September 27, 2017

From 1985 to this past summer, Susan S. Szenasy led Metropolis Magazine as editor in chief and publisher. This July she was named Metropolis Magazine’s Director of Design Innovation. She is widely acknowledged as a leader in design journalism and discourse. Metropolis Magazine is focused on“…why design happens in a certain way, Metropolis explores economic, environmental, social, cultural, political, and technological contexts. With its innovative graphic presentation and provocative voice, Metropolis shows how richly designed our world can be.”

Szenasy has served on numerous boards including the New York Center for Architecture Advisory Board, the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has received two International Interior Design Associatio Presidential Commendations, is an honorary member of the ASLA and AIA-NYC, was recently inducted as an American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Honorary Fellow, and is a recipient of the ASID's Design for Humanity Award. Along with Metropolis founder Horace Havemeyer III, Susan was a 2007 recipient of the Civitas August Heckscher Award for Community Service and Excellence, and in 2017 she received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. A book of her writings and speeches, Szenasy, Design Advocate, was published by Metropolis Books.

Szenasy holds an MA in Modern European History from Rutgers University, and honorary doctorates from Kendall College of Art and Design, the Art Center College of Design, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and the New York School of Interior Design.

The ARFAA lecture series are made possible by Peter Arfaa, a former Department Head of Architecture, Design & Urbanism who endowed the ARFAA lecture series over two decades ago. The ARFAA lecture series was the first endowed lectures series at Drexel University and named in honor of Mr. Arfaa's parents. 

Tues. Oct. 10 // Mandell Theater // 6:30PM // Free & open to the public