Barbara Bestor (born 1966) is an American architect based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She is the principal of Bestor Architecture, founded in 1992. Examples of her work include the

Beats Electronics Beats Electronics LLC (also known as Beats by Dr. Dre, or simply Beats by Dre) is an American consumer audio products manufacturer headquartered in Culver City, California. The company was founded by music producer Dr. Dre and record company exe ...

Headquarters in Culver City, Blackbirds, small lot housing in Los Angeles,

Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea Intelligentsia Coffee is an American coffee roasting company and retailer based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1995 by Doug Zell and Emily Mange, Intelligentsia is considered a major representative of third wave coffee. In 2015, Peet's Coffee ...

in Los Angeles, the revitalization of Silvertop, originally designed by

John Lautner John Edward Lautner (16 July 1911 – 24 October 1994) was an American architect. Following an apprenticeship in the mid-1930s with the Taliesin Fellowship led by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner opened his own practice in 1938, where he worked for th ...

and the Toro Canyon House in Santa Barbara. In 2017 she was elected to the AIA's College of Fellows.

Early life

Barbara Bestor grew up in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, where her father was an anthropologist and her mother was a college administrator.Emily Young
Building a Name for Herself
''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', March 14, 2002Kimberly Stevens
House Proud: A Simple Playhouse At Cut Corners
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', March 20, 2003 She interned for Cambridge Seven Associates through college, with a study-abroad year at the

Architectural Association School of Architecture The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in t ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, eventually graduating from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1987. She then received a master's degree in Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles in 1992.Southern California Institute of Architecture: Alumni

Career

Bestor began her architectural practice in Los Angeles in 1992. In her early career, she renovated many private residences in the Los Angeles area. She also designed the Actors' Gang theater in Hollywood with fellow architect

Norman Millar Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Nor ...

. In 2001, she taught architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She returned to Los Angeles a year later, in 2002. She has taught architecture at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

.A Conversation With Architect Barbara Bestor
, TheAgencyRE, July 11, 2014 Bestor has taught at the

Woodbury University Woodbury University is a private university in Burbank, California, with a satellite campus in San Diego. History The school was founded in 1884 as Woodbury's Business College by its namesake, F. C. Woodbury, formerly a partner in Heald's Busi ...

School of Architecture in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

, where she is also the executive director of the

Julius Shulman Institute The Julius Shulman Institute (JSI) at Woodbury University promotes photography of the built environment. The JSI hosts exhibitions, workshops and symposia. History In 2005, architectural photographer Julius Shulman founded the Institute at Woodbury ...

.TED: OlympicBoulvdWomen: Speakers & Performers
She was the founding Chair of the Graduate program. In 2014, with Catherine Gudis, Thomas Kracauer, and Shannon Starkey, she curated an exhibition about the environmental graphic designer

Deborah Sussman Deborah Sussman (May 26, 1931August 20, 2014) was an American designer and a pioneer in the field of environmental graphic design. Her work incorporated graphic design into architectural and public spaces. Early life and education Deborah S ...

at Woodbury.Christopher Hawthorne
She Loves L.A.
, '' Metropolis Magazine'', March 2014 She has been a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

speaker. In 2017 the exhibition Albert Frey and Lina Bo Bardi: A Search for Living Architecture, designed by Bestor Architecture, opened at the Palm Springs Art Museum.The Many Surprising Parallels Between the Architecture of Lina Bo Bardi and Albert Frey
Metropolis, 14 September 2017 Bestor has designed private residences in

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known f ...

, Pacific Palisades,

Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...

, Silverlake,

Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

Topanga Canyon Topanga () (Tongva: ''Topaa'nga'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow s ...

, and Santa Barbara. She has also designed stores and restaurants in Los Angeles,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

.Erin Feher
Ladies of de LaB Dig Deep Into the LA Design Scene
''California Home Design'', 12/12/13 In 2011, she was the recipient of the LA Restaurant Design Award from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

for her design of the Pitfire Pizza in LA. She was also nominated for the James Beard Foundation Award for the same restaurant that year. The Floating Bungalow house in Venice, CA was featured in MOCA's 2013 survey of contemporary Los Angeles architecture. In 2015, the Beats By Dre Headquarters was recognized with a National AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture. In 2017 two new projects opened, the Ashes & Diamonds Winery and Event Center and the

Silverlake Conservatory of Music Silverlake Conservatory of Music is a nonprofit educational organization formed in California. It was founded in 2001 by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and Chili Peppers collaborator Tree to foster music education. Chili Peppers vocalist Anth ...

. Since the opening of Blackbirds Bestor has explored a variety of housing solutions for Los Angeles, ultimately receiving second place in the City's Low Rise competition.

Personal life

She has two daughters from a previous marriage.

Bibliography

*Barbara Bestor. ''Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake''. New York City: HarperCollins. 2006. 272 pages.Google Books
/ref>

References

External links