Chicago, IL, December 10, 2013 ---- Lafarge North America and the National Building Museum are pleased to announce that this year’s tenth “Spotlight on Design” lecture will be held on Tuesday, December 17, with acclaimed Los Angeles-based architect, educator and author Neil M. Denari. The program is the first in a series of three “Spotlight on L.A. Design” lectures that will be given over the coming months to complement the museum’s current exhibition Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990.

Spotlight on Design is an ongoing lecture series that features architects and designers of distinction from around the world. Since its inception in 1997, the series has hosted many of the world’s premier design voices in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, including Pritzker Prize Laureates Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, I. M. Pei and Glenn Murcutt. Lafarge has been the corporate sponsor of Spotlight on Design since 2001.

Former Director of SCI-Arc from 1997 to 2002 and author of two bestselling books, Neil Denari is the founding principal of Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA) and a tenured Professor in the Architecture and Urban Design Department at UCLA. A registered architect in New York and California and member of the American Institute of Architects, Denari earned his B.Arch at the University of Houston and his M.Arch at Harvard University. He has given more than 230 lectures worldwide and has been a Visiting Professor at Columbia, The Bartlett, UC Berkeley, Princeton and Harvard. He was the recipient of the Los Angeles AIA Gold Medal in 2011 and was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2009, he was given the California Community Foundation Fellowship from the United States Artists organization, and in 2008 he received an Architecture Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. In addition to these personal awards, NMDA has been awarded the 2005 and 2007 National American Institute of Architecture Awards, 2005 Progressive Architecture citation, and the 2011 American Institute of Architecture/Los Angeles Honor Awards in both the built and unbuilt categories.

During the program, Denari will discuss some of his firm’s notable work, including l.a.Eyeworks, the Alan-Voo residence, built projects for Mitsubishi United Financial Group in Japan and the 14-story HL23 residential tower next to the High Line in New York. The lecture is scheduled for December 17 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. To attend the event, register at  http://go.nbm.org/site/Calendar/295729932?view=Detail&id=116081.

“We look forward to welcoming this renowned architect, educator and author to the National Building Museum,” said Maik Strecker, vice president of marketing for Lafarge U.S.  “As Lafarge’s mission is to contribute to building better cities and communities, we are interested in learning more about his firm’s design innovation and construction excellence in these award-winning projects that embrace sustainability and enrich our urban environment.”

During the past several years, more than 30,000 people have attended lectures through the Spotlight on Design series, with audiences ranging from professionals, policymakers and students to the general public. The series also provides an opportunity for design professionals to achieve continuing education training through the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System. Those not local to Washington, D.C., can access the lecture series and interviews with individual architects online by visiting the National Building Museum’s website at  www.nbm.org.

Lafarge North America Inc. (“Lafarge”) has more than 260 industrial and distribution sites and approximately 3,000 employees in 40 states in its U.S. Cement, Aggregate and Concrete businesses. Lafarge U.S. is an operating unit of Lafarge North America Inc. Lafarge is active in local environment, education and sustainable construction partnerships including the Wildlife Habitat Council, the World Wildlife Fund, Habitat for Humanity, the American Institute of Architectural Students and the National Building Museum.

Lafarge S.A., together with its subsidiaries (the “Lafarge Group” or the “Group”), is the world leader in building materials and employs 65,000 people in 64 countries, and posted sales of €15.8 billion in 2012. As a top-ranking player in its Cement, Aggregates and Concrete businesses, the Group contributes to the construction of cities around the world through its innovative solutions, providing them with more housing and making them more compact, more durable, more beautiful and better connected. Lafarge North America Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Lafarge Canada Inc., are Lafarge Group companies, and together constitute the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in the United States and Canada. 

With the world’s leading building materials research facility, the Lafarge Group places innovation at the heart of its priorities in order to contribute to more sustainable construction and to better serve architectural creativity. Since 2010, the Group has been part of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, the first global sustainability benchmark in recognition of its sustainable development actions. More information is available on the Lafarge Group’s website: :  www.lafarge.com. 


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