Claudia Russell
Claudia Russell has been dedicated to the craft of making buildings as both her passion and her profession. She graduated from the A-school and did graduate work at both Catholic University and Columbia University in architecture and design. Her studies took her abroad with a traveling fellowship to India and additional travel around the world studying vernacular architecture. Her work experience includes embassies with the US State Department in Africa, Asia and Russia; notable buildings in and around Boston including the Hynes Convention Center and the Peabody Museum in Salem, for Kallmann, McKinnell and Wood and a large complex in Singapore for Tsao and McKown out of New York.
For 20 years she worked at Shalom Baranes Associates in DC and had the good fortune to have played a part in downtown DC’s revitalization which kept much of the old historic fabric with the integration of the new. She was the project architect for mixed use projects including the Apartments at CityCenter DC and affordable housing for Channing Phillips Homes among other projects. Before her retirement last year, her last projects included Union Station in DC and the Cannon House Office Building at the US Capitol. When the January 6th hearings took place, she was surprised and pleased to see the work of her firm.
She has taught architectural design and found joy in drawing and the arts. She is currently working on local social justice issues in DC particularly when the buses from the Texas border began arriving. Ultimately, she believes, our work is about community and people, be it sheltering or feeding or sharing in mutual hope and joy.
She is grateful to have had that community at UVA.