Deborah Gans

Secretary

Deborah Gans is the founder and principal architect of Gans and Company 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.