Current Work is a lecture series featuring leading figures in the worlds of architecture, urbanism, design, and art.

New York-based Deborah Berke Partners (DBP) is a 60-person architecture practice that “emphasizes the transformative character of architecture through the re-imagination of old buildings and the creation of inventive new ones.” The firm’s residential, commercial, educational, cultural, and civic projects reflect an approach that “is human centered in all scales, from the broad vision of masterplans to the focused details of interiors (and everything in between).”

In 2017, the firm completed the Distribution Headquarters for Cummins Inc. in Indianapolis, IN. In Fredonia, NY, DBP designed the Rockefeller Arts Center as an addition to the 1968 I.M. Pei arts complex on the SUNY Fredonia campus. DBP has designed 21c Museum Hotels across the Southern and Midwest regions of the U.S. Current projects include the transformation of the former Bayview Correctional Facility into the Women’s Building, a home for the women’s rights movement in New York City.

The firm was honored with the National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in 2017. In 2012, Deborah Berke first received the Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize from the University of California, Berkeley for a practitioner or academic “who has made the advancement of a significant contribution to promoting women in the field of architecture, and whose work emphasizes a commitment to sustainability and the community.”

Deborah Berke received a BFA and a B.Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Urban Planning, in Urban Design, from The City University of New York in 1984. She became the dean of the Yale School of Architecture in June 2016, where she has been a professor since 1987. Previously, she taught at the University of Maryland, the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Miami, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, of which she was a fellow.

Nader Tehrani is the Dean of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. He is also principal of NADAAA, a practice dedicated to the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with new construction practices.

This lecture is co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. It is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.