Wishing you joy!

Check out Sulan Kolatan and my comments on this Yahoo News Video about how projects, such as our Raindrop Art Museum, send a message about tackling climate change. We are delighted to join over 50 architects who together created a room of exuberant gingerbread projects for the exhibit at Gingerbread City NY at the South Street Seaport.

We are thrilled that “Layers,” our installation at the Time Space Existence Exhibit at the 2023 Venice Biennale, has won multiple design awards, including Interior Design’s Best of Year and Re-Thinking the Future 3rd Award. Thanks to the jurors who saw value in our installation!

Thank you, AIA NY Chapter Women in Architecture, for inviting me as a mentor for their seminal annual speed mentoring event. What a terrific evening of conversation, friendship, and exchange of ideas! I always continue to learn from everyone, including all mentees and colleagues.

Louise was delighted to collaborate with an insightful international group of jurors for the final Frame Awards for 2023.

Louise is delighted to have been selected as a one of the Cohort of Respondents for AFFIRMATIONS, Columbia GSAPP’s 8-month series of discussions curated by Andrés Jaque, Dean, and Bart-Jan Polman, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs. The program will affirm and interrogate how to think and redesign the built environment at the intersection of climate, ecological, societal, bodily, and technological crises and defiance. Let the conversations begin!

We really appreciate Efthalia’s insightful comments in Juliet Art Magazine about Layers, our recent installation at the 2023 Venice Biennale. We are delighted that she is intrigued with our solutions-based approach to some of the most pressing global issues of de-carbonization, ancestry and public participation with art. Check out the article “A Critical Reading of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale“

Snapshot at the lectern last Thursday night at Louise’s lecture at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park. She spoke about our work, Architecture of Art + Conscience that inspired a lively idea driven discussion with the audience. Great group of People!

Louise is delighted to join a diverse group of jurors hailing from all over the world for the March FRAME Awards. The conversation should be lively!

Wow! What a great turnout for this year’s in-person mentorship event at the NY Chapter of the AIA. Louise was delighted to join the conversation.

Thank you Hilary Sample for inviting Louise to participate in this unique lecture series. What a challenge to ask 7 provocative unanswerable questions about the pivotal topic of the architecture of healthcare!

Thanks to all for selecting The Derfner Judaica Museum as a “Best of Design Project” for the Interior Design Magazine Best in Design 2022 Anniversary Edition. This accolade not only speaks to the aesthetics of our project, but also acknowledges the significance of our approach to open up museums to diverse populations, shining a spotlight on our efforts to expand the limits of universal design.

How exciting to have our project “Open the Box” to be a shortlisted project for THE PLAN Award 2022 special project category. THE PLAN Award is an annual international prize that recognizes excellence in architecture, interior design, and urban planning. Link here: THE PLAN Award

We are delighted to report that Louise has been invited to join the “10 Key Architects on the 2022 A+ Product Awards Jury.” Please click on the link to see Architizer’s post describing the juror’s bios. How exciting it will be to evaluate the newest architectural products on the market today, hopefully bringing sustainability to a whole new level.

November 11, 2019We are thrilled that Louise is included in Breaking Ground-Architecture by Women edited by Jane Hall for Phaidon Press. The book is a groundbreaking visual survey of architecture designed by women from the early twentieth century to the present day.

Louise joined the fourth panel of the 2019 TORCH Mentorship program to share her experiences of engaging in communities. The discussion was lively and interactive, which made for a stimulating conversation all around.

Louise was delighted to participate in 8 hours of scintillating conversation at a think tank about how potential disruptive transportation will influence the architectural building of the community in Newburgh, New York. She joined a group of city planners, transportation experts, We Company thinkers, and the Newburgh City Councilman for a deep dive into critical issues that all address the pivotal question, “How do we want to live?”

