JUDGES
JILL FEHRENBACHER – Founder, Editor-in-Chief
Jill is the founder of Inhabitat, as well as a LEED-AP green designer and green design consultant based in New York City. She created Inhabitat in the Spring of 2005 as a way to catalog her search for new ways to improve the world through forward-thinking, high-tech, and environmentally conscious design. Educated at Brown University, where she received a B.A. in Art Semiotics, andColumbia University, where she’s pursuing a Masters of Architecture, she currently resides in New York City, which so far has been good for her obsession with rooftop farming and vegan fast food restaurants.
MIKE CHINO – Managing Editor
Mike is a writer, researcher, and musician based in San Francisco. He left sunny UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in French and Modern literature and delved into publishing through a stint at ReadyMade Magazine. Inspired by the impact that forward thinking can have on the present, he has cultivated a voracious appetite for developments in sustainable architecture, design, and technology. Mike likes to bike, blog, and build things, and in his spare time he also cooks, produces music, and rocks out.
YUKA YONEDA – Senior Editor
Yuka is a writer and designer from Queens, New York. She received her bachelor’s in Business Management from Stony Brook University, and holds a degree in Exhibition Design from F.I.T. When she isn’t writing about sustainable design, Yuka amuses herself by making trash into treasure, hunting for goodies at her favorite thrift shop, and offering up vintage, secondhand and refashioned clothes from her own closet to raise money for Japan.
REBECCA PAUL – Communications Manager
Rebecca is a designer, portrait painter, installation artist and writer. After receiving her BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design – Rebecca moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a resident artist for The Hive Gallery and Studios in the emerging downtown art scene. During her time on the west coast she also acted as a Freelance Curator where she produced several art shows converting raw spaces throughout the city into dynamic backdrops for a variety of mediums. Uninspired by the contemporary art market – Rebecca is currently living in Brooklyn and has shifted her career path to focus on sustainable design and architecture. She plans to pursue her Masters degree in industrial design, so she can further her contribution to the field.
DIANE PHAM – Architecture and Design Editor
Diane is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Like so many people out there she too thought she wanted to be an architect when she grew up. After graduating from USC’s Marshall School, she enjoyed a brief stint at SCI-Arc, then working for the A+D Museum in Los Angeles, Perkins Eastman Architects and Resoultion4: Architecture handling their marketing, PR and graphic work. A native Angeleno, she’s also lived in Milan and Paris, and still has her sights set beyond the borders of the US. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, learning languages, playing drums, taking photographs and doing as many new things as she can, every moment she can.
ANDREW MICHLER – Green Building Writer
Living off-the-grid in the foothills of the colorful Colorado Rocky Mountains, Andrew Michler LEED AP BD+C and his wife Jennie are learning firsthand what low entropy really means. He built a tire wall shop, catches the snow to feed his WC, and built a modest home to the sun, wind and land. He calls the home’s design Japanese Colorado. Turning his building background to a bit of an obsession he started Baosol LLC Consulting which is concerned with developing sustainable, adaptive building, a.k.a. our third skin. He believes that what we build now creates the legacy of how we will live in the future. If he is not busy writing, he is reading green building technical manuals, checking out new building ideas, conceiving conceptual art installations, attempting to resist the urge to have another local microbrew, or perhaps nothing at all. You can catch his blog at the sustainable line and you can follow him on twitter @andrewmichler.
JESSICA DAILEY – New York Editor
Jessica is a Brooklyn-based freelance journalist. A Pittsburgh native, she moved to New York to pursue her love of writing. She holds bachelor’s degrees in English and Art History from the University of Pittsburgh and received her master’s from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. She loves reporting on art, food, and the green community in New York City. When she’s not searching for the next best story, she spends her time foraging at Greenmarkets, whipping up new recipes, and exploring the city’s endless art scene.
LORI ZIMMER – Contributing Writer
Lori Zimmer is a freelance writer, curator, art consultant and the creator of Art Nerd New York- part travel guide, part art history, created for the art obsessed, featuring art sites in NYC beyond the obvious and ordinary.
