Susan Piedmont-Palladino

Biography: Susan is an architect, professor, and Director of Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center. She is a curator at the National Building Museum and the author of several books, including companion books for exhibitions she curated. Her new book, How Drawings Work: A User-Friendly Theory, was published in 2019. A graduate of Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary, she has lectured on urbanism, sustainability, and communications to public, professional, and academic audiences in the US, Europe and Latin America. A former president of Architect/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, she also served on the board of the National Academy of Environmental Design (NAED) and consulted for the U.S. DOE’s Solar Decathlon. She received the Vision in Design Award from the Branch Museum of Architecture in 2018, and the Washington Architecture Foundation’s John Wiebenson Award in 2014 for her dedication to public interest.