We are thrilled that our Hyperloop Suburb, a speculative immersive installation displayed at the ‘Time Space Existence’ exhibition during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, was honored with a Chicago Athenaeum 2019 Green GOOD DESIGN Award.

Check out our installation along with the other winning projects at  The Chicago Athenaeum website.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Louise joined a group of talented women in architecture at the AIA New York Center for Architecture for an insightful panel discussion about the dynamics and possibilities of mentorship, collaboration, and advancement in architecture. The panel purposely had both mentors and mentees, which made for a lively conversation.

December 22nd, 2018

Louise joined Martha Thorne, Caroline James, Odile Decq and Farshid Moussavi, fellow Voices of Women (VOW) Steering Committee members, to stand up for equity in the architectural profession at the historic Flashmob gathering in the Giardini.

We are honored to be invited to be included in this fabulous Italian website where women architects support women architects. This site is a model for us all!

We are thrilled to be the People’s Choice winner of the Frame Awards in the Social Category, an award that celebrates multi-national projects that demonstrate a positive political, social, and cultural impact on our communities. Louise flew to Amsterdam to participate in what was a very exciting Frame Lab conference about the vanguard of spaces and places at the forefront of new technology and humanity. We were honored to be a part of this.

For all of you traveling through Iowa in September, drop in at the Annual Iowa AIA Convention where Louise will be giving the first keynote address. Love to see you there!

Louise enjoyed spending the day discussing impressive projects with fellow AIA Chicago Design Awards Jurors Paul Mankins of Substance Architecture and Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works.

“A Provocative Paradox” was a wonderful evening at the National Arts Club dedicated to a discussion of JoAnn Locktov’s award-winning book, Dream of Venice Architecture. Louise enjoyed moderating a spirited panel including architects James Biber and Max Levy and Cynthia Davidson of Log.

Watch the video here.

What a lively sharing of work and discussion with Sharon Davis and Dean Amale Andraos!

Watch the video here.

Louise participated in an insightful discussion about women in practice with students and Yale alumni, Celia Imrey, Robin Osler, Amina Blacksher, Brandt Knapp and Kimberly Brown. The conversation was both interactive and informative and will lead to further dialogue going forward.

We are thrilled that our Pre-Fab Learning Landscape, the product of a six-year relationship with our clients in Staten Island, was honored with such a distinctive award.

Check out The Chicago Athenaeum website for our project.

Louise was delighted to discuss our work and chat with Kimberly Ackert about issues relating to her Parsons seminar, “Looking Beyond the Glass Ceiling” at the Parsons School of Design on Tuesday, March 28, 2017.

Louise joins Jim Bynum, Frances Halsband and Bea Sennewald in a thoughtful conversation moderated by Peter Navario about the role of communities in designing African health facilities.

Hope you like our New York Holiday Greeting. ArchDaily thought it was fun.

What a wonderful opportunity for Louise to participate with a terrific team of co-jurors for the 2016 GOOD DESIGN Awards. The projects were just fabulous!

Check out the GOOD DESIGN Awards here.

Louise was delighted to contribute an essay to JoAnn Locktov’s insightful book about the mystery of Venice. Along with essays by Tadao Ando, Massimiliano Fuksas, and Witold Rybczynski, among others, and photographs by Riccardo De Cal, Louise’s thoughts dissect the aesthetic wonders of this contradictory city.

It was a lovely evening at Architectural Record’s 125th Anniversary Gala. What was really memorable was Louise’s conversation with architectural critic Sarah Goldhagen and Mildred Schmertz, an early editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. Mildred discussed the early days of the magazine in detail.

We are thrilled to have our 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale installation, “Active Voice,” published by Inexhibit magazine.

Taking into consideration the particulars of time and place, architects today must engage in active conversations with communities to help give definition to their existence. “Active Voice””, our installation at the “Time Space Existence” exhibition at the 2016 Venice Biennale, is a snapshot of one such conversation. We engaged in a six-year dialogue that produced a series of architectural projects, including prefabricated classroom “buildings” that were integral to the creation of the Staten Island Community Charter School. Families of 86% of the students in the school live below the poverty line.

