Her Practice: the Architecture of Debora Reiser

A Celebration of Debora Reiser
Introduction: Quilian Riano, Alicia Imperiale, Lori Gibbs
Interlocutor: Sanford Kwinter

Speakers:
Jesse Reiser
Maya Reiser
Deborah Berke
Dana Cupkova
Laurie Hawkinson
Ted Mirvis
August Ventura
September 12, 2024
Higgins Hall Auditorium, 61 St. James Place, Brooklyn 11238
6:15 – 7:30 PM with reception

Debora Reiser was an irrepressible, if somewhat obscure figure in the New York scene despite her 75-year long career, but known to a devoted circle of cognoscenti: clients, craftspeople, and especially the architects she taught with her characteristically New York frankness. She trained herself to see design in everything and everything as design, a project that included herself. Standing just short of five feet she nonetheless projected a commanding presence to clients and contractors especially necessary in the context of male-dominated mid-century America. As a woman architect in the early ‘50s she had to be relentless. “When they give you the back, just keep talking and they’ll turn around.” Aesthetics for her was not a luxury, but an essential of life—a way of being in the everyday and for everyone.