Thank you to all who joined us for the 2025 Architecture Alumni Awards. It was a joy to come together and celebrate the remarkable impact of our alumni community.
We were proud to honor four outstanding graduates in two award categories for their leadership, innovation and service to the field:
Distinguished Alumni Award
Leon Bridges, FAIA, NOMAC (retired), BArch 1960
Ed Weinstein, FAIA, BArch 1971
Graduates of the Last Decade Award
Stephanie Farrell, AIA, MArch 2016
Araceli Lopez, RA, BA Arch Design/BS CM 2015
A special thank you to our jury — Margaret Knight, Jeff Reibman, Scott Wolf, and Gladys Ly-Au Young — for their thoughtful evaluation and leadership.
We’re also deeply grateful to LMN Architects for hosting us in their inspiring shop space and helping create such a memorable setting for the evening.
To each of you who joined us this special evening, thank you. We are grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with our community and celebrate the impact of both our established and emerging professional colleagues.
Make a gift
If you are interested in supporting the Department of Architecture, we invite you to make a gift to the Friends of Architecture Fund or another fund of your choosing.
In times of change and uncertainty, the strength of our community—and our shared investment in higher education—matters more than ever. Your support helps ensure that future architects have the resources, inspiration and access they need to thrive.
To explore additional giving opportunities or to discuss your philanthropic goals, please contact Savannah Ledgerwood at ledges@uw.edu.
AIA Large Firm Roundtable Deans’ Forum
October 16th, 2024
AIA New York | Center for Architecture
This past October, I was invited to the AIA Large Firm Roundtable Deans’ Forum in New York City as the student representative of UW’s Department of Architecture. This event was attended by CEOs and leaders of the top 60 firms in the nation, Deans of architecture programs from universities across the country, and their chosen student representatives. It was an amazing dialogue between the professional world, the academic world, and the students who bridge the gap.
During the forum at the Center for Architecture, there were a number of events for the attendees to discuss current topics in the built environments. I sat at a table with two CEOs, three Deans, and two other students. We discussed expectations for entering the profession, how to accommodate students with jobs, and upcoming changes to architectural standards. There were also several amazing panels on alternate pathways to licensure, how academia can support the profession and vice versa, and the current issues being addressed at universities.
We also had the opportunity to organize a student-led panel discussion. We student representatives met beforehand to pick the panelists and the topics we wanted to speak on. I was elected as one of the five panelists to speak on the frustrating lack of diversity in curricula and the concurrent lack of effort from professors to learn and teach about architecture from different cultures. We also spoke on the inadequate support network for students of color, disadvantages international students face when seeking jobs, uncertainty around the future role of AI, post-COVID studio culture, and the stagnant job market for emerging professionals. Though we were heavily critiquing the system created by these leading professionals sitting in the audience, we received overwhelming support and pride for speaking our truths.
A group of us students were also able to explore Manhattan the first night, walking around past midnight and getting to know each other. Oftentimes, architectural communities are such insulated bubbles that we don’t know whether our struggles are personal or universal. This forum was a fantastic event that helped pop that bubble for not only me and the other students, but hopefully for the Deans and CEOs that are leading this profession.
Congratulations to Trevin Thompson (M Arch 2025 candidate) and to the three other CBE students, Braedyn Reed, Kort Maeda, and Lela Cooper, on their recognition to the 2025 Husky 100. This prestigious recognition honors 100 students from across the University of Washington for their exceptional leadership and meaningful contributions to both campus life and their communities.
Congratulations to Rico Quirindongo, AIA, for his recent recognition as one of Seattle Magazine’s Most Influential people in 2025. Rico graduated from our Master of Architecture program in 1999 and was awarded the UW Architecture Distinguished Alumni Award in 2023 recognizing his significant contributions to the profession of architecture and the broader community.
