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10 Things to Know About Architect Elizabeth Plater- Zyberk

Plater -Zyberk was born on December 20, 1950, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. She is an architect and urban planner in Miami, Florida. She is the daughter of Jozafat Plater-Zyberk an architect (father) and Maria Meysztowicz, a professor of French at Villanova University.

She is an alumna of Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr, commonly known as Sacred Heart or SHA. She attended Princeton University and in 1972 she graduated with a degree in architecture and urban planning. Later in 1974, she attained her master’s degree in architecture from Yale School of Architecture.

Elizabeth co-founded the Miami firm Arguitectonica together with her husband Andrés Duany, Laurinda Hope Spear, Bernardo Fort-Brescia, and Hervin Romney. This firm was known for its signature style: a dramatic, expressive high-tech modernism. She has well-founded DPZ CoDesign with Duany in 1980, and it is located in Miami. This firm received its first international recognition in the 1980s as the designer of Seaside, Florida.

1. Co-Founded the Miami Firm Arquitectonica

Elizabeth Platerco co-founded the Miami firm Arquitectonica together with her husband Andrés Duany, an American architect, an urban planner, and a founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Laurinda Hope Spear, an American architect and landscape architect based in Miami, Florida, Hervin Romney and Bernardo Fort-Brescia.

The firm was founded back in 1977, Arguitectonica was famously known for its signature style: a dramatic, expressive high-tech modernism.   

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2. She is a Professor at Architecture School

One important thing to know about Elizabeth is that she is a professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture. She has taught there for the longest time since 1979. She has well served as a dean of the University’s School of Architecture from 1995 to 2013.

3. Plater is the Daughter of an Architect and a Professor of French

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Elizabeth was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States back in the year 1950. She is the daughter of an architect and a professor of French. Her father Jozafat Plater-Zyberk was an architect born in 1906 and died in 1994.

Her mother Maria Meysztowicz was a famous professor of French at Villanova University, a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. She was born in 1911 and died in 2000.

It is interesting to know that she followed in her parent’s footsteps of being successful. She is an architect like her father and a professor of architecture at the University of Miami.

4. She is a Graduate

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One of the interesting things to know about Plater-Zyberk is that she is learned. Elizabeth is an alumna of Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr, a highly selective, independent, private, Roman Catholic school for girls commonly known as SHA.

She attended Princeton University to pursue a degree in architecture and urban planning. In 1972 she graduated and received her undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning. She then joined the Yale School of Architecture and graduated with her master’s degree in architecture in 1974.

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5. Elizabeth was a Co-Founder of DPZ CoDesign

Plater-Zyberk was a Co-founder of DPZ CoDesign (Duany Plater- Zyberk & Company) located in Miami. Duany was the co-founder partner of the architectural firm. DPZ was founded in 1980 and became a leader in the national movement known as New Urbanism.

The firm was well known for designing traditional towns and transforming existing suburbs into livable downtowns. In the 1980s the firm received its first international recognition as the designer of Seaside, Florida. The DPZ has as well completed designs and codes for over two hundred new towns, community revitalization projects, and regional plans. 

6. Did you know that Plater-Zyberk was a Trustee of Princeton University?

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Plater-Zyberk was a trustee of Princeton University, a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey for 10 years. Elizabeth chaired Princeton University’s Building Committee during an active period of building and expansion.

During the Plater-Zyberk term on the university’s Building Committee, the university employed several architects such as Frank Gehry, a Canadian-born American architect, and designer, Robert Venturi, was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, and Scott Brown and Associates and lastly Demetri Porphyrios is a Greek architect and author who practices architecture in London.    

7. She is the Founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism

It is interesting to know that Elizabeth was the founder of the Congress for New Urbanism as well as an emeritus board member. It was established back in the year 1993.

New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types.

8. Plater Received Several Honors and Awards

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Elizabeth was a visiting professor at several major and known North American schools of architecture which made him popular and earn him several honorary doctorates and awards.

Duany and her were awarded the Vincent Scully Prize, an award established in 1999 to recognize exemplary practice or criticism in architecture, by the National Building Museum for their recognition of their participation in the American built environment.

She also received the Brandeis Award for Architecture, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal of Architecture from the University of Virginia, the Vincent J.

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9. She Published Several Books

Architect and Urban planner, Plater-Zyberk has written and published several books related to architecture. Some of her books include:

The New Civic Art: Element of Town Planning published in 2003, Suburban Nation: Glassbook published in 2002, Preparing for Eternity in 2017, Black and White: A Journal of Architecture and Ideal in 1996, David M. Schwarz Architects, Second Monday Muse: An Anthology of South Florida Poets published in 2013, and Under the Sun published in 2016 among others.

10. Plater is Married to Architect Andrés Duany

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 Andrés Duany is an American architect, an urban planner, and a founder of the Congress for New Urbanism. He was born on September 7, 1949, in New York City. He is married to architect Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.

Elizabeth met Duany at Princeton University in the late 1960s, while studying architecture at the university. The couple later met again at the Yale Graduate School of Architecture in 1972 where they were both studying architecture.

After they finished the prestigious graduate program, they never took long and they married in 1976.