May 16th, 2024

Margie Lavender Partner, Kligerman Architecture & Design

Margie Lavender is an architect and partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design (KAD). The firm’s residential and boutique commercial projects are known for their distinctive design that is rooted in tradition, but modern in its sculptural forms, taut detailing, glass expanses, and often a touch of whimsy. To their complex projects in NYC and throughout the United States, Margie brings an expert eye for detail, honed over 24 years as an architect, as well by her studies and travels in Japan. Her appreciation of craft in architecture, and its interplay with nature and light coalesced there, and continues to influence her thoughts about beauty, and flourishes in her architecture practice at KAD. Her office is set in midtown Manhattan on the 45th floor overlooking the Empire State Building and Bryant Park.

In 2021, Margie launched an 8-week summer internship program in partnership with the NYC institution, Prep for Prep, whose mission is to develop future leaders by creating access for young people of color to first-rate educational and professional advancement opportunities. Margie is also passionate about gardening and our human relationship to nature. She channels this into her own garden, as well as acting as the Garden Club of Irvington’s Conservation Committee co-chair, and their GCA National Affairs and Legislation delegate. She is co-founder and lead of the Hastings Pollinator Pathway, a volunteer project focused on gardening for biodiversity.

the cream will always rise to the top

Margie Lavender grew up in Dallas, the youngest of three sisters, all uniquely ambitious and fiercely independent. This was in no small part to their single mother’s influence, who often told her daughters, “The cream will always rise to the top;” Margie saw this more as a directive than an adage. Her talk will touch on those years, her years in Austin, and those in which she tread her own path in the mountains of Colorado which led her to the world of high end residential architecture, and ultimately to her practice in New York City. Margie will talk about her path from employee to partner, her mentors along the way, and the resultant shifts in her life and thinking.

Astrid Lipka AIA, LEED AP, Principal, Rice+Lipka Architects

Astrid Lipka is a principal of Rice+Lipka Architects, a New York based studio with an iterative design approach that actively teases out potential latent within practical constraint. Together with her partner Lyn Rice, Lipka seeks to engage the public with works that inspire by bringing a resourceful civic-mindedness to a range of building, planning, art, and cultural research projects.

Lipka’s work has been published widely and recognized both internationally and domestically with numerous awards, including a dozen American Institute of Architects Design Awards, such as a National Honor and a New York State Award of Excellence, as well as an International Architecture Award, an International ALA/IIDA Library Design Award, National AIA/ALA Library Building Award, and the Architectural Review Future Projects Award among others. NYC’s Public Design Commission recognized Lipka as part of Women-Designed NYC publication. ARCHITECT Magazine ranked Rice+Lipka Architects #4 in the nation in their 2018 list of Top 50 Firms in Design.

Lipka grew up in Germany and trained in Germany, Switzerland, and Spain before moving to New York. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and a registered architect in New York State. She holds a Masters Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University and is an Assistant Professor at Parsons the New School for Design, where she has been an advisor for the Graduate Architecture Thesis since 2008.

Current projects include the Philmont Community Center, NYPL Hamilton Fish Park Library, the QPL Arverne Library, NYPD Bomb Squad Building, as well as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

to be determined - embedded opportunities

In a broad sense, “to be determined” reflects a state of openness and flexibility. In life, practice, planning and design, it stands for an approach of actively teasing out and shaping the opportunities embedded that are yet to be uncovered. At the same time, it is a reminder to question and redefine, whether personal or work trajectory, a program brief or a project, and allow for it to adapt and evolve over time. In this conversation, Astrid will share from her personal story, professional experiences, and through her work at Rice+Lipka Architects.

Francine Monaco Principal, D’Aquino Monaco

Francine Monaco, a registered architect for more than 25 years, her work includes a mixture of residential and nonresidential work projects in the United States and Europe in architecture and interior design. Her early work as a project architect for a highly respected architectural firm designing homes and apartments was followed in 1989 as project architect for the in-house design department of the Guggenheim Museum, where her focus was in orchestrating several design projects of the museum’s expansion in New York City. Francine designed and supervised the creation of administrative office space within newly excavated space at the original Frank Lloyd Wright Museum building.

Francine’s increasing focus on the intersection between architecture and interior design lead her to establish D’Aquino Monaco in 1997 with Carl D’Aquino to allow and create more opportunity for the dialogue between “the container” and the “contained”. Her focus on the intersection of architecture and interior design led to a uniquely balanced practice and holistic approach. Francine has created a diverse career combining the practical with the magical to create memorable timeless spaces. Francine was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2007 and is a professor at Pratt Institute's Interior Design department.

A conversation in acknowledgement of our individual journeys - to encourage exploration of our diverse paths. In reflecting upon her path, which led Francine to creating an interdisciplinary design studio, she will lead a conversation about understanding the role of choice and understanding that the place we are in, holds our unique direction.