Category: Board of Directors

Keith Hempel, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C is a graduate of the College of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.  Mr. Hempel joined LPA, Inc. in Irvine, CA in 1995 and is currently a Principal and a Design Director with the firm.  Notable projects include the Flight Projects Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in La Canada Flintridge, CA, The Watson Land Company Headquarters in Carson, CA and the Starr Atrium for Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, CA.

Keith was born in Long Beach, CA where he currently resides with his wife and son.

Vic Nguyen is currently the Design Director at Gillis Panichapan Architects (GPa). With over twenty years of practice ranging from development of civic, infrastructural, education, transportation-oriented, and mixed-use projects, including residential and office interiors. His expertise spans all phases of project development from conceptual design through construction administration. He has a wealth of experience collaborating with municipalities and local communities to attain consensus for project design and development.

Vic is a steward for maximizing passive building design strategies for indoor comfort, and the blending of boundaries of the outdoors with the interior. With deference to nature and reinforcing a sense of place, Vic believes that a building’s design reaches far beyond the physical boundaries of a defined site. He aspires to help enrich the places we all work, live, and visit. 

He has a passion urban exploration, and enjoys studying active urban development in juxtaposition to the stratified history of a city’s-built environment.  

Vic grew up in the Southland, has a Bachelor of Architecture form the University of Arizona College of Architecture, and practiced in Arizona, New York, and Southern California.

Chris Kempel channeled his lifelong fascination with the arts into the pursuit of architecture, landing him in his current role as Design Partner for RKA. A graduate of The UCLA Master of Architecture program, Chris also studied at the Kunsthochechule Weissense in Berlin, an international program that values an interdisciplinary approach, viewing society and art as having a symbiotic relationship.

Since childhood, Chris has admired the juxtaposition between natural and manmade environments, and in the confluence of his drawing, building, and visionary skills. He emphasizes excellence in craft, understanding that to fully tailor a family’s home or a new office building, it’s the finest of details that heightens the experience. His greatest passion lies within designing residential spaces. The notion that a well-designed home can positively affect someone’s well-being is what drives him to think of every last detail—he once spent several days living on a family’s land to better understand the way sunlight changed throughout the course of a day, all to better inform the design of its future dwelling.

EDUCATION

Master of Architecture

University of California, Los Angeles, 1999

Bachelor of Environmental Design in Architecture

North Carolina State University, 1994

Special Studies, Kunsthochschule, Weissensee, Berlin, Germany, 1993

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Member, American Institute of Architects

National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Certified

Registered Architect, California, 2007

National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)

Subject Matter Expert for the California Supplemental Exam,

Department of Consumer Affairs and California Architects Board