I just wanted to thank everyone who came out on Saturday to support Japan, even in such awful weather. Despite the fact that there were only 4 short days from origination to the night of the event, we had close to 300 RSVPs and (unfortunately) had to turn down many because of space constraints. However, the event was Ustreamed live (replay can be watched here.) We raised over $2000 that will go to Architecture for Humanity’s reconstruction efforts in Sendai!
click images to enlarge
It was also a great honor for me to be amongst some amazing speakers. I told Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that this was the first time I spoke with someone I studied in college. Ha!
Speakers from left to right:
Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky
Toru Hasegawa (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University GSAPP)
Virginia (Sales Manager at TOTO Gallery)
Masahiro Sasaki (Born and raised in Otsuchi, a town affected by Tsunami)
Johnny Strategy (me!)
Joshua Perez (U.S. representative, OpenSimSim)
Sunil Bald and Yolande Daniels of studioSUMO
Yutaka Takiura (Architecture for Humanity, Pratt Institute)
Clifford Pearson (Deputy Editor-In-Chief, Architectural Record)
Kanako Iuchi (Consultant/researcher on disaster recovery)
not pictured: Mio Uchida (Hope for Japan, Founder)
Lastly, thank you to the amazing organizers, Columbia University and TOTO USA. I can’t think of a more conducive speaking environment than one in which you are surrounded by beautiful TOTO toilets!
