Anne Marie Lubrano and Lea Ciavarra, principals of Lubrano Ciavarra Design in
New York City and Syracuse University School of Architecture visiting critics, will
speak Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 5 p.m. in Slocum Hall Auditorium. The lecture,
"Renovation/Innovation: A Design Collaboration on the Near Westside," is free and
open to the public.
The two architects will discuss the "Renovation/Innovation" design studio course they
taught at Syracuse Architecture in spring 2008. The course gave students opportunity
to learn about innovative house renovation through hands-on design of several
existing wood-frame houses in Syracuse's economically distressed Near Westside
neighborhood. Students collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of local firms and
institutions affiliated with the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and
Energy Systems. The firm is involved in ongoing renovation work for the homes.
Additionally, this fall, Lubrano and Ciavarra are teaching the school's first design-
build studio intended to construct an innovative, cost-effective, sustainable, LEED-
certified, single-family home on a pre-selected site in the neighborhood.
Lubrano and Ciavarra formed their architecture and design firm in 1999. The work
of the firm's seven architects, designers and interns includes all scales of residential,
commercial and institutional projects, such as The New York Center for Autism
Charter School, the Point Knitting Cafe in Greenwich Village, Greenpoint
Condominiums in Brooklyn, the Alcon Builders Group Building in New York and the
Phase One-winning submission for the international "Chicago Public Schools: Big
Shoulders Small Schools" design competition.
Lubrano received her master's of architecture degree in 1996 from Harvard
University Graduate School of Design. Prior to founding the partnership of Lubrano
Ciavarra Design, she trained at several offices in New York City. Over the past 10
years, she has taught design studios at Harvard University, the Boston Architectural
Center and the Interior Design Department at the Parsons School of Design.
Ciavarra received her master's of architecture degree in 1995 from the SU School of
Architecture. She began her career in the profession as a full-time faculty member at
Syracuse Architecture (1995-97), one year of which was serving as director of the
Pre-Architecture Program in Florence, Italy. She has taught design studios at New
York Institute of Technology, the Parsons School of Design and the New Jersey
Institute of Technology.
SU School of Architecture is the fourth-oldest program in the United States and is
consistently rated among the top architecture schools in the country. In 2008, the
school's undergraduate program was ranked third in the nation by
DesignIntelligence.
For more information, visit http://soa.syr.edu.
