Bio
A global thinker and creative thought leader, Mani Ardalan Farhadi brings three decades of experience in planning and architecture, including 1 year at Taylor Design in San Francisco, 16 years at Steinberg Hart in San Jose, and 14 years at Sasaki Associates in Boston. Her expertise is in the pre-design phase, when planning and visioning bring about stakeholder concurrence and thoughtful solutions. Using analytical skills, she is integral to campus projects, collaborating on future strategies with public and private educational clients throughout the US. Described as ‘the client in the room', Mani brings a keen ability to listen and build consensus within a user group setting. In the past decade, she has been instrumental in outreach, setting initiatives and thought leadership. Leveraging her expertise in strategic planning and programming, Mani enjoys leading workshops, stakeholder presentations, and conferences nationwide (SCUP, AIA, EQXD, CCFC, CCLC, A4LE).
Mani’s leadership extends into volunteer duties: former Board of Trustee member at Los Gatos Union School District, and Chair of the Bond Oversight Committee, for which she received the ‘Citizen Architect’ award. A graduate of Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA with a B.A. in Architecture, she followed with a B.Arch from Boston Architectural College. A lifelong learner, her formal education has been supplemented with certificates from SCUP Planning Institute (Step III), Leadership Los Gatos, and LEED AP, as well as training in MIG (Management in Governance) and Lean.
In her free time, she enjoys traveling, exploring restaurants and watching movies with her family, reads articles about education trends, and volunteers for Women in Architecture, Iranian-American cultural groups and advocacy. She and her husband of 30 years have two sons; one is an actor who lives in Los Angeles (a graduate from UCLA School of Musical Theater), and one is an engineering major at University of Washington, Seattle.
Current Role at Stanford
As Senior Facilities Planner in the OFPM (Office of Facilities, Planning and Management) for the SoM (School of Medicine), I collaborate with Dept. Chairs, Faculty, Researchers, Staff and Facilities to optimize layouts for appx. 2M square feet of space as adjustments are needed to offices, labs, and teaching spaces across the campuses of Stanford University. I work with consultants, designers, project managers, furniture vendors, movers and others to determine the optimal solutions. After 30+ years of being in architectural firms working with educational institutions, I'm thrilled to be inside that setting and contributing to the success of the School of Medicine.