Anthony Costa Heywood, 2024 (photo credit: Roberto Pomi)
Anthony Costa Heywood, known affectionately as Tony, passed away on November 18, 2024. He was the husband of renowned architect and University of Washington professor Astra Zarina, the founder of the UW Rome Center. A distinguished architect and one of the last permanent residents of Civita di Bagnoregio, he leaves behind a profound legacy in the preservation and revitalization of this historic Italian town.
Born on July 19, 1936, in Athens, Georgia, he was a man of many talents. A former college football player, passionate lover of opera, an exceptional cook, gardener and a cat lover with a great gift for conversation, he generously shared his knowledge and hospitality with students, families, and residents alike. He arrived in Italy in the 1960s and married Astra in 1971. After Astra found the Palazzo Pio and established the UW Rome Center, Tony played an active role in the design and renovation of its facilities in the early 1980s.
Anthony Costa Heywood (left), Astra Zarina (right), Rome, 1960s
Tony and Astra began spending time in Civita di Bagnoregio in the early 1960s and eventually purchased and restored a home there in the 1970s. Civita was a place unlike any other—perched atop a fragile plateau of volcanic tuff and accessible only by a pedestrian bridge. Isolated from modernization, it had only a dozen full-time inhabitants at the time. Devastated by an earthquake in 1695 and bombed during World War II, the ancient town faced constant geological threats due to the erosion of its clay foundation. Yet Tony and Astra were captivated by its architecture, history, and community.
By 1976, Astra had formally established a summer UW architecture study-abroad program in Civita, deepening both of their ties to the town, and Civita became both a retreat and a center for academic and preservation efforts. Tony was also active in the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD) for 18 years, serving as its president, reflecting his commitment to advancing architectural discourse on an international scale. Concurrently, Tony dedicated part of his career in the preservation of their expanding property in Civita, one that led him to become a pivotal figure in the restoration of historic Italian hill towns.
In 1981, Tony and Astra co-founded the Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy (NIAUSI), now known as the Civita Institute. This organization fosters interdisciplinary understanding of Italian hill towns, promoting historic preservation, education, and cultural exchange. Their dedication ensured that future generations could learn from and appreciate these unique environments. Following Astra’s death in 2008, Tony acted on their plan and generously donated their estate to the Civita Institute. Unfortunately, in the years before his death Tony experienced increasing tension with the organization, due to his concerns that it was drifting away from its members’ wishes and their original shared vision. Yet, even amidst these challenging times, he remained steadfast in his dedication until his final days, fighting to uphold the shared vision he and Astra had for Civita’s cultural and architectural heritage – and one that lives on with those working to carry on its legacy.
Anthony Costa Heywood
Tony was also a man of deep passion and generosity, who had deep bonds within the Civita community. The mayor of Bagnoregio, Luca Profili, honored his legacy, stating:
“His passing is a great loss. Tony was an extraordinary figure and a pillar of our small community—one of the last historic inhabitants of Civita. His passion for our town and his tireless efforts to preserve its beauty will remain in our hearts. He always found time to help others, to listen, and to push forward initiatives that made our town better.”
Tony and Astra transformed Civita into both their refuge and the center of their work centered in architectural and cultural heritage. Their efforts helped shift Civita from a dying town to a thriving cultural destination, now attracting thousands of visitors each day. Tony’s legacy lives on in his many friends, former students, visitors, and residents whose lives he touched deeply, and in the enduring beauty of the place he so deeply loved.
Written by Kathryn Rogers Merlino, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Scan Design Foundation Endowed Chair in Built Environments, Director, Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse, Department of Architecture, College of Built Environments, University of Washington
Jim Donnette passed away on November 10, 2024, after a life marked by optimism, adventure, and dedication to teaching. Jim was an alumnus of the UW Master of Architecture program (1969) and a member of the UW Architecture faculty for 30 years.
Raised in Torrance, California, Jim earned an AA in Aeronautical Engineering from El Camino Community College. He pursued architecture at UC Berkeley, where he earned his Bachelor of Architecture and he later added a Master’s from the University of Washington.
