Each individual at Zakian Woo Architects finds meaning in their work through service, and consider it a privilege to provide leadership and technical guidance to their clients. They derive joy in our work as designers, and are accountable to a fault.

As a result, the firm is known for purposeful designs that function beyond expectations, are constructed according to budget and schedule, and display a trademark level of beauty, detail and finish.

  • Principal & Founder
    Michael Zakian has extensive experience as an architect as a result of work completed in affiliation with several noted firms including W.L. Pereira & Associates, Pei Partnership Architects and Moshe Safdie Architects, and, since 2000, as Principal of Zakian Woo Architects.

    An individual of profound faith, Michael practices according to the ideal that he must make a contribution to both his clients and society at large. He is a consummately honest and exacting professional who takes pleasure in hard work and the resolution of the finer points. To that end, Michael’s greatest joy is being present in the field during construction, working with his design consultants and construction team to resolve details in real time and according to his high standards.

    Michael has successfully established numerous client relationships of long standing by emphasizing excellence in service and design. He is also quite talented at working with state and local agencies, including the State Office of Health Planning and Development (OSHPD). Michael has obtained numerous approvals – many of them for complicated and challenging projects – as a result of his strong, trustworthy associations with agency staff.

    With a Master in Architecture and Urban Design from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California, Michael is a registered architect in the states of California, New York and North Carolina, and is NCARB certified.

    “The office is founded on Biblical truth - and applies the values it espouses to every worthy cause we encounter” - Michael Zakian

  • Director of Design
    Nora Sarkissian’s introduction to the field was as an architecture student at the American University in Lebanon, where she was trained according to the principles of the Bauhaus school of Design. While she transferred to the University of Southern California to complete her Bachelor of Architecture, Nora’s career as an architect has been most influenced by the ideals she was learned at the outset – that the whole is a sum of shape, form, color and balance.

    Upon completion of her degree at USC in 1980, Nora returned to the Middle East to work in Jordan and was involved with a variety of projects including residential and commercial designs. When she relocated permanently to Los Angeles in 1985 her portfolio grew with a range of projects, from a high school chapel to the Northwestern University/Bruce Mau Transportation Plan for Mecca in Saudi Arabia. She aligned with USC classmate Michael Zakian in 1999 on the UCLA Replacement Hospital, and correspondingly in 2000 with Zakian Woo Architects, where she plays a pivotal role in the firm’s designs.

    Nora’s journey as an architect has been enriching and memorable. It has provided her with an international perspective, unique range of creative outlets, and extraordinary relationships, including, as her thesis advisors, two of architect Louis Kahn’s Design Directors. In combination with her talents as a designer, Nora’s work consistently reflects a belief that the built environment must elevate the experience of the user. To that end, nothing is arbitrary in her work and every element, large or small, is designed according to her profound respect for the individual, community and society.

  • Architect

    With Zakian Woo Architects since 2016

    Master of Architecture - University of California, Los Angeles

    Bachelor of Arts, Political Science - Smith College (MA)

    Completed major in Architecture - Columbia University (NY)

    "The best architecture grows out of close listening, thoughtful questions, and collaborative solutions."

  • Architect

    With Zakian Woo Architects since 2014

    Bachelor of Architecture - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

    CSU International Program - Florence, Italy

    "The best of men are men at best. J.C. Ryle"

  • Architectural Designer, LEED AP BD+C

    With Zakian Woo Architects since 2022

    Bachelor of Architecture - Hebei University of Technology (Tianjin, China)

    Master of Architecture - University of California, Los Angeles

    “Make sense and make it happen.”

  • Architectural Designer

    With Zakian Woo Architects since 2024

    Bachelor of Architecture - Woodbury University

    "A good architecture improves the life quality of its inhabitants"

  • Bookkeeper, Office Manager

    With Zakian Woo Architects since 2022

    Bookkeeping Certificate - El Camino College (CA)

    "Work hard and be kind to others."

  • Gene Woo
    Principal & Founder
    Principal Gene Woo established his reputation as a planner and architect though his involvement with several complex, high profile building projects including the $60 million Rockefeller Laboratories for Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, the Buck Center for Research on Aging (Marin County) and the Federal Triangle/Ronald Reagan Building on the National Mall. It was Gene’s prior affiliation with I.M. Pei & Partners that led to his West Coast role in 1999 on the UCLA Westwood Replacement Hospital (Ronald Reagan Medical Center), which in turn was the impetuous for the founding of Zakian Woo Architects in 2000.

    With degrees in both Architecture and Urban Design, Gene was particularly influenced by the values and methodology associated with planning. Regardless of the project scale, his approach was to start from a macro context and proceed to the micro level, or design details. Gene’s ability to identify larger picture issues and present holistic solutions on behalf of his clients was one of his unique strengths as an architect. His intelligence, experience and abilities as a strategic thinker enabled him to consider issues of systems, functionality and design.

    Gene believed that in his capacity as an architect he must make a contribution to the larger urban quality of life. The pleasure he derived in his work was not in the glorification of the firm, but in the realization that design can enhance the built environment on behalf of both the individual and society.