The founder of OOAA, Andrew Varela brings many years of design experience working with cultural, educational, commercial and residential clients on major architectural projects. He has coupled that background with an exploration – as both architect and teacher – of how design can reclaim material agency in the production of built forms, from inception to fabrication.
Andrew's combination of practical knowledge and theoretical investigation has let him build a substantive practice.
His professional experience includes several demanding building types: Cultural institutions, such as the expansion and renovation of the Juilliard School of Music and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City; academic buildings like Pace University Student Landscape; residential projects such as the Sky House Tower in New York; retail, such as the Abercrombie and Fitch Flagship store in Madrid; and infrastructure projects like the 2nd Avenue Subway Line in New York.
A licensed architect in the United States and Spain, Andrew is a member of the American Institute of Architecture. His degrees include a Masters in Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, a Masters in Advanced Architectural Design from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.
Andrew is an adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ.