Role : Assoc. Principal, Sr. Project Manager @ RoTo Architects
Length of time with firm : 19+ years
As a Principal and Senior Project Manager at RoTo, Wangdu has managed several complex award-winning projects including Madame Tussauds Museum in Hollywood, LAFD Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Hollywood, and the 100,000 Stupa memorial shrine and retreat in Soquel, CA. Currently he is overseeing several ongoing projects and is co-managing the Belmont Beach and Aquatic Center project in Long Beach.
His ability to work closely with clients and consultants and bring all team members together to solve challenging design and construction issues has proven invaluable to the successful completion of projects. As a key member of the RoTo team, he is involved in all aspects of the design process including client interface, design collaboration, project team management, construction document preparation and construction administration.
Wangdu received his Masters degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he also taught for four years. His classes at SCI-Arc were an introduction to basic Buddhist philosophy, concepts; and how Buddhist symbolic arts are used as a catalyst for invoking insight, awareness and inspiration.
Prior to coming to California, he was a resident monk at Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India. During his fifteen years at the monastery he studied the tenets of Buddhist logic as well as philosophical debate, methods of meditation and ritual arts which included making sand mandalas, butter sculpture, and ritual chants that are part of meditational practices.
As an active member of the Tibetan Association of Southern California, Wangdu has served 4 two-year terms on the board of directors of the Association. Currently he is a board member of Nechung Dharmapala Center in Los Angeles.