Deborah Gans is the founder and principal architect of Gans studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Her firm's projects include architecture, industrial design, and community-based urban planning, where she frequently tackles extreme sites and programs. Through writing, design research and inventive public advocacy, Deborah has spearheaded the revitalization of socially responsible architecture for a new generation.
Educated at Princeton at a moment of withdrawal from the social realm into post-modern autonomy, Gans has spent her career seeking new forms for architecture’s social participation and engagement. From her masters’ thesis for a workers’ club in a shrinking post-industrial town to her current involvement in coastal resiliency, she has had tremendous impact on the contemporary community-based design movement. Much of Gans’ design work focuses on the challenges of housing, especially in relation to the underserved, where she has used her design speculation as a platform for policy change and the revitalization of communities.
Her public presentations range from local community visioning sessions to speeches on the international stage including Rome, Ulm, and Oxford. To impress her design concerns on the largest possible audience, she writes for both scholarly and popular publications and serves as Board Member for PLACES/Design Observer and the Institute for Public Architecture, Contributing Editor for BOMB magazine and Advisory Board Member for the Italian journal Boundaries.
Deborah has taught for over 25 years, and is the Director of Research, Professor and former Chair of the Undergraduate School of Architecture at Pratt Institute. Recipient of the 2014 AIANYS Educator Award, Deborah has forged new alliances between planning and architecture generating student work that has life beyond the studio.
Cristina Zubillaga is an architectural designer and project manager at Gans studio, where she runs a series of single-family residential projects in the city and beyond. She is currently managing the design and construction of coastal housing prototypes for the City's Build it Back project, as well as a prefabricated workforce housing development in East Hampton.
Her education in construction management as well as architecture gives her a well-rounded grasp of the complexities of the construction process and its administration. In her previous employment she contributed her keen graphic sense and design expertise to large-scale projects, including the Florida International University Downtown Campus.
Adam is a project architect at Gans studio currently managing design development and funding strategies for low income work force housing in Sag Harbor.
Adam graduated magna cum laude from Catholic University and later received a Masters in Architecture from University of Pennsylvania.
Micah is a project Architect at Gans studio with a strong background in design at a variety of scales. Micah is currently the lead designer on a brownstone renovation and addition in Brooklyn as well as managing construction administration on reconstructed homes in Sheepshead Bay through the Build it Back program.
He graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelors in Urban studies and completed his masters at GSAPP here in New York. He was one of the four founding members of the student run curatorial group PopUpPinUp, acting as pulse of representation at GSAPP.
Roz is a project manager at Gans studio in charge of community-based urban planning. Her background in anthropology gives her a deep understanding of how communities work, while her graduate degree in Urban Environmental Systems provides the technical expertise required to ensure they are resilient and sustainable.
Prior to joining the firm, Roz worked in various non-profit organizations around New York City, focusing on the environmental and social equity of public space and services. Roz has worked closely with community groups as well as government officials and is adept at analyzing, visualizing and presenting complex information for every audience and for all of Gans studio's projects.
She is currently managing a series of neighborhood-scale rebuilding studies for the City's Housing Recovery Office.