Kyna Leski at Pop!Tech 2009

Kyna Leski

Principal, 3SIXØ Architecture

Professor, Acting Department Head, 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 Cohering

Entropy: Navigating the Creative Process, which focuses on the design mind.

This year, Professor Leski is the Acting Head of the 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 five 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.