BuddyPress.org

For anyone who has this problem —

1. Copy the /directories/ folder from the default BuddyPress member theme into your own BuddyPress member theme.

2. Copy the /css/directories.css and /css/loader.php from the default member theme to your own theme’s /css/ directory.

3. Reload the page, but make sure you have cleared your browser cache.

These changes will make it much much much easier to change the design of the directory pages.