Zach Carver

Zach Carver, a Seattle-born filmmaker, brings the thrilling Race to Alaska to life in his captivating documentary. Chronicling the 750-mile engineless boat race from Port Townsend to Ketchikan, Zach’s film captures the raw challenges and diverse characters, from Olympic athletes to high schoolers, facing nature’s fury on the arduous journey.

Celebrated at over 25 film festivals and winner of multiple audience choice awards, Zach’s work, including acclaimed shorts like Sin Matador and Amateur Dictator, showcases his unique blend of humor and uplifting storytelling. With an MFA from Columbia University, Zach’s projects, such as the TV series Textual Intercourse and the short film Passage, further highlight his remarkable talent.  Combining his loves of Northwest Maritime culture (following a stint at the Center for Wooden Boats), he’s now based in LA making films.

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Every Monday, Olson Kundig starts the week with an all‑office meeting, and once a month this meeting is devoted to an outside guest speaker. The Olson Kundig Speaker Series was created by Alan Maskin over two decades ago with the goal of inspiring staff with presentations from people who work outside the realm of architecture. To date, more than 300 guests have come to speak in our offices. The forum is also available for internal speakers, who share completed project overviews, complex project details, and research findings, all with the aim of increasing our shared knowledge.

The theme of the 2025 Speaker Series is Multitudes. In an age where differing views and beliefs often estrange and divide us, it is worth noting that life itself is composed of contradiction, inconsistency, and surprise. We ourselves are no strangers to the dualities within. Multitudes explores stories from our human epoch that reveal the beauty of unexpected unions—how unrelated and seemingly opposing forces can collide to create something wonderful.