Leora Mirvish focuses on design to maximize the opportunities that really transform the original buildings to create better and more functional environments for the building occupants. She can appreciate the specific qualities of certain structures, such as the Pantheon’s engineering (“somehow, they did it without building information modeling!”, she jokes) as well as more holistic qualities of others — such as the total integration of architectural form and site at Petra.
Much of her work has focused on performing arts, specifically interior renovation projects at the Kennedy Center. Of all her projects, she feels most closely connected to the Center’s Eisenhower Theater renovation, and also to the Cleveland Elementary School project. “Both involved planning, design and construction to transform the original structures,” she observes, “and also provided real societal benefits.”