Jim found his real calling as an Assistant Professor in the Architecture Department at the University of Washington. Jim proved to be a natural teacher, particularly in the area of architectural drawing and graphic representation. His empathic nature and sincere desire to help students understand conceptual relationships was always foremost in his teaching.
While teaching, Jim continued his own studies, focusing on graphics as a critical tool of communication. In 1969 he became a tenured member of the UW Architecture faculty and was promoted to Associate Professor. In the same year, he also received his Washington State License to practice Architecture. As a faculty member, Jim founded the Graphics Laboratory, teaching critical thinking through graphics to several thousand students in architecture, interior design, urban, planning and construction management.
Jim also had an uncompromising integrity and sense of fairness that made him a natural selection for administrative roles within the College of Architecture & Urban Planning (now College of the Built Environment) as he was able to work well with all of the departments. When then Dean Gordon Varey established an All-College Undergraduate Degree program, he appointed Jim as Program Director. Jim also served for a time as Chair of the Department of Building Construction (now Construction Management Department).
A Celebration of Life will be held on May 4, 2025, at the Seattle Elks Lodge, 6411 Seaview Ave, from 1 to 3 pm. where friends and family will gather to share stories and remember Jim’s lasting impact.
Join us for the launch of our latest print journal, 41.2: Collaboration, at Gould Hall on the University of Washington campus on Friday, Nov. 22 from 6-8 pm!
For this issue, ARCADE has partnered with the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments Architecture Writing class, taught by Lauren Gallow, and features essays written by the students on a topic or design project of their choice. A large part of bringing this theme of “collaboration” to life is through the pairing of each essay with a professional or mentor currently working in the field who is adjacent to the student’s topic.
Gould Hall is located at 3950 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105. Due to limited parking, we encourage you to take advantage of Seattle’s Link Light Rail, King County Metro, or other public transit options.
ARCADE NW is a non-profit community publishing house focused on projects related to art, design, and architecture.
Congratulations to Best Practice (Ian Butcher, MArch 1999 and Kailin Gregga, BAAD 2002) whose Aspen Leaf Ranch design was published in The New York Times’ Living Small column. We caught up with Ian and Kailin to chat about Best Practice to learn more about the project, and what makes their firm tick.
Photo by Benj Drummond
Best Practice was founded with the goal of fostering a place where people are encouraged to evolve and develop ideas based on the specifics of each project. “We’re known for leaning into eccentric conditions, and we aim to embrace the challenges that come from treating what seem like constraints as design opportunities,” notes Kailin. Ian adds, “We wanted to make a studio that was a great place to work, and to work with the extended and talented building community in Seattle. We are so lucky to work with talented fabricators, craftspeople and artists on our projects and seek out those collaborations. They are what lend a unique measure and feel to our projects and showcase a different way of being local.”
Associate Professor Gundula Proksch received the 2024 Architecture Research Center Consortium (ARCC) Mid-Career Research Impact Award. The award is offered annually to a mid-career faculty member at an ARCC member institution to recognize outstanding performance and substantive impact in architectural research.
Professor Mehlika Inanici has been awarded the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) 2023 Leon Gaster Award. The Leon Gaster award is presented for the best paper included in the SLL Lighting Research & Technology Journal concerned with lighting applications, and recognizes the role that Leon Gaster made as the founder of the Illuminating Engineering Society in 1909. The award was first made in 1929 and one award is given annually. Inanici will receive the award at the SLL Annual General Meeting, Awards and Presidential Address on May 14 2024 in Leeds, England.
