Draft:Suzane Reatig

Suzane Reatig FAIA (born 1949) is an Egyptian-born, Israeli American architect and designer. A number of her buildings have become architectural landmarks. Reatig designed the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C. which was completed in 1992 and was the first ground-up, new construction sanctuary built for an LGBT congregation in the United States.

Her works are considered important examples of contemporary architecture in Washington DC, leading the New York Times architecture critic, Herbert Muschamp to compare her design to Maya Lin, “Ms. Reatig yearned to make an honest building. No frills, no pretensions, just the simple art of building well. Together, architect and client have produced a prodigy of Washington’s cityscape, a building that recalls Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial in its enlargement of emotional impact through reduction of formal means.”

Reatig’s design and development of modern infill housing in historic Shaw (Washington, D.C.) was also a catalyst for change in this rapidly growing neighborhood in Northwest D.C. In 2010, Washington Post architecture critic Benjamin Forgey, referred to Reatig, as the “best least-known architect in Washington.”. Forgey described her work as, “Modern reinterpretation of historic DC row house typologies and a creative response to the site’s zoning and historic preservation restrictions....Reatig has made modernism an integral part of a residential D.C. neighborhood for the first time since I.M. Pei came to Southwest in the 1960s.”

Professional Practice & Recognition
The following are among the awards Reatig's architectural designs have received from the District of Columbia (DC) and Maryland (MD) chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA):

Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C.: AIA DC Merit Award in Architecture (1993)

Lakeforest Transit Center, Lakeforest, MD: AIA MD Public Project of the Year (1998)

Ward Studio, Montgomery County, MD: AIA Potomac Valley Citation for Architectural Excellence (1999)

7th Street Mixed Use Project, Washington, DC: AIA DC Merit Award in Architecture (2002)

N Street Duplexes, Washington, DC: AIA DC Merit Award in Architecture (2006)

Ashland Avenue Project, Montgomery Country, MD: AIA Baltimore, Residential Award (2007)

506 O Street, Washington, DC: AIA DC Merit Award in Architecture (2008)

442-444 N Street Project, Washington, DC: AIA DC Merit & Excellence Awards in Architecture (2008 & 2009)

1713 7th Street Project, Washington, DC: AIA DC Merit Award in Architecture (2009)

625 Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, DC: AIA DC Honor Award in Architecture (2013)

Augusta Housing Project, Augusta, Georgia: AIA DC Chapter Award in Urban Design (2016)

446-452 Ridge Street Project, Washington DC: AIA DC Chapter Award in Architecture (2019)

Architectural critics and commentators have recognized Reatig’s work, including Herbert Muschamp of the New York Times and Benjamin Forgey of the Washington Post.

In 2003 Reatig was elected a Fellow of the national American Institute of Architects (FAIA), its highest honor for a member, in recognition of her “distinguished work that has been broadly recognized for its design excellence.”

Publication
Reatig, Suzane, A Clear View: How Glass Buildings in the Inner City Transformed a Neighborhood, Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, 2017. ISBN-10 9881224934 (Small scale urban infill housing in the neighborhood of Shaw (Washington, D.C.)