Tag Archives: Sara Malek Barney

WestEdge Wednesday Part Four | 639 | Designing for Disaster: Intelligent Design for a Resilient Southern California

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Rebuilding After the Fire: How Designers, Architects & Community Leaders Are Reimagining Livability in Southern California A panel of architects, designers, sustainability experts, and community advocates explore what the 2025 Palisades and Altadena fires taught us about resilience, materiality, community loss, rebuilding timelines, economic displacement, and the future of Southern California living. Moderated by Adam Hunter.

The 2025 Palisades and Altadena fires delivered a historic and deeply personal shock to Southern California communities, reshaping not only homes but expectations for safety, materiality, and resilience. In this WestEdge Wednesday conversation moderated by Adam Hunter, the panel digs into both the physical and emotional layers of rebuilding.

Architect Richard Manion contextualizes the fires as a “perfect storm”—a wind-driven event functioning like a flamethrower—requiring a more holistic approach to resilient construction. Sarah Malek Barney highlights the risks of long-standing industry shortcuts in material selection and emphasizes the renewed value of fire-resistant, performance-proven products. Marcella Oliver outlines actionable guidance from USGBC California and the Net Zero Accelerator, underscoring vetted building strategies and digital-twin modeling as essential tools for community education.

Stacy Munich brings forward the human consequences: underinsurance, temporary housing, and the emotional weight of rebuilding while navigating uncertainty. She explores prefab/precision-built housing as a potential solution for families priced out of traditional custom rebuilding. Todd Paolillo expands on the challenge of unifying a large number of well-intentioned contributors across agencies, nonprofits, and design sectors—and why true leadership must emerge to align them.

Throughout the discussion, key themes emerge:

  • Holistic resilience (materials, landscape, climate risk, embers, structural vulnerabilities)
  • Community cohesion vs. community erosion
  • Education gaps for homeowners suddenly forced into complex architectural decisions
  • Economic realities shaping who can return and who is pushed out
  • Long rebuilding timelines and the risk of “enthusiasm fatigue,” as Adam Hunter notes
  • Avoiding both prefab monotony and hyper-luxury displacement in the Alphabet Streets

The panel collectively reinforces a core message: rebuilding isn’t simply architecture—it’s long-term community-making. And it requires every discipline to show up.

PARTICIPANTS & WEB LINKS

(Links provided to official homepages or primary professional sites)

Adam Hunter — Moderator
https://adamhunterinc.com

Richard Manion, Architect

Architecture for the 21st Century

Sarah Malek Barney – Band Design
https://www.bandd.com

Stacy Munich – Stacy Munich Interiors
https://www.stacymunichinteriors.com

Todd Paolillo – CCA Design Group
https://www.ccadesigngroup.com

Marcella Oliver – USGBC California
https://www.usgbc.org
(Net Zero Accelerator) https://netzeroaccelerator.org

I. Opening Context

  • Adam Hunter describes his own displacement in the Palisades fires
  • Acknowledgment of community members who lost homes and businesses

II. Materiality & Rebuilding After Fire

  • Shortcut culture in residential construction (Sarah)
  • Fire-resistant materials, embers, and construction techniques (Richard)
  • The “flamethrower” dynamic of the 2025 event

III. Community-Scale Impacts

  • Rebuilding as a multi-block, multi-stakeholder challenge (Marcella)
  • Community cohesion among displaced residents (Stacy)
  • Education gaps for homeowners suddenly navigating design/architectural choices

IV. Leadership & Coordination

  • Who should be leading discussions?
  • The role of USGBC California and the Net Zero Accelerator (Marcella)
  • Design community mobilization & town halls (Todd)

V. Economics, Insurance & Rebuilding Pathways

  • Underinsurance and cost prohibitions (Stacy)
  • Prefab/precision-built options
  • Avoiding both tract-home rebuilding and ultra-luxury exclusivity (Richard, Adam)

VI. Visualization & Future Planning

  • Digital twins for community workshops
  • Landscape resilience
  • Neighborhood-scale guidelines

VII. Psychological & Long-Term Impacts

  • Rebuilding fatigue
  • Multi-year rebuilding timeline (10+ years)
  • Keeping optimism and community support alive (Adam)

WestEdge Wednesday No. Ten | 492 | All Roads Lead to Southern California; Long Live the Creative Experiment

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I’m Josh Cooperman and this is another installment of Convo By Design presents WestEdge Wednesday, a look back at all of the incredible programming from the 2023 edition of the WestEdge Design Fair held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. These conversations were held on the stage designed by Marie Designs and presented by BR Home. This is it, part 10 in our series from the WestEdge Design Fair. Southern California has long been a place where adventurous creatives of all disciplines could come to create with other like-minded dreamers—where a designer could draft and see their masterpiece come to life only to realize it wasn’t right, shake it out like a giant Etch-A-Sketch and start again. Now, in a post-pandemic world, it is incumbent upon that very spirit for a new generation of creatives to address and overcome the seemingly endless barrage of challenges. And, they will, because that’s what they do. This conversation features BANDD/DESIGN’S  Sara Malek Barney, Christine Vroom of Christine Vroom Interiors and the legendary Leo Marmol, FAIA of Marmol Radziner. This panel could only be moderated by one person I know and that is the incomparable, Frances Anderton. Thank you to Convo By Design partners and sponsors ThermaSol, Moya Living and Design Hardware for making the podcast possible and thank you for listening and watching these episodes of the show. For links to all our partners, guests on this episode, WestEdge Design Fair, Marbe and BR Home.

For those not familiar …   The Banana Republic lifestyle brand portfolio is known for delivering timeless ready-to-wear styles, and BR Home signals the brand’s transformation into a leading destination for the modern explorer.  Expanding across living room, bedroom and dining room furniture as well as lighting, bedding, and home décor, BR Home showcases materials and craftsmanship from around the world, showcasing signature design details, warm, textural layers, natural materials and traditional production techniques. 

Please check the podcast show notes for links and you can find that at Convo By Design dot com and click the podcast tab. Thanks for watching and listening. CXD

Lone Star House of Design | 9 | Sara Malek Barney of BANDD Design

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This is Lone Star | House of Design, produced and distributed by the team that brings you Convo By Design with another story about design and architecture for the Great State of Texas featuring Sara Malek Barney, founder of Bandd Design.

Sara is a remarkable talent who brings a number of unique elements to her incredible rise in design, that of a first career in sports and entertainment. She worked for Hollywood powerhouse talent firm CAA, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and then came home to Austin to launch her design firm, Bandd Design. Sara and I talk about her journey and her work, work that is influenced by her Hollywood experience and Texas roots, equally and balanced which makes her work truly unique. You are also going to hear about some of her amazing projects like a kitchen she designed for Ferguson.

Enjoy this conversation with Sara and then, catch up on more episodes from both Lone Star House of Design and Convo By Design by subscribing to the podcast so you never miss a single episode. It’s really easy, find the shows everywhere you get your favorite podcasts, or ask your smart device to “play Convo By Design podcast” and it will… This is Sara Malek Barney

Thank you, Sara, loved this. Please subscribe to the show so you catch every episode of Lone Star House of Design and Convo By Design, ask Alexa or Siri, say, “Hey Siri, Play Convo By Design” and she will. You can follow the show on the socials as well, @ConvoXDesign with an “X” on Instagram, and check out the YouTube channel for videos from some of your favorite episodes. Thank you for listening and until next week, Keep creating.