This year, 98 architects in the U.S. and beyond were elevated to the AIA College of Fellows, including Professors Ann Marie Borys and Kate Simonen. Nine of the department’s permanent and affiliate faculty are now AIA Fellows. In addition, three UW Architecture alumni were also elevated to Fellowship: Samuel Batchelor, designLab Architects in Boston (M.Arch, 2004); Douglas Ito, SMR Architects (BA Architecture, 1992); and Robert Misel, The Miller Hull Partnership LLP (BA Architecture, 1989). Doug Ito is also the recipient of the 2024 Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award, which recognizes an architect or organization that champions a range of social issues. UW Architecture will host a reception/celebration for alumni and friends at the AIA Conference in Washington, D.C. on June 5 at ZGF Architects. Register here to attend.
The 2024 design exCHANGE exhibit is an annual exhibition of unbuilt projects by local Seattle architecture firms. The projects showcased are located in the Pacific Northwest region and all around the world.
This exhibit is free and open to the public.
Exhibition April 26 – May 9, 2024
Gould Court
Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 2024 5:30PM
This event is not open to the general public.
The 2024 design exCHANGE opening reception is an invitation only event to celebrate the opening of the annual design exCHANGE exhibit. The opening reception is open to members of the UW College of Built Environments and invited members of the Seattle design community. Please register to attend.
We are proud to announce that four members of the UW Architecture community have been recognized with an AIA Seattle Award this year!
“Each year, AIA Seattle celebrates leadership and achievement in design and the built environment through its member awards program, which recognizes individual leadership and achievement in design and the built environment at the local and national levels. Honorees are nominated by their peers and selected by the Fellows & Honors Committee each year to acknowledge excellence and strengthen ties between architects and the many professions that partner with them to make a difference through design.” – AIA Seattle
Gold Medal: Susan Jones, FAIA, atelierjones, Affiliate Associate Professor
College of Fellows: Bill LaPatra FAIA, LEED AP
Community Service Award: Emilia Cabeza de Baca, AIA – 2019 M Arch alum
Allied Organization Award: NOMAS UW – student organization
For more information about each award and to purchase tickets to attend the awards ceremony on January 23, visit the AIA Seattle event website.
AIA Seattle Parti
Tuesday, January 23 6-8:30pm @ The Forum at Town Hall Seattle
Overseas, the exhibition “The Wright Imperial Hotel at 100: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World” curated by Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima at the Toyota Museum of Art (Aichi, Japan) attracted a record 35,000+ visitors while on view October-December 2023. This year it travels to Tokyo to the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art (January 11 – March 10) and the Aomori Museum of Art (March 20 – May 12, 2024).
Here in the United States, an exhibit will open in June 2024. Mona Ghandi, Assistant Teaching Professor, is a recent winner and finalist of the DATMA (Massachusetts Design Art & Technology Institute) public art Installation peer reviewed national competition. Her interactive piece entitled “Mood-Vironment” is a full-scale interactive installation that interacts with the visitors’ emotions and changes itself accordingly. The piece will be built in New Bedford MA and will be on display until October 2024.
Furniture pieces designed and built by Master of Architecture students Morocco Branting and Jeremy Salesin in our 2023 Scan Design Furniture Studio have been selected as finalists in the GRAY Awards Student Design category.
The GRAY Awards is an international competition recognizing creative excellence & outstanding work happening around the world. Read more about the students’ projects here.
Winners will be announced in March 2024. Congratulations to both!
This exhibit showcases the modern architectural designs and social activism of Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr. (1920-1981) – a graduate of the University of Washington, Department of Architecture, and the first Black architect registered in Washington State. McAdoo’s life and work linked two distinct worlds in the mid-century period: the struggle for racial equity and civil rights, and the rise of modernism in architectural design. This exhibit highlights how McAdoo’s engaged, activist modern architecture bridged these often-disparate worlds, and challenged the status quo from the late 1940s through the 1970s.
Support for this exhibit provided by 4Culture, the CBE Inspire Fund, and the Department of Architecture.
