La Union Studio’s Sonia-Lynn Abenojar to Speak at “Bilang Pilipino – As Filipinos” Panel at UW College of Built Environments

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SEATTLE, WA June 4, 2025 La Union Studio is honored to share that Sonia-Lynn Abenojar, Principal and Director of Creativity, will serve as a featured panelist at “Bilang Pilipino – As Filipinos: Rooted in Place, Built with Identity,” a cultural design dialogue hosted by Fil-Am sa CBE at the University of Washington College of Built Environments.

The panel discussion—taking place on Wednesday, June 4 at 6:00 PM in Gould Hall Room 114—brings together a dynamic group of Filipino and Filipino-American professionals in architecture, planning, and design to explore how cultural identity shapes the spaces we build, inhabit, and preserve.

In a profession that has often prioritized Western design standards and erased Indigenous narratives, Bilang Pilipino offers a rare opportunity to center Filipinx perspectives in the making of space—reclaiming the power of heritage as an anchor, not an afterthought.

Panelists include:

• Ray Villanueva, Co-Founder of Kawayan Collective (Negros Oriental, Philippines), a regenerative bamboo enterprise rooted in ecological resilience and rural empowerment.
• Stephanie Velasco, planner and community advocate with APAWA Youth in Planning, working at the intersections of policy, placemaking, and intergenerational engagement.
• Richard George Cantero Murray, architectural designer whose work explores urban memory, cultural erasure, and the politics of space.
• Eleazar Teodoro, architectural designer and storyteller, focused on narrative-driven design rooted in diasporic identity and immigrant experience.

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Representing La Union Studio, Sonia-Lynn Abenojar brings a creative voice shaped by her own Filipino-American upbringing, blending spatial storytelling, cultural expression, and community stewardship. With experience in both high-concept residential and mission-driven design, her work spans aesthetic elegance and cultural grounding.

“To be Filipino in this industry is to navigate a duality—honoring where you come from while also challenging systems that were not built for you,” said Abenojar. “Design can be a form of resistance, of remembrance, and of re-rooting. This conversation is about all of that—and more.”

The event will explore themes of ancestral knowledge, sustainable building traditions, diasporic visibility, and the personal narratives that inform each panelist’s approach to the built environment. Attendees are invited into a space of learning, exchange, and celebration—a reminder that identity is not only preserved in stories, but embodied in the spaces we shape.

Hosted by Fil-Am sa CBE, the event continues the organization’s mission to create platforms for Filipinx voices within academic and professional design spaces, building bridges between heritage and innovation.