Johnson Fain Founders Win Gold Medal From AIA

Architects Scott Johnson FAIA and William H. Fain, Jr. FAIA will receive the Gold Medal -- the highest honor presented to individuals and given by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA/LA) for their design contributions to the profession of architecture. Johnson and Fain are partners of Johnson Fain, the Los Angeles-based architecture, urban design + planning and interiors firm that they co-founded in 1989. The Gold Medal will be presented at the 2008 AIA/LA Design Awards event on June 4, 2008, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

“Scott and I are very grateful for the wonderful recognition. We would like to also acknowledge the many dedicated and gifted architects in our organization who have supported our efforts over the past two decades. Scott and I share a passion for Los Angeles and are committed to enhancing the vibrancy and civic life of our city through our professional work,” says Fain, partner and director of urban design + planning for Johnson Fain.

Replica Of Simon Wiesenthal Vienna Office New At Museum Of Tolerance

Alan and Susan Casden have contributed a recreation of the office of Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter, at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles where it will be a major interactive multimedia exhibit. The office is exactly as it was at the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna that Wiesenthal founded. It includes all of Wiesenthal’s personal library, documents and furniture as well as his many honors including the Legion of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal. Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Nazi death camps, dedicated his life to documenting the crimes of the Holocaust and to hunting down the perpetrators still at large. "When history looks back," Wiesenthal explained, "I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it."

This is awesome and inspiring!