The Pairing:
Andrea Leers, Leers Weinzapfel Architects
Jane Weinzapfel, Leers Weinzapfel Architects
Susan Szenasy, Metropolis

Cocktail designed by:
Eben Klemm, Bartender + Author

Andrea Leers, FAIA, Principal, Leers Weinzapfel Architecture
View Leers Weinzapfel's Projects

Andrea Leers, FAIA, Andrea Leers' approach to architecture was shaped by two early experiences - her studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts, then led by Louis I. Kahn, after her degree from Wellesley College, and her year in Japan as an NEA-Japan U.S. Friendship Commission Fellow. When she and Jane Weinzapfel met in their internship years, they discovered they shared values and the desire to establish a firm with the goal of creating a bold and refined architecture for the public realm. Dedicated to seeking cross-cultural connections, Leers is an internationally recognized leader in urban and campus design, and building for higher education. She is equally known for her expertise in the design of award-winning courthouses.

In parallel with her practice, Leers has had a continuous teaching career. She is former Director of the Master in Urban Design Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she was Adjunct Professor in Architecture and Urban Design. Her previous appointments were at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Virginia. Internationally she has taught at Tokyo Institute of Technology, National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, and the University of Paris, Sorbonne. Leers was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, and she lectures and participates in symposia and design juries throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

She currently serves on the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service National Register of Peer Professionals, is a Commissioner for the Mayor’s Boston Civic Design Commission, and is a member of the University of Washington Architectural Commission. She is a former member of the President’s Visiting Committee for MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, and is a former member of the State Department Architectural Advisory Committee. Leers’ work has earned her the lifetime achievement recognition of the Boston Society of Architects Award of Honor.



Jane Weinzapfel, FAIAPrincipal, Leers Weinzapfel Architecture
View Leers Weinzapfel's Projects

Jane Weinzapfel, a native of Tucson, Arizona and distinguished alumna of the University of Arizona, came to the Boston area shortly after her studies. While working as an intern architect, she met Andrea Leers, and after several years with a large architecture and planning firm, they founded Leers Weinzapfel Associates together. Weinzapfel is a design leader in campus academic facilities and campus design in general, and has a special expertise in award-winning infrastructure and transportation design. Dedicated to the craft and technology of design, she has led many of the firm’s investigations of new materials and systems.

Weinzapfel has been a visiting faculty member at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning and at the University of Arizona College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, where she was on the Dean’s Advisory Committee. In 2002 she was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. She lectures and participates on design juries widely throughout the United States, Italy, and the Middle East. She has been a Design Critic and Lecturer at several universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Weinzapfel’s work and achievements have been recognized with the Boston Society of Architects Award of Honor. She was a past president of the Boston Society of Architects and a board member of AIA Massachusetts. She is a Board of Overseers member and former Trustee of the Boston Architectural College and is a Trustee and Former Board Chair of Boston by Foot, and she was an advisor to the CultureNOW program in Boston. She has served on the Mayor’s Boston Transportation Advisory Committee and the Mayor’s Government Center Plaza Task Force in Boston, MA. Weinzapfel also served on the Massachusetts Executive Office of Community Development Designer Selection Board.

Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-Chief Metropolis Magazine
Susan S. Szenasy is Editor in Chief of METROPOLIS, the award-winning New York City-based magazine of architecture and design. Since 1986 she has lead the magazine through decades of landmark design journalism, achieving domestic and international recognition. She is internationally recognized as an authority on sustainability and design.

Susan served two terms on the boards of the Council for Interior Design Accreditation and the Landscape Architecture Foundation. She's on the board of the Fashion Institute of Technology's Interior Design department and Center for Architecture Exhibitions Committee. She's been honored with two IIDA Presidential Commendations, is an honorary member of the ASLA, and the 2008 recipient of the ASID Patron's Prize and Presidential Commendation as well as the SARA/NY medallion of honor. She is an ASID distinguished speaker.

Susan has received a citation and an honorary membership from AIA New York Chapter. Along with METROPOLIS Publisher Horace Havemeyer III, Susan was a 2007 recipient of the Civitas August Heckscher Award for Community Service and Excellence. In 2011 she won the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award and was named a Senior Fellow by the Design Futures Council.

Susan 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, and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. She lives in New York's East Village in a small loft designed by Harry Allen, where she moved after 9/11 to reduce her ecological footprint.



Eben Klemm, Bartender & Author
Eben Klemm, a former research biologist, is especially interested in encouraging knowledge among bartenders concerning the basic chemical and physics principals that affect the materials they use in order to better understand the techniques they use. Klemm and his cocktails have been featured in such diverse local and national publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Time Out New York, Popular Science, and Playboy. He has also made televised appearances include The Today Show, CBS’s Early Show and ABC 20/20. His cocktail book for beginners, The Cocktail Primer, was published in December by Andrews McNeel.

Stir together In a mixing glass full of ice:

• 2 ounces El Dorado 8 yr Old Rum
• 1/4 ounce Averna
• 3/4 ounce coffee vermouth*
• 1/4 ounce mint syrup**

Strain into ice filled rocks glass and garnish with twist of lime

Coffee vermouth: infuse 750 ml bottle red vermouth with 2 ounces whole dark roasted coffee beans for 4 to 6 hrs. Strain out beans.

Mint syrup (non LN method) place 1/2 liter of 1:1 simple syrup in freezer for 2 hours. Flash blend with 1/2 cup of mint. Strain.