Merica May Jensen
Merica May is an architect and artist working in New York City. As an Associate with Diller Scofidio and Renfro (DS+R), Merica May worked on a range of cultural and institutional projects including the US Olympic Museum, the Shed, Adelaide Contemporary, the Royal Opera House, the Rubenstein Forum, the Dissona Campus and the University of Sydney. She is currently the Project Architect for a 250-foot pedestrian bridge scheduled to open this December in Colorado Springs.
In addition to her work at DS+R, Merica May is incubating a new research and design office with Yushiro Okamoto – OBJ. Their practice recently won New York City’s Big Ideas Small Lots competition, completed an immersive-pavilion for LockHeed Martin at Virginia Tech and is working on a new dancewear store in New York City.
Merica May has been a visiting professor at Pratt’s School of Architecture since 2015. Her research builds on her hybrid past. As a graduate from Georgia Institute of Technology and former Dancer with Atlanta Ballet, she is interested in the physical/virtual experience of bodies in space. Her projects include; interactive musical instruments and environments, the drawing translation of Balanchine’s Serenade, a Palmiest Portrait machine for the Landscape as Dreamscape show she curated at Citygroup and a new project that builds remote-composite-bodies with dancers during the Covid-19 crisis.
Yushiro Okamoto
Yushiro is a design architect. As an Associate at Diller Scofiodio + Renfro, he is currently leading the design, facade development and DS+R construction administration efforts for the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum, Colorado Springs, CO (2020).
In the past, Yushiro has worked predominantly on academic and cultural projects, including the Museum of Modern Art Expansion, NY (2019), Tianjin Juilliard School, Tianjin, China (2019) and the University of Sydney Susan Wakil Health Building, Sydney, Australia (2020).
Yushiro is also a co-founder of OBJ and have recently been selected as a finalist by NYC HPD and AIA NY for their affordable housing proposal and to be developed across multiple sites in the city.
Originally from Japan, Yushiro received his M.Arch from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with The Arthur Rotch Prize and B.A. from Keio University with The Shigeru Ito Award.