Check out the article here and the full video of our installation here!

We will be installing our exhibit at Palazzo Bembo for the Global Art Affairs “Time Space Existence” Exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Responding to the curatorial focus, “Reporting From the Front”, a three-dimensional video architectural exploration seen through the lens of two neighborhood grandmothers who established the school is at the core of the exhibit. The installation is composed of an integrated video display on four planes, three walls, and a horizontal platform that together describe the ongoing collaborative design process that resulted in formal and informal learning spaces for the growing number of students.

The architectural task was multifaceted. It included an ongoing search for a site for a new building, resulting in multiple investigations of possible parcels of open land as well as potential unused buildings, such as a manufacturing warehouse and an abandoned nunnery, which could be re-purposed into a new school campus. Simultaneously, yearly renovations and re-designs of the existing school classrooms and public space were part of the scope of work. The latest project is the design of adaptable, pre-fabricated “classroom buildings” suitable for small or large group learning that are located within the existing school gymnasium. This series of incremental architectural projects together strive to create an inclusive educational public domain for the students, educators and community.

What a wonderful prize to live and work for one or two months in this exquisite hill-town retreat of Civita di Bagnoregio, which seems hewn right from the rock on which it rests. Louise spent a delightful afternoon with fellow jurors, selecting architects and artists to immerse themselves in the Italian hill-town culture in order to create a thoughtful project that will result from this unique experience.

Check out the Civita website for the announcement of winners.

Our beautiful art museum in Boticas was recently profiled in ARQA’s “Portugal Internacional” issue, which celebrated international architects who have recently completed projects in Portugal. The 8-page spread on Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso includes photographs, drawings and diagrams that outline the arc of the project from start to finish. Check it out!

Louise was delighted to participate in a thoughtful discussion about the notion of inclusion in the field of architecture, viewed from an international perspective. Fellow panelists included: Farrokh Derakshani, Director, Ago Khan Award for Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland; Yasmeen Lari, Chair + CE, Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan; Juan Moreno, Principal, Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects, Chicago, IL, USA; Brigitte Shim, Principal, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Toronto, Canada; and Yasmin Vobis, Principal, Ultramoderne, Providence, RI, USA.

We are delighted to have been asked to join the inaugural pool of designers selected for Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program. Walton Family Foundation Home Region Program Director Karen Minkel says “our extensive review process, led by reputable industry professionals, will give our grantees access to high-caliber design that meets the needs of these public-use buildings and enhances Northwest Arkansas’ urban fabric.” We hope to make a meaningful contribution to the Bentonville Arkansas Community.

Click here for details.

Having been a recipient of the Architectural League Emerging Voice Award, we were delighted to be included in their critical book Thirty Years of Emerging Voices. The book documents “a significant body of realized work that represents the best of its kind and has the potential to shape the future of architecture and landscape design. Thirty Years of Emerging Voices documents and critically assesses the first three decades of the League’s Emerging Voices program.”

Click here for details.

Speaking to an enlightened group of architects, critics and thought leaders, Louise discussed our architectural approach of “Art + Conscience”. She showed a series of local and global projects from all segments of society that shared a commonality of the intersection of inventive aesthetics and community concern.

The Center for Architecture was abuzz last night with perceptive comments about the winners of the 2015 AIANY Design Awards. We are delighted that our project, Village Health Works Staff Housing, was part of the conversation.

Click here for list of winners.

We are always thrilled to know when our clients enjoy living and working in our projects, but we were particularly touched to know that the general architectural public feels the same way. This year, in 2014, two of our projects, Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso and Village Health Works Staff Housing received Architect Magazine’s Annual Design Review Awards. We are delighted!

Click here for more information!

