LARA K. DAVIS

CAMBRIDGE, MA
P: 646.662.5424
E: ldavis24 at mit.edu


EDUCATION:

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture & Planning
M.Arch candidate (2010)
MIT Department of Architecture Merit Stipend
Level II Admissions Committee Member
Architectural Student Council Member

Alfred University, NYSCC School of Art & Design
BFA (2001), Magna cum Laude
Concentration in Installation Art, Critical Discourse Minor
Thesis Installation Divisional Honors
AU Presidential Honors, Art School Selection

AFFILIATIONS:

Boston Society of Architects/ AIA, student member
Art & Science Collaborations Inc. (ASCI), member
The New York Ecological Infrastructure Studies Group (NYEIS), volunteer

DESIGN EXPERIENCE & RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIPS:

Masonry Vault Project Manager & research assistant
Equilibrium Y’all free-form unreinforced masonry vault
ETH Professor Philippe Block, MIT Professor John Ochsendorf, Escobedo Construction, Cambridge, MA, 2009

Masonry Vault draftsperson
AKU, Karachi
MIT Professor John Ochsendorf, Cambridge, MA, 2009

Digital Design Fabrication Group, MIT Department of Architecture, Cambridge, MA, 2008
Professor Lawrence Sass, PhD Candidate Kenfield Griffith

The Institute for Lightweight Structures & Conceptual Design, (ILEK), Stuttgart, Germany, 2007

Werner Sobek Engineering & Design, Office 3e, Stuttgart, Germany, 2007

INDEPENDENT DESIGN & RENOVATION CONSULTING PROJECTS:

Davis/Merchant Residence, Mt. Vernon, ME, 2004
(Design and renovation of residential home in early 20th Century industrial garage)

Gen. George Thurston Historic Home (c. 1763), Hopkinton, RI, 2002
(Historic colonial home restoration, structural repair, interior design, landscaping)

Frey Florist, North Providence, RI, 2002
(Partial greenhouse, roof, and vestibule reconstruction)

Alfred Village Hall Restoration Project (1875), Alfred, NY, 2001
The Alfred Twenty-First Century Group, Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects
(Seventh Day Baptist Fireman’s Hall restoration research)

The Davies Municipal Building, Wellsville, NY, 2001
(Early 20th Century department store restoration)

Coronado St. Residence, Jamestown, RI, 1999
(Redesign and lofting of Victorian servants’ quarters)


NON-STRUCTURAL PATIO MASONRY DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION:

Greenroof, Terrace and Masonry Landscape Foreman, 2003
Mornhurst Gardens, Richard Heller, New York, NY
The American Hospital of Paris Foundation, International Designer Showhouse, NYC

Foreman & Assistant Landscape Designer, 2002
Michael Veracka Landscape Design & Construction, Michael Veracka, Providence, RI

ART & DESIGN EXPERIENCE:

Event Design & Production Artist, 2005 - 2006
Avi Adler, Inc., Avi Adler Brooklyn, NY

Fabrication Design & Mosaic Artist, 2005
Exhibitology Inc., John Jeffreys, Brooklyn, NY
Contract work for Preston Bailey Entertainment Design
Procenium project documentation

Print Production Assistant for Ann Hamilton, 2001
The Institute for Electronic Arts, Jessie Shefrin, Alfred, NY
Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation

Visual Coordinator, Archivist & Videographer, 1999-2000
The Pauline Oliveros Foundation, Pauline Oliveros, Composer/teacher, Kingston, NY

Videographer, 1999
Eva Zeisel, Ceramic Mold Designer, NYC

PUBLICATIONS:

"Twin Logics: The Concurrence of Non-Autonomous Identity", 2009
Thresholds 35, MIT Department of Architecture

LECTURES, WORKSHOPS & ARTIST TALKS:

HTC Course Lecture: “The Structural Innovation of Brunelleschi’s Florence Cathedral”
MIT Department of Architecture, Cambridge, MA, 2009

Research Paper Presentation: "Siting the Ghost City", 2009
"RIP (Research-in-Progress): What Site?" Conference
MIT Department of Architecture, Cambridge, MA

Workshop: "Morphology in Tree Identification", 2006
MIT IAP, Cambridge, MA

Research Paper Presentation: "The Latent Language of the Body (Rehydrated): The Word to Water", 2001
"Moving Bodies, Embodying Movement: Exploring the Rhetoric of the Body" Conference
A SUNY Conversation in the Disciplines, SUNY College at Brockport, Brockport, NY

Video/ Sound Performance & Artist Talk: "Tuning Tubes", 2000
(A collaboration with Composer/ improvisor Kristin Norderval)
"Women in Technology" Conference, The College Music Society, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA
Deep Listening Gallery, Kingston, NY

Artist Talk: "Immersive Corporeal Media Art", 1999
"Techne & Eros" Interactive Media Workshop
Art & Science Laboratory, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM

Residency Assistant Director & Co-faculty: "ETC International Student Video Residency", 1999-2001
The Experimental Television Center, Pamela Hawkins, Sherry Miller Hocking, Owego, NY

EXHIBITIONS:

Einblicke
Professor Dr. Philippe Block, ETH Structural Engineering faculty
Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA)
Faculty of Architecture (D-Arch), ETH, Zurich, 2009

Vault N51: A Low-Carbon Masonry Innovation
Professor John Ochsendorf, MIT Structural Engineering faculty
Professor Dr. Philippe Block, ETH Structural Engineering faculty
The MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA, 2009

MoMA Home Delivery Exhibition, 2008
Professor Lawrence Sass, MIT Computation faculty
The Modern Museum of Art, NYC
Sponsored by the Rockefellor Foundation

Soft Space: Active Cladding, 2008
Collaboration with Eliot Stulen: Differential Membrane
Sheila Kennedy, MIT Visiting design faculty
University of Porto, Faculty of Architecture (FAUP), Porto, Portugal

Bio_Systems Design Exhibition, 2008
Mark Goulthorpe, MIT Design faculty
Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA

"Mining Architectural Archaeology" Restoration/ sculptural Installation, 2001
Abandoned 7th Day Baptist Theatre, Village Hall, Alfred, NY

"Saturnalia" Collaborative Sculptural Installation/ Performance, 2000
Davis Historic Gymnasium (oldest wooden track in the country), Alfred, NY

"Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes" Gala Performance, 2000
(Composed by Pauline Oliveros & Ione)
Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, New York, NY

"Latex Immersion" Mixed Media Installation/ Performance, 2000
Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY

"Operator 8" Collaborative Restoration & Sculptural Installation Show, 1999
"Subduction" Mixed Media Installation
The Davies Building, Wellsville, NY

Body/Site Exhibition: "Language Wall" Installation, 1999
The Davies Building, Wellsville, NY

"Transjectories. Human. Metamorphis." (sic) Print Exhibition, 1998
Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY