The MAK Center for Art and Architecture presents Housing for Whom? Building a More Affordable Los Angeles, a panel discussion organized in conjunction with the exhibition Social Housing: Vienna—Los Angeles, currently on view at the MAK Center at the Schindler House. The exhibition brings Vienna’s internationally recognized social housing model into dialogue with the distinct housing conditions and challenges facing Los Angeles, examining housing as essential social infrastructure and a public good.
Building on these questions, the panel brings together Tom De Simone, President and CEO of Genesis LA; Helen Leung, Executive Director of LA Más; and architect Michael Maltzan, founder of Michael Maltzan Architecture, in a conversation moderated by Maristella Casciato, Senior Curator and Head of Architectural Collections at the Getty Research Institute.
As decades of privatized real estate development and exclusionary zoning have contributed to a city where housing is unaffordable for many residents, what approaches are emerging that place affordability, resilience, and civic care at the forefront? Bringing together perspectives from architecture, community development, and housing advocacy, the discussion explores how Los Angeles can create thoughtfully designed, affordable homes without reproducing patterns of speculation, exclusion, and displacement.
TOM DE SIMONE
Tom De Simone joined Genesis LA in 2008 and has served as its President and CEO since 2013. He oversees Genesis LA’s operations and manages its business activities. Mr. De Simone initiates and maintains relationships with investors, capital sources, and borrowers. He also develops and maintains strong relationships with community partners and spearheads the development of Genesis LA’s innovative financial products and programs. This work has positioned Genesis LA as a unique financing entity in the Los Angeles area.
Mr. De Simone previously worked for the General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, assisting in the development of a supportive housing program, and had a fellowship in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office. Mr. De Simone earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkely and a Master in Urban Planning from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
HELEN LEUNG
Helen Leung serves as Executive Director of LA Más - a community based organization working on housing and economic justice for working class residents in Northeast LA. She is a product of working-class Chinese immigrants, born in Los Angeles and raised in Frogtown (unceded Tongva territory). Since joining LA Más in 2013, Helen has focused on community-led strategies that minimize displacement pressures that come with gentrification. Helen is proud to oversee LA Más first five housing acquisitions by raising $13M in less than two years. She is excited to grow its community housing program by taking more properties off the market.
Helen has extensive policy and community-based experience having worked at the City of Los Angeles, Living Cities, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, and the White House under President Obama’s administration. Helen also served on the Los Angeles City Planning Commission under two mayoral administrations.
Helen serves as board co-chair of Social Justice Partners LA and on the Executive Council of AARP CA. She is a proud alum of LISC’s Rubinger Fellowship and the Center for Community Investment’s Fulcrum Fellowship. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and urban planning from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Communications from the University of Pennsylvania.
MICHAEL MALTZAN
Michael Maltzan founded Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc. in 1995. His projects cross a wide range of typologies. His most notable include the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, MoMA QNS, Star Apartments, the Pittman Dowell Residence, the new Sixth Street Viaduct, MIT Vassar Street Residential Hall, the UCLA Hammer Museum, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inuit Art Centre. His work has gained international acclaim for innovation in both design and construction.
Michael received an M.Arch from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and BFA and B.Arch degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received the 2016 AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal. He is a recipient of a 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award and was inducted as a member of the Academy in 2023. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2020 and received the 2025 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture.
MARISTELLA CASCIATO
Maristella Casciato is an architect, architectural historian, and educator. Since 2016, she has served as Senior Curator and Head of Architectural Collections at the Getty Research Institute, where she has overseen major acquisitions, including the papers of Frank Gehry (1954–88) and Paul R. Williams. She has curated exhibitions such as Paul Revere Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line (2026), Bauhaus Beginnings (2019), and The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930 (2017). Casciato received a Fulbright Grant (1992) and a Graham Foundation Publication Grant (2016). At the Canadian Centre for Architecture, she was Mellon Senior Fellow (2010) before becoming Associate Director of Research. Member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the GRJournal, her recent publications include The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930: Cityscapes, Photographs, Debates (co-edited with I. Alonso, 2021), Rethinking Global Modernism: Architectural Historiography and the Postcolonial, and the facsimile reprint of Le Corbusier Album Punjab, 1951 (2024). In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians.
Related Exhibition
Social Housing: Vienna—Los Angeles
October 22, 2026 – January 17, 2027
Related Programs
Opening Reception of Social Housing: Vienna—Los Angeles
Thursday, October 22, 2026
7–8 PM
Curatorial Walkthrough of Social Housing: Vienna—Los Angeles
Saturday, October 24, 2026
2–4 PM
Re-Enacting the Lie
Thursday, November 5, 2026
6–8 PM
The Social Housing: Vienna—Los Angeles exhibition was made possible with support from the Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Republic of Austria, the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, and the City of West Hollywood.
The Social Housing: Vienna—Los Angeles publication was produced with support from WBV-GPA, a Vienna-based, limited-profit housing developer; the City of Vienna, Housing Promotion and Arbitration, Board for Legal Housing Matters; the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, Republic of Austria; and the Research Unit of Housing and Design / Institute for Architecture and Design / TU Wien – University of Technology in Vienna, Austria.
