Elizabeth O’Donnell, Architect & Professor
Elizabeth O’Donnell is an architect and professor proportional time at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union where she served as Associate Dean from 2001 until 2019, and Acting Dean from 2013-2015. A member of the faculty since 1984, O’Donnell has taught Structures I, Structures II, the project based Crossings elective (using the construction of 41 Cooper Square as the subject), and as part of the Design II and Design III teaching teams. She has participated in juries and conferences both nationally and internationally, recently as a presenter at the President Forum and the Design Forum at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts 100th Anniversary Summit, the design moderator for the Laskey Charette at the College of Architecture of Washington University; as a juror for the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation Aerial Gondola Design Competition, the ACSA/AISC Steel Student Design Competition, the Bamiyan Cultural Center Design Competition (UNESCO Afghanistan) and the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition. She was advisor to students who designed and built five models for the exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980 at the Museum of Modern Art. She served on the Executive Committee for the New Museum’s IDEAS CITY Festival and has served as a Public Director and a member of the Scholarship and the Awards Committees of the AIA New York Chapter.
In practice, she has completed numerous residential and commercial projects in New York City, with an emphasis on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings and sites. She has worked with artists including Yoko Ono and Tadashi Kawamata on realizing site-specific projects. Her work has been recognized with awards for Design Excellence from the AIA New York Chapter and for Design Distinction from International Design magazine. She serves on the Zoning Commission of the Town of Taghkanic (NY), rewriting the zoning code to foster economic opportunity while sustaining rural character and the abundant natural resources of the town.
O’Donnell graduated from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union after studying at the University of Minnesota and Antioch College, and holds an MSEd from Baruch College of the City University of New York.
For a Time, Say Yes To Whatever Comes Along
September 17, 2020
Elizabeth’s early years in architecture involved traditional practice, teaching, working with artists and saying yes to pretty much anything that came along. It was about testing ways of working, imagining how the skills of an architect could apply to many types of projects, building a network, meeting people in the public sector engaged in anything that had to do with building in the city.
While Elizabeth’s early years may have followed a winding path, they sowed the seeds of opportunities later in her career, including working on an art project on Roosevelt Island in 1992, which led to the resurrection of the Lou Kahn FDR memorial, through her mentor Jane Gregory Rubin, while Associate Dean at The Cooper Union.
Elizabeth will discuss how everything one engages in and encounters is a part of what makes a career, and has the potential to lead to something big and highly visible.