line.
Gulla has in her career of architecture and design received several awards including Interior Design’s Gold Key Award for Best Spa Design: Paz Spa at Cabo Azul Resort, “Best Design of the Year” by Esquire magazine for her design for the Red O Restaurant in Los Angeles, Boutique Design’s Best Hotel Design: Cabo Azul Resort, Best Lighting Design: Cabo Azul Resort, Los Angeles Architectural Award of Excellence for Red O Restaurant, and Hospitality Design Magazine Award for Roxbury and Cabo Azul.
Some of her most notable projecs are: The 2 Michelin Star Le Grand Restaurant by Jean-Francois Piege in Paris, La Peer Hotel in West Hollywood, The Macau Roosevelt Hotel in China, Comal at Chileno Bay, Los Cabos, Mexico and the renovation of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
