Françoise Bollack, RA, DESA, is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia GSAPP. She is a registered architect with over 30 years of experience in architectural design,
historic preservation, adaptive reuse and interior design. Since 1981 she has been the
principal of Françoise Bollack Architects. Françoise Bollack’s activities bridge the fields of education, criticism and professional practice. Her research focusses on the creative possibilities that arise from designing in existing – historic settings.
Born in Paris, France, Ms. Bollack received her degree in Architecture at the Ecole
Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. She studied at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des
Beaux Arts with George Candilis. She has lived in New York City since 1970 and is
licensed to practice architecture in New York State and Connecticut.
She was the President of the Historic Districts Council from 2011 to 2014, initiating a
Preservation Design Award program, the popular 6 To Celebrate program and
republishing District Lines. She has served at the City and State levels of the American
Institute of Architects, on the boards of Landmark West! and of the Architectural
League. Françoise Bollack Architects is a member of the Professional Circle of the
New York Landmarks Conservancy.
Recent publications include Old Buildings – New Forms: New Directions in
Architectural Transformations (The Monacelli Press, 2013), which received the coveted
Historic Preservation Book Prize from the University of Mary Washington in 2014.
Defining Appropriateness was published in 2015 in Saving Place published by the
Museum of the City of New York and the Monacelli Press on the occasion of the 50th
anniversary of the Landmarks Law.
Earlier books include Everyday Masterpieces – Memory and Modernity, and Ely
Jacques Kahn, New York Architect, co-authored with Tom Killian.
Recent articles include Old Cities – New Forms: a Letter from New York published in
l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui.
Under her direction, her firm has received many awards. The restoration of the façade
of the LGBT Center won awards from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic
Preservation, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the New York
Landmarks Conservancy, the Victorian Society of America and the Municipal Art
Society.
The work of Françoise Bollack Architects in the New York State Capitol received an
Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects in 2003. Some of her drawings
are in Avery Library’s Drawings and Archives collection.