Gould Gallery, Gould Hall
3950 University Way, University of Washington
Exhibit Open February 1st to March 15th
Congratulations to our University of Washington National Organization of Minority Architects student chapter (NOMAS UW) who represented the College of Built Environments and the Department of Architecture at 2023’s NOMA National Conference. They participated in this year’s Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition, one of the highlights of the conference held in October in Portland.
In Winter 2023, four interdisciplinary student teams in the Architecture 507 design studio explored development strategies at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in the Central District. One of teams was recognized with the 2023 Planet Positive Award for Student Work from Metropolis Magazine. The team consisted of: Bryce Boho (Architecture), William Flanagan (Architecture), Lu He (Landscape Architecture), Alicia Jacobs (Urban Design and Planning), Facundo Jaime (Architecture), Jacob Schmitz (Architecture). Faculty included: Donald King (Architecture), Brice Maryman (Landscape Architecture), Rick Mohler (Architecture), Jess Zimbabwe (Urban Design and Planning).
Seattle’s Central District, a long-standing African-American community, is facing strong gentrification and displacement pressures. As a result, Black churches face difficult decisions about whether to stay in the district or relocate. In response, the Nehemiah Initiative—a collaboration between church leadership, academic institutions, city departments, and affordable housing advocates – strives to leverage the churches’ property and assets to mitigate the ongoing gentrification and displacement through strategic urban design and real estate development. By adding sustainably built affordable housing and public spaces, the initiative can support black homeownership and small-business opportunities. At the same time, the plans maximize green stormwater infrastructure and on-site energy production while leveraging off-site prefabrication, including volumetric modular and mass timber construction, to reduce embodied carbon and costs.
We are proud to announce that UW AIAS is hosting the 2024 West Quad Conference, Bloom: Emerging Solutions for Urban Sustainability, in Seattle from April 4-7, 2024. This conference will welcome architecture students from around the western United States to our city, where they will experience Seattle’s commitment to sustainability, visionary attitude, and, of course, award-winning architectural accomplishments. The 2024 West Quad Conference will encompass keynote speeches, firm tours, building tours, workshops, panels, and a career fair related to the three programming cornerstones: Innovation and Efficiency, Environmental Responsiveness, and Sustainable Urban Growth.
The UW AIAS Chapter is also known for hosting a peer mentorship program encapsulating 160+ student volunteers, skills workshops, building tours, and the annual CBE Beaux Arts Ball, which garnered 200+ attendees in 2023. We are a capable and enthusiastic community! If you would like to inquire about involvement or sponsorship in the 2024 West Quad Conference, please contact uwashington@aias.org
In bringing together works from Columbia University’s Avery Library, MoMA, the Library of Congress and Japanese collections, this exhibition reexamines Wright as one of the first global architects pursuing this decade-long project at the nexus of his vast career spanning art, architecture, and design to writing, landscape, education, construction and urbanism. Highlights of the exhibition include film footage of the construction of Wright’s Fallingwater (1936-), a full-scale Usonian House installation and contemporary color animated film of Broadacre City (1929-35). The reexamination of Wright also considers his designs in the context of his travels and passions connecting different landscapes and cultures around the world, and pursuit of high-rises including his 528-story Mile-High Illinois skyscraper (1956). Today, a further evolution of Wright’s vision can be seen in the design of the new high-rise Imperial Hotel (2021-2036) by Tsuyoshi Tane (1979-) that bridges past/present/future.
Wednesday, November 8 5:30PM
147 Architecture Hall
Katie Swenson is a Senior Principal at MASS Design Group, where she leads the Advocacy team. Katie’s work explores how critical design practice can, and should, promote economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, and healthy communities. She has over 20 years of experience in the theoretical and practical applications of design thinking. Katie teaches at the Parsons School of Design at The New School and lectures extensively on sustainable community development and affordable housing. She was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2019 and the AIA Award for Excellence in Public Architecture in 2021. Katie is a juror for the 2023 AIA Awards for Washington Architecture.
