Gabriel Cira

What is your career story? How did you get where you are today?

I am a licensed architect, and I practice on my own but always with many collaborators. I got to this point by working at various architecture firms, generally with a focus on large public buildings and public spaces. I left my last architecture firm seven years ago to strike out on my own as ARCH CIRA.

My focus now is on historic preservation and adaptive reuse, working with existing building fabric which can be unruly and difficult. I love the challenge. My first new construction building project won a Design Excellent award from the BSA in 2023, which was a significant milestone for me. I also run the Emerald Tutu project, which designs nature-based infrastructure for urban coastlines. That project is grant-funded and involves prototyping marsh restoration and constructed wetland techniques for Boston and the Northeast. I also teach in the History of Art and the Architecture departments at MassArt, usually one or two courses per semester. I’m currently teaching a seminar called Radical Preservation and Adaptive Reuse about the theory and technical matters of working in a historically charged context.

What skills do you use on a day-to-day basis?

I use spatial thinking, communication, and project management skills every day. For me, this involves applying these considerations in different ways than a typical architecture firm, as my projects involve different kinds of people than your average clients and consultants. My practice is dedicated to common and public spaces, and the possibilities for shared identities to thrive there, so that also informs my day-to-day attitude as well.

Do you have an example using spatial thinking and thinking about site?

In the Zero-E Greenhouse project, the client was given a tricky parcel of surplus land from the City of Boston, tucked behind billboards and alleyways and infrastructure. Understanding the site meant understanding the expectations and flow of people in the neighborhood, and crafting a new experience for them. We decided to create a special sense of protection, like a “secret garden,” using the entry sequence and positioning of the building. This experiential goal ultimately involved understanding how physical conditions interact with land use restrictions, zoning laws, codes, and regulations and arguing for a zoning variance that enabled this inner world to fit on a constrained site.

What were the biggest skills/mindsets/approaches you took away from your architecture education?

At MIT, I was surrounded by people with expertise in different fields. I learned to bring in experts from other fields and understand their language, and then communicate that to make knowledge social and organized. This helps in making broader themes understandable to everyone and crafting a narrative about what we’re doing and why—which, I find, makes for strong senses of collaborative identity and common goals.

What do you wish you had learned in your architecture education?

I wish I had learned more about the life within the profession and how the choices you make affect who you are in the world. It's important to understand that working for different firms can define your life in various ways; working long hours under the fluorescent lights of an office doesn’t really help in forging connections with a community. Balancing yourself as a human with your career is crucial. I’m a member of The Architecture Lobby, an activist/advocacy group for the architecture profession. TAL works to make the culture and practice of architecture less toxic and more equitable, focusing on the intersections of professional issues, labor issues, and personal life with an approach that foregrounds solidarity among workers.

Knowing what you know now, would you do undergrad/grad differently?

During undergrad at MIT, my design work focused on architecture within the context of political and urban issues. After working in the field for three years, I switched direction and dove into history and theory courses during my MArch at Princeton. I really immersed myself in reading and found it necessary for transformative thinking and collaboration. Looking back, I would have taken more advanced History, Theory, Criticism (HTC) classes at MIT, although I had sought out some of the HTC faculty to advise my undergrad thesis.

How would you compare your undergraduate experience versus your Master’s?

My undergrad design studios tended to be very specific with defined programs and sites. In grad school it was all different, offering totally open-ended and self-driven projects. This sense of infinite freedom is a sharp contrast with how architectural practice actually works, of course, but the focus was on figuring out yourself and your own position in the practice and in the world.

What advice do you have for students starting out in architecture?

Go for a walk. Observe the ways that the city works and doesn’t work, and the ways people behave in different public spaces. The energy of space around you can be read like a book. It's the best thing you can do.