05/19/2026
This summer marks the end of my six years as Resident Director of the Neutra VDL House.
It has been an honor, and it's one that I never took lightly. My relationship with this house began as a student docent at Cal Poly Pomona, and returning to it as director, years later, felt like the opportunity of a lifetime. The VDL has always been more than a landmark. It is a place of ongoing cultural experimentation that proves a historic house stays alive through the people who use it and the ideas it continues to generate.
I'll never forget moving buckets around the living room during heavy rains to catch the drips from a failing roof, and the relief of filling the reflecting pool again after finally fixing it. Keeping the house open was its own form of preservation: waking up early every Saturday to clean, watching travelers peer through the curtain gaps before opening time, and hearing the gratitude of visitors finally stepping inside.
I'll remember students waking up to morning light through the Chinese Elm after spending the night during a workshop with Fernanda Canales. I'll remember visitors puzzled by the squiggly pink house numbers during Built In. Every residency, exhibition, workshop, and performance gave the house and its visitors new ways of seeing it. More memories in my full letter at the link in bio.
First and foremost, I am most grateful to Juhee Park, whose vision, support, and unseen labor made all of this possible. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the life of the house: collaborators, artists, architects, supporters, and visitors. I'm deeply grateful to Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design and Department of Architecture, and to Sarah Lorenzen, Lauren Bricker, Mary Anne Akers, and many others. I'm incredibly thankful to my students, whose dedication and curiosity were essential every week
We are excited to carry this experience forward into practice at Aunt Studio
To stay in touch, reach me at [email protected]
The VDL continues. A new director will be announced soon, and the work of maintaining, activating, and sharing the house will carry on. Thank you for being part of it.
