Amale Andraos


Amale Andraos is a New York-based architect. She is dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is the co-founder of the New York City architecture firm WORKac with her husband, Dan Wood.

Early years

Andraos was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and has lived in Saudi Arabia, France, Canada and the Netherlands. She holds a B. Arch from McGill University in Montreal and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Work

Andraos has taught at Princeton University School of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and the American University in Beirut. In 2014, she was named dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is the first woman to hold that position. Her publications include We Will Get There When We Cross That Bridge, The Arab City: Architecture and Representation, 49 Cities, and Above the Pavement, the Farm!.
Andraos was named one of the "25 Most Admired Educators for 2016" by DesignIntelligence, which describes her as integrating "real world problems into the curriculum with a bold vision and strong leadership."
Andraos founded WORKac with her husband Dan Wood in 2003. The practice is based in New York City, with projects in the U.S. and abroad. The practice has achieved international recognition for projects such as Public Farm 1 for MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, the Edible Schoolyards at PS216 in Brooklyn and PS7 in Harlem, NY, the new office headquarters for Wieden+Kennedy, also in New York, a residential conversion of a historic New York cast-iron building titled the Stealth Building, the Miami Museum Garage, and the Rhode Island School of Design Student Center in Providence. Andraos describes her firms work as an "intersection of the urban, the rural, and the natural."
Before co-founding WORKac, Andraos held positions at Rem Koolhaas/OMA in Rotterdam and New York, Saucier + Perrotte in Montreal and Atelier Big City also in Montreal.
As of October 2015, Andraos serves as a board member for the Architectural League of New York and the AUB Faculty of Engineering and Architecture International Advisory Committee. She is also on the New Museum’s New INC. Advisory Council.

Awards and honors

2019