Jimenez Lai (Leader) is currently clinical assistant professor at University of Illinois at Chicago. He graduated with a Master of Architecture from University of Toronto. Previously, Jimenez Lai has lived and worked in a desert shelter at Taliesin and resided in a shipping container at Atelier Van Lieshout on the piers of Rotterdam. Lai is the founder and Leader of Bureau Spectacular. Before this, he worked for MOS, AVL, REX, and OMA/Rem Koolhaas in Toronto, Rotterdam, and New York. In February 2006, his drawings Noah's Ark, In Space was featured on archinect.com and in 2007 he was the recipient of the LeFevre Fellowship. In April 2008 his project Phalanstery Moduleopened at Materials & Applications in Los Angeles. Since arriving in Chicago in Fall 2008, Lai has exhibited his installation Point Clouds at the Extension Gallery and opened the exhibition White Elephant / Privately Soft at Land of Tomorrow in Louisville, KY. In the past years, Lai has been in many exhibitions and was published in various venues including Wallpaper*,306090, Conditions, FRAME, and Log. His graphic novel / manifesto, Citizens of No Place, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Draft II of this book has been archived at the New Museum as a part of the show Younger Than Jesus.
Current Members: Jimenez Lai, Frank Gossage, Matthew Schneider, John Donoghue, Aaron Spiering, Senaid Salcin.
Former Members: Kaveh Arbab, Mo Nazmy, Rushabh Parekh, Mark Talbot, Kevin Hayes, Matt van der Ploeg, Jasper Reyes, Cyrus Penarroyo, Thomas J. Kelley, Sophie Kohn, Trudy Watt, Zack Morrison, Katherine Ranieri, Andrew Akins.