This lecture is free and open to the public. AIA Continuing Education credit is available for attendance.
Wednesday, October 04 5:30PM
147 Architecture Hall
Søren Nielsen is the 2023 Scan Design Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. Søren is architect and co-owner of Vandkunsten Architects in Copenhagen, one of the country’s leading socially and environmentally engaged offices. Responsible for Vandkunsten’s R&D activities, Søren is devoted to design strategies for sustainability, in particular resource protection, building transformation and the social, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of reuse. With 35 years of practice, he has been the leading force behind multiple innovative projects for affordable housing, adaptability, circularity, and the use of biogenic materials.
This lecture is free and open to the public. AIA Continuing Education credit is available for attendance.
Professor Rick Mohler was appointed Chair of the Department of Architecture in June 2023. Throughout his career he has promoted just, policy-driven cities, shaped by principled design, addressing all scales of urban experience through teaching, action research, professional practice, and community engaged scholarship and service. In doing so, he strengthens connections between the academy, profession, government, and community. Through his own practice, work with other firms, and independent collaborations, Rick has been recognized thirty-seven times in local, regional, national, and international design awards programs and design competitions. His students have been recognized over twenty times in regional, national, and international design competitions and awards programs.
Over the past few years, he has received a 2019 R+D Award from Architect magazine, a 2021 ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award, a 2022 Place Design Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), and a 2022 AIA Small Projects Award. Rick is a former member of the AIA Seattle Board of Directors, former Co-Chair of the AIA Seattle Public Policy Board and former Co-Chair and current member of the Seattle Planning Commission. In recognition of his contributions in practice, education, research, and advocacy, he was elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2021 and received the AIA Seattle Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement, the highest honor the chapter bestows on its members, in 2022.
Mike Mora (MArch 1994), a partner in Seattle-based Heliotrope Architects, had a recently completed remodel and addition to a landmarked Seattle home featured in the New York Times on September 6. The article titled “A Ship Captain’s House in Seattle, via Norway, Finds New Life” applauds the contemporary yet sensitive addition to the traditional house.
The Norwegians have an expression: “Wood is our living archive.” As early as A.D. 800, the Vikings displayed their excellent craftsmanship and knowledge of wood construction techniques in their longships.
Heliotrope Architects honors such craft traditions, which may explain the kitchen’s deep resonance to Ms. Schneider.
“The kitchen really feels like a collaboration; it really did come out as I hoped,” she said. “I now feel connected to this place through this project: It’s an homage to the old house and a nod to my husband’s Japanese, very minimalist sensibility.”
Associate Professor Tyler Sprague was one of five faculty from throughout North America recognized with a 2023 ACSA Timber Education Prize which honors courses that “seek to recognize effective and innovative curricula that create a stimulating and evidence-based environment for learning about timber.” The award was for Architecture 498: Mass Timber Architecture: Material, Structure, and Detail and includes funding for Tyler to further develop the curriculum over the next two years.
“Watershed is an enthralling design with robust information, well executed graphics and clear data. Effectively utilizing the boards to show the quantitative data-driven measures, the project represents a system thinking approach to the design, which clearly shows a rigor of understanding of analysis and environmental metrics.” – Competition Jury
Congratulations to our students and faculty for this outstanding achievement!
Located in Seattle, Washington, Watershed is a 105,000 SF research institution situated along the Ballard neighborhood’s historically industrial waterfront. To harmonize the community’s relationship with the natural environment – within an industrial setting – Watershed leverages synergies between a biodiversity research institute, a native plant nursery, a salmon hatchery, and an education center to create an experience centered around community empowerment, resiliency, and a sustainable future.
Recognizing the importance of urban landscapes within the larger biosphere, Watershed’s biodiversity research institute will assess emerging threats to urban ecosystems and wildlife through collaborative, scientific research. The integration of the pacific salmon hatchery will help sustain a critical industry within the Pacific Northwest, while creating opportunities for community education and giving biodiversity researchers direct access to a keystone species. To maximize programmatic synergies, waste water from the hatchery will be captured and recycled into the native plant nursery, where the nutrient-rich water will help fertilize native plant saplings before terminating in the on-site constructed wetland.
