David Burke Architects

Part of our work on Thompson Library at is to update the library to function for the modern needs of students while preserving the incredible history that Vassar is so well known for.

Front and center is this beautiful stained glass depiction of the first woman to have ever graduated from a university: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia. This piece shows Elena defending her thesis on Aristotle and earning women’s first Ph.D. in philosophy in 1678. You can read more about Elena and this fine glasswork at vassar.edu

We're working on a unique sloped-roof enclosure for an existing lakeside stone fireplace in Putnam Valley. NY. With the slab and fireplace already in place, we're designing a glass and timber enclosure for the owner to reflect and engage with the natural environment. The delicate structure closely resembles a Japanese tea house that will remain off the grid and utilize the natural resources around it, such as rainwater harvesting and a PV array to power an occasional light fixture in the evening hours.

We snapped this photo of an old tension support in a warehouse in Newburgh, NY. Probably late 1800’s…Yet another reason to love the historic architecture in the Hudson Valley.

Versatility is a goal to make a building adaptable to multiple uses, bring greater value, and become more useful in the long term. An important design element in The Ritz Theater was to provide spaces, treatments, and equipment that could be used for multiple purposes. The seating configuration could be arranged in over 30 different configurations that would seat from 50 to over 600 visitors. Each configuration would be acoustically tuned by custom mobile acoustic towers that would absorb or reflect sound dependent on the performance type.