Running For: President

Campaign Statement

My purpose is to steadfastly continue serving the Cooper Union Alumni Association (CUAA) and The Cooper Union. I’d like to dedicate myself to performing the services that the CUAA has elected me for and to building a consensus within the alumni body. I view a role in serving the CUAA in the capacity of President as a progressive step forward in my commitment to the organization. Having actively engaged with the CUAA over the past 7 years, my interest in fulfilling the President role is a natural continuation of a proven record of my consistent service. I look forward to leading the CUAAorganization towards a path of stabilization through an excellent collaboration with TheCooper Union administration and through a lively engagement with the academic institution’s faculty and student body.

I have established a strong rapport with President Laura Sparks and with most Deans ofthe various schools through the VP Faculty/Student Liaison role. Through the VP Faculty/Student Liaison position, I was extended and received a profound knowledge of The Cooper Union’s present mission and pedagogy and of its objectives, financial and otherwise, which I would continue to eagerly support. An additional expertise I could offer to our academic institution would be a focus on equity, a contemporary issue of great relevance to our civic society overall as well as to The Cooper Union. Further, my relationship with The Office or the Mayor could strengthen The Cooper Union’s standing in the context of New York City’s governance.

There is flexibility in my schedule and proximity of my residence, based in New York NY, that are factors which would strengthen my commitment to be present while participating as President of the CUAA. For example, I recently completed a 2.5 year contract serving The City of New York Office of the Mayor, Office of Management and Budget; thus, I have availability to attend the many meetings related to this service.

Biography

A New York State registered Architect, Margaret Matz has twenty years of experience planning and designing for residential housing, infrastructure and institutional, corporate and retail renovation and new construction projects, and restoration of UNESCO Heritage sites in Dublin, Ireland, and in Venice and Verona, Italy. She is a Disaster Management and Hazard Mitigation Expert Consultant as well as an Interior Designer, a Project Manager and an Architect, who has worked recently with The City of New York Office of the Mayor Office of Management and Budget on the Sandy Recovery Project.

Before founding Milestone Architecture PLLC in 2010, she served as project architect, project manager, senior designer and executive principal with several major architectural firms, including Kohn Pederson Fox Conway, HLW and Butler Rogers Baskett. Her work has received many awards, most notably an Annual Award Interiors Feature for the Carmelo Pomodoro showroom, an Annual Interiors Award for the Yumesaki USA showroom, an Abraham Kazan Award for Excellence in Structural Engineering, and a Peter Bruder Memorial Fund Prize for Urban Design. She has published and lectured on art and architecture topics both in the US and abroad. Margaret is a former assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology and the Pratt Institute schools of Architecture and Design as well as at the New York School of Interior Design. She is affiliated with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Construction Specification Institute (CSI) New York Metro Chapter, and is certified as United Stated Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED AP and Women Minority Enterprise (WBE) in New York State. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from The Cooper Union and a Master of Science in Art and Design History from Pratt Institute. Margaret speaks, reads and writes English, French, Spanish, Venetian and speaks Hindi. 

AR ’83

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