Karin Liljegren

Biographie: Karin Liljegren, FAIA, has dedicated her career to community building, sustainability, and advocacy by embracing adaptive reuse as a powerful means to revitalize our cities. Since 1999, Karin has focused on adaptive reuse projects and advocates for policy reform to make the repurposing of older buildings more financially viable and cornerstones of their communities. For Karin, adaptive reuse represents the potential to solve four challenges: address the housing shortage, combat climate change, preserve cultural heritage, and tackle the oversupply of vacant office buildings. She is engaged at a local and national level in leading real estate organizations and has led City of Los Angeles task forces on topics such as ordinance reform and adaptive reuse policy. She worked for 15 years with Killefer Flammang Architects (KFA), where she converted 12 high-rise buildings. Karin then founded Omgivning Architecture + Interiors in 2009 and the firm has built a reputation for uncovering potential in underutilized buildings by transforming them into multifamily housing, hotels, restaurants, and workspace. Omgivning has grown and expanded its reach, having worked on two-million square foot historic landmarks to small, local cafes for clients and communities across the country. Karin is on the Reuse and Redevelopment National ULI Product Council as well as the local LA Housing and Innovation Councils. She is on the Board for the LA Conservancy and DTLA Alliance. In addition to her architectural endeavors, she is an emerging Developer and starting other entrepreneurial enterprises such as a culture + industry based Coworking company called söm co-space.