Kyna Leski at Pop!Tech 2009
Kyna Leski
Principal, 3SIXØ Architecture
Professor & Head Department of Architecture, RISD
Rower & Navigator of the Creative Process
Whether in her own work, or through her students’ work, Kyna Leski is drawn and
dedicated to navigating the creative process. Over the last twenty-one years of
teaching, she has closely witnessed projects pursued and developed by students
at the Rhode Island School of Design. Professor Leski is the author of the first
semester core architecture design curriculum, given for sixteen years and to over
1500 students. A book on this pedagogy, The Making of Design Principles, was
published in 2007. Professor Leski served as the head of the RISD European
Honors Program in Rome from 1993 to 1995; she has taught in the Architecture,
Foundation Studies and Industrial Design departments. The primary focus of her
teaching research is the creative process and its workings across a broad
spectrum of disciplines. Currently, she is writing a book called Design Intelligences:
Navigating the Creative Process. She is also currently serving as Head of RISD's
Department of Architecture.
Kyna Leski is a principal of 3SIXØ Architecture, in Providence, Rhode Island.
3SIXØ’s work includes a house to dwell in—in awe, a church which inspires and
expands, a store that contracts itself into a restaurant bar, a salon that extends
the life of the city inside and a porte cochère that bridges a historic past to today.
3SIXØ Architecture was founded in 1997 and has been the recipient of numerous
awards and honors. The Rhode Island chapter of the AIA has bestowed its top
honors on 3SIXØ nine times in the past decade and The Boston Society of Architects
has recognized 3SIXØ with three awards. In 2002 Architectural Record named
3SIXØ one of ten “vanguard” architecture firms emerging worldwide and in 2008
Architectural Record recognized 3SIXØ’s STIX Restaurant as one of its annual
“Record Interiors.” The work of 3SIXØ has also been widely published in
magazines including Architectural Record; the Korean Magazine, Plus Architecture
and Interior Design; the Japanese Journal, SPA-DE; Interior Design; Design New
England; Residential Architect; Rhode Island Monthly; The Boston Globe; The
Boston Herald; The Providence Journal and The Hartford Courant. Several books
have featured the work of 3SIXØ: Salons and Spas, The Architecture of Beauty;
Eat! The Best of Restaurant Design and Restaurant Design.
Kyna Leski’s project, “Dream House,” placed first in The Japan Architect’s
Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition in 1998 and was published in
Modern House 2 by Claire Melhuish (Phaidon Press, 2004). In 1997 the
Architectural League of New York selected Kyna Leski as one of five winners of
its annual “Young Architects Competition.” She has also served as the “City
Architect Design Decision Review Advisor” to the Mayor of Providence, the
Planning Department, and the City Planning Commission and Downcity Review
Commission.
Kyna Leski earned a B.Arch from The Cooper Union School of Architecture in
1985 and a M.Arch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1988.
She is an avid rower who can be found most mornings before dawn on the
Seekonk River and Narragansett Bay in Providence.