The view from my place
Deirdre Colgan is a graduate of the three-year Masters of Architecture at UIC (University of Illinois @Chicago.) Originally a graduate of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin (NCAD,) Ireland, where she studied Fine Art, Sculpture, she moved to the USA in 1993. After living and working in Taos, NM for two years, she moved to San Francisco to complete an MFA in Sculpture and Architecture at the California College of the Arts. The architecture and design world of Chicago beckoned, and in 1999 she moved there to begin work at CAPA (Chicago Associates, Planners + Architects) as an experimental intern.
Before her return to graduate school, Deirdre was a practicing interior designer. She was the recipient of a full Teaching Assistantship for the duration of her time at UIC where she worked with faculty teaching second-year undergraduate studio courses. While at UIC, Deirdre developed a passion for preservation and adaptive reuse and she was invited to be a part of the Historic Greystone Initiative, a project developed by the City of Chicago in conjunction with the City Design Center @UIC. Working in collaboration with prominent architects and faculty, she designed a modern rehabilitation plan for a neglected greystone house in North Lawndale. She has also contributed to the Greystone Handbook, published in the Spring of 2008.
Deirdre has served as adjunct faculty at a number of third level institutions and began her career as a nonprofit professional by working as a consultant for the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago. She is an active member and Scholarship Director for the professional organization: Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA.) As a researcher, she has a particular interest in the work of Irish architect Eileen Gray. In 2008, she was the recipient of a Research and Development grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Art and Architecture to investigate the current status of the restoration of E.1027, a house designed and built by Gray in 1929. The results of this voyage to France with collaborator and brother, Jim Colgan, is in production as an audio documentary which will air on public radio.
Deirdre currently has a studio practice devoted to carving out “sequestered spiritual space” in the everyday world. In the summer of 2008 she was invited to become the Executive Director of Sacred Space International, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization with a mission to encourage interfaith dialogue on cultural diversity by sharing sacred space.
Under the moniker “Hybridesign” she blogs about her diverse interests relating to architecture, art and urban ephemera as they intersect with her everyday life in Pilsen, a neighborhood on the near Southwest side of Chicago.
