Torre, Susana, 1944-

Susana Torre was the first woman to be appointed head of Cranbrook Academy of Art and also the first architect appointed since founder Eliel Saarinen. Torre was the fourth of six vice-presidents to leave Cranbrook in 1995.

Susana Torre was born in 1944 in Argentina and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a degree in architecture and additional course work in urban planning in 1967. In 1968 she moved to the United States to pursue post-graduate studies in urban planning at Columbia University. Her career following the completion of her studies was based in New York City. Susana Torre was a principal of the Architectural Studio in New York from 1978 to 1984. She also worked as a partner at Wank Adams Slavin Associates and Torre Beeler Associates before starting an independent practice, Susana Torre and Associates of New York, in 1989. She has been associated with the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Architecture and Design and served as the coordinator of a research study on six new towns for the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies. Torre also has held academic appointments at Columbia University, SUNY at Old Westbury, Barnard College Architecture Program, and New Jersey Institute of Technology as well as serving as a visiting critic and adjunct professor at other schools in the New York area.

Throughout her career, Torre has been concerned with the status of women in