Louise was delighted to take part in an enlightening conversation with an esteemed group of Miami-based women architects: Marilys Nepomechie of Florida International University, Carie Penabad of Cure & Penebad, and Lourdes Solera of M.C. Harry and Associates. Members of the audience were quite vocal about their opinions on the role of women in the profession, which led to a lively, interactive conversation moderated by Caroline James.

Voices From Venice is a series of one-on-one interviews with Caroline James and 5 leading women architects in the field: Caroline Bos of UNStudio, Louise Braverman of Louise Braverman, Architect, Odile Decq of Studio Odile Decq, Yasmin Shariff of Dennis Sharp Architects, and Benedetta Tabliabue of Miralles Tagliabue EMBT. Louise enjoyed participating with her thoughtful peers in this video where women speak candidly about their experiences in the contemporary architecture world. The video is an extension of Caroline James and Arielle Assouline-Lichten’s ongoing effort for gender equality in architecture, which began with the petition to recognize Denise Scott Brown’s inclusion in the 1991 Pritzker Prize.

Check out the video on Vimeo!

New Yorkers, check out our design for Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso at New York New Design from October 9th – November 2nd at the West 4th Street subway Station! Organized by the AIA New York and the Center for Architecture, the show is a part of Archtober, New York City’s Architecture and Design Month-long festival. The exhibition features projects that offer a snapshot of current practice and the scope and quality of work being done by AIA New York Chapter members across the globe.

Click here for more information.

More good news about the Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso! Our design for the art museum in Boticas, Portugal won a 2014 American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design / The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The awards honor the best new significant buildings that influence the current aesthetic direction of today’s architectural work, and we are so proud to have our work selected for this recognition.

Click here for a list of winners.

We are so pleased to win the International Design of Merit Award for our 18-units of off-the-grid housing in rural Kigutu, Burundi. If you happen to be in Saratoga Springs, check out our work displayed among fellow Design Award winners at the AIA New York State Design Conference from October 9-11!

Click here for a list of winners.

We are thrilled that our sustainable art museum in Boticas, Portugal has won the International Design of Excellence Award, the most prestigious in the International Category. Check out our work displayed among fellow Design Award winners at the AIA New York State Design Conference in Saratoga Springs from October 9-11!

If you’re heading to Venice for the 14th Architecture Biennale, don’t miss the OfficeUS Exhibit in the US Pavilion, curated by Storefront for Art and Architecture. We are proud to have our firm and work on display among our peers in an exhibit that looks back on 100 years of US architectural firms working abroad while projecting a new model for global architectural practice open to all of us. Along with images and models of Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso, we are also presenting images of Village Health Works Staff Housing in Burundi as well as information about our firm.

Click here for more information about OfficeUS.

We are thrilled to return to Venice to display our work in the “Time Space Existence” International Exhibition in Palazzo Bembo. The exhibit, curated by the Global Arts Affairs Foundation, calls for architects to discuss the philosophical concepts of Time, Space and Existence, in reference to Curator Rem Koolhas’ premise of Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014.  Sarah Williams Goldhagen, architecture critic of The New Republic, speaks on an audio loop of her ideas about Situated Modernism, which we feel complements both our design approach and our installation. Our project has been mentioned in multiple publications, including ArchDaily’s 100 Architects From 6 Continents Discuss “Time Space Existence” at the 2014 Venice Biennale  and Arch News Now’s The Great Compilation: 14th International Exhibition of Architecture de la Biennale di Venezia.

Images of the project will be on display at the Architecture Boston Expo 2014 in the Design Awards Gallery from October 28-30. All those in Boston, check it out! Also hope to see all of you Bostonians at the BSA Design Awards Gala at the Intercontinental Hotel on January 29, 2015, where the exact level of the awards will be revealed.

Thanks to Medha Singh, from our office team, for spearheading the production of our intricate and lovely models of our project in Boticas, Portugal. Check it out at the US Pavilion in Venice!

