Rychiee Espinosa

Rychiee Espinosa is an educator and practicing architect licensed in the State of New York. Espinosa is Co-founder and Principal of mcdowellespinosa Architects PLLC, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture. She has previously taught at the Yale School of Architecture, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union,  the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art and Planning and served as Roving Critic at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning. Before establishing her independent practice, Espinosa has worked in the offices of Steven Holl Architects, Bernard Tschumi Architects, MOrphosis Architects, and S3 Architecture.

Espinosa received a Master of Architecture degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from Lawrence Technological University, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in Kinesiology and Psychology from Indiana University. At Columbia University’s GSAPP, she was awarded the New York Society of Architects’ Matthew del Gaudio Award for Excellence in Total Design and the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prize. Prior to teaching, Espinosa was an Associate Architect at Steven Holl Architects as the Project Architect for the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in Houston, Texas and the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History’s Visual Arts Building in Iowa City, Iowa.

Among other various recognition and distinction, mcdowellespinosa has won major national and international awards including the 2017 Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design – Young Architect of the Year, the 2015 Architectural League Prize for Architects + Designers “Authenticity”, a winning entry for the 2015 ChiDesign Competition, the 2015 AIA/DC Unbuilt Award for Excellence, Finalist (as TempAgency) in the 2013 MoMA PS1 Young Architect’s Program Warm-Up series, and First Place in the 2010 Self-Sufficient City Competition.

Columbia University Master of Architecture

Lawrence Technological University Bachelor of Science, Architecture

Indiana University Bachelor of Science, Biology