Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (born December 20, 1950) is a professor at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

's School of Architecture and an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

. Plater-Zyberk is considered to be a representative of the

New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually in ...

school of urban planning, and an advocate of the

New Classical New classical macroeconomics, sometimes simply called new classical economics, is a school of thought in macroeconomics that builds its analysis entirely on a neoclassical framework. Specifically, it emphasizes the importance of rigorous foundat ...

school of architecture. She is also a co-founder and principal of DPZ CoDesign, a Miami-based architecture firm.

Early life and education

Plater-Zyberk was born in

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr, pronounced , from Welsh language, Welsh for big hill, is a census-designated place (CDP) located across three townships: Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, Radnor Township and Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, Haverford Township in Delaw ...

, the daughter of Josephat Plater-Zyberk (1906–1994), an architect, and his wife, Maria Meysztowicz (1911–2000), a professor of French at

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Pennsy ...

. Plater-Zyberk is an alumna of

Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr, commonly referred to as, SHA or Sacred Heart, is a highly selective, independent, private, Roman Catholic school for girls. Sacred Heart is located on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and consists of a Lowe ...

, and received her undergraduate degree in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

and

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

(1972) and a master's degree in architecture from the

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

in 1974.

Career

In 1977, Plater-Zyberk co-founded the

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

firm

Arquitectonica Arquitectonica is an international architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning design firm headquartered in Miami, Florida’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. The firm also has offices in ten other cities throughout ...

with her husband

Andrés Duany Andrés Duany (born September 7, 1949) is an American architect, an urban planner, and a founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Early life and education Duany was born in New York City but grew up in Cuba until 1960. He attended The Ch ...

, Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Laurinda Hope Spear, and Hervin Romney. Arquitectonica was known for its signature style: a dramatic, expressive high-tech

modernism Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

. The firm's Atlantis Condominium was featured in the opening credits of the television series ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

''. In 1980, Duany and Plater-Zyberk founded DPZ CoDesign, based in Miami. DPZ became a leader in the national movement called

and distinguished itself by designing traditional towns and transforming existing suburbs into livable downtowns. The firm first received international recognition in the 1980s as the designer of Seaside, Florida, and has completed designs and codes for over two hundred new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects. Plater-Zyberk has taught at the

School of Architecture since 1979. In 1988, she created a graduate program in Suburb and Town Design after which she continued to explore contemporary issues in city growth and reconstruction with students and faculty. She served as dean of the university's School of Architecture from 1995 to 2013, and as dean she hired the architect

Léon Krier Léon Krier CVO (born 7 April 1946) is a Luxembourgish architect, architectural theorist, and urban planner, a prominent critic of modernist architecture and advocate of New Classical architecture and New Urbanism. Krier combines an internat ...

to design his first public building in Florida for the school of architecture (his only other buildings in America are his former house at Seaside and a meeting hall in the Duany Plater-Zyberk planned resort of Windsor). She has also served as director of the university's Center for Urban Community and Design, organizing and promoting numerous design exercises to the benefit of communities throughout South Florida. In the Fall of 2008, Plater-Zyberk was tapped into Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest Honor attained at the University of Miami. In 2014, she was awarded the Arts & Culture Award by the Coral Gables Community Foundation. For ten years, Plater-Zyberk was a trustee of

, where she chaired the university's Building Committee during an active period of building and expansion. During her tenure on the Building Committee, the university hired architects such as

Robert Venturi Robert Charles Venturi Jr. (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major architectural figures of the twentieth century. Together with h ...

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

, and Demetri Porphyrios. Porphyrios designed the Collegiate Gothic

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacific ...

, the first in a series of new Collegiate Gothic buildings to be built in the historic center of the campus. Plater-Zyberk is a founder and emeritus board member of the

Congress for the New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...

, which was established in 1993. She has been a visiting professor at many major North American schools of architecture, has been awarded several honorary doctorates and awards, and lectures frequently. In 2001, she and Duany were awarded the

Vincent Scully Prize The Vincent Scully Prize was established in 1999 to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design. Created by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., the award first honored ...

by the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit i ...

in recognition of their contributions to the American built environment. In 2008, she was appointed to the

U.S. Commission of Fine Arts The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States, and was established in 1910. The CFA has review (but not approval) authority over the "design and aesthetics" of all construction with ...

.Thomas E. Luebke, ed., ''Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts'' (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 552. Her recent books include ''The New Civic Art'' and ''Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream''.

References

*Duany, Andrés, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck (2000). ''Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream''. New York: North Point Press. *Duany, Andrés, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Robert Alminana (2003). ''The New Civic Art: Elements of Town Planning''. New York: Rizzoli International Publications. * Lombard, Joanna (2005). ''The Architecture of Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company''. New York: Rizzoli International Publications.

References

External links

Duany Plater-Zyberk & CompanyUniversity of Miami School of ArchitectureCongress for the New UrbanismPDF of Miami SoA
* at the Driehaus Prize ceremony {{DEFAULTSORT:Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth 1950 births Living people American urban planners Women urban planners New Urbanism Schools of the Sacred Heart alumni People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Elizabeth University of Miami faculty American women architects Driehaus Architecture Prize winners Architects from Miami Yale School of Architecture alumni Princeton University School of Architecture alumni New Classical architects 21st-century American architects 21st-century American women artists American women academics