We are thrilled that our design for the Village Health Works Staff Housing received a Special Mention 2014 Architizer A+ Award. Louise enjoyed the celebration at the Second Annual Architizer A+Awards Gala at Highline Studios in Chelsea, New York.

Louise joined fellow alumni Celia Imrey, Laura Pirie, Robin Osler, Kimberly Brown, Doreen Adengo and Gabrielle Brainard to discuss their goals and experiences in creating their own architecture firms. The lively discussion was followed by a reception on the fourth floor of Yale A&A Building in New Haven.

In quick-fire 6-minute intervals, Louise joined 9 other New York architects to present our project, the Derfner Judaica Museum, as an example of outstanding interior spaces. The “Inside Out/Outside In” speed presentation, hosted by the AIANY Interiors Committee, focuses on interior projects that operate both internally and externally and contribute to the greater community by connecting to the public realm.

Louise was delighted to join Women in Housing and Finance Women Executives Roundtable Event in New York City. Seven substantial women from all phases of design, finance, and construction discussed professional issues related to housing with the membership of this esteemed organization. The evening was filled with conversation about thoughtful issues that affect all of us in the profession.

Louise really enjoyed participating in a Pecha Kucha roundtable discussion, moderated by Cathleen McGuigan, Editor-in-Chief, Architectural Record, about small firms going global. Nine New York-based architects got together at the AIANY Center for Architecture to talk about the intersection of their small practices with work that takes them around the globe. The conversation highlighted the resourcefulness and flexibility of small firms as well as the complexity of global/local relations in far away places.

We are thrilled that our design for the Master Plan for a Sustainable Kigutu has just won a second distinguished award, a 2013 American Architecture Award, from the Chicago Athenaeum/ European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies. Our project, along with all the other distinguished winners of both the American Architecture Awards and the International Architecture Awards will be on display at the 14th International Biennial of Architecture Buenos Aires from September 19th – October 15th, 2013.

Click here for a list of winners.

We are honored that our design for the Master Plan for a Sustainable Kigutu was selected to win a 2013 International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum/ European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies. Our project, along with all the other distinguished winners will be on display at the 14th International Biennial of Architecture Buenos Aires from September 19th- October 15th, 2013.

Click here for a list of winners.

Check out the installation of Nadir Afonso’s artwork in its new home in Boticas, Portugal.

Click here for museum Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso Facebook page.

Louise looks forward to joining the national 2014 American Institute of Architects Housing Award jury that features the best new housing designs in the country.

Click here for details on the AIA Housing Awards.

We are excited that our VHW Staff Residence won a Chicago Athenaeum/European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies 2013 Green GOOD DESIGN Award.

Click here for a list of winners.

Palladia Inc. will celebrate Chelsea Court’s 10th Anniversary, showcasing our project as an example of lasting, high-quality, affordable housing. We are thrilled!

Click here for museum website

Click here for video, “Kigutu in Formation”, on Youtube.

Louise presented our work at the first-ever Yale Women Symposium.

Louise joins this prestigious jury founded by Saarinen, Eames & Nelson.

We are excited to create a home for the Staten Island Community Charter School.

Construction of our museum for Nadir Afonso in Portugal moves along.

Check out the ArchDaily article about our installation at the Venice Biennale.

Our VHW Staff Residence wins a Chicago Athenaeum: 2012 American Architecture Award

Louise was delighted to join Rachel Lawe, Director of the International Collage Center, noted collage artist Michael Oatman, and his Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute architectural students for their spring final design jury. This event was particularly noteworthy because the project was to plan the new International Collage Center Museum, which our firm will be designing in the near future. The insightful designs were, in part, a result of a recent student field trip to the museum site in Milton, Pennsylvania, where Louise, Rachel, and Pavel Zoubok, the inspiration behind the new museum, discussed how the intersection of collage and architecture will define the project.

Construction of Our VHW Staff Residence is under way in Burundi, Africa.