Currently classified as temperate marine, Seattle’s climate is underpinned by its native species that continue to be threatened by urbanization and climate change. Growing native plant species in a partially controlled environment provides the community with continued access to healthy native plants, while supporting educational opportunities and critical scientific research. Uniting these programs together is the education center where empowering neighbors, strengthening communal bonds, and creating a forum for public engagement are at the core of its mission. By inspiring the community through knowledge, the education center provides equitable access to resources and experts whose mission is to have a lasting impact on the community and its natural resources.
Merging the ideas of environment, community, and research together, the site breaks the historically inaccessible industrial barrier along the waterfront by creating a new community gathering space that prioritizes the health of the natural environment. A large public pier, a waterfront activities center, and a new space for the existing Salmon Bay Café (a neighborhood staple since 1970) create an energetic amenity for the community that increases accessibility and connection to Ballard’s waterfront. The constructed wetland throughout the site, strategically curated to restore and strengthen existing ecological systems, cleans polluted stormwater runoff heading towards Salmon Bay. This multi-functional landscape promotes community awareness of human impacts on these vital natural systems, while providing researchers with opportunities to observe the intersection of the natural and urban environments.
The Department of Architecture is saddened to learn of the passing of one its most illustrious graduates, Norman Pfeiffer, FAIA. Norman was born in Seattle in 1940. His grandfather was a construction superintendent and Norman was interested in architecture at an early age. He enrolled in the five-year program at UW in 1959 and graduated with his B.Arch. Cum Laude in 1964. During his time at UW (on weekends and during the summers), he worked for Paul Hayden Kirk & Associates (Kirk, Wallace, McKinley after 1960). He next spent a year at Columbia University, earning his M.Arch. in 1965. On graduation he joined Hugh Hardy & Associates. In 1967, he was one of the three founding partners of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. In 1986 Pfeiffer returned to the West Coast to open the Los Angeles office of HHPA.
HHPA initially designed houses and schools, but gradually took on larger projects and became known for their innovative public buildings including museums and performing arts centers, as well as numerous renovations and adaptive reuse projects. The firm never developed a “house style,” but addressed each project on its own terms within the framework of contemporary architecture.
HHPA was a nationally significant firm that received over 100 national design awards in its 37 years of existence, including the Arnold W. Brunner Prize of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974 and the national AIA Firm Award in 1981. The firm and its work received frequent publication. In 1992, Rizzoli published the monograph, Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, Buildings and Projects 1967-1992; in 1998 Rizzoli published a second volume, Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates: Buildings and Projects 1993-1998.
All three partners became AIA Fellows – Norman Pfeiffer in 1981.
Around 1980, HHPA won the commission for the restoration and expansion of the Los Angeles Public Library. The firm developed an initial concept design, but before this oved forward, arson fires in 1986 and an earthquake the following year caused substantial damage. HHPA revised their designs and the project moved forward under Norman Pfeiffer to completion in 1993. The HHPA Los Angeles office under Pfeiffer’s direction was made permanent.
Pfeiffer served for more than two decades on the University of Washington Architectural Commission beginning in 1989. Pfeiffer taught as a Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at UCLA beginning in 1987, and has also taught at Yale, Cincinnati and other schools.
When HHPA disbanded in 2004, Norman Pfeiffer opened Pfeiffer Partners based in Los Angeles. The firm subsequently opened a New York office. The firm has about 50 professionals in its two offices and continues to take on challenging cultural and educational projects as well as restoration and reuse. And, the firm continues to receive significant recognition, as listed here: http://pfeifferpartners.com/recognition/
Norman’s son Alex is also a graduate of our program, having received his M.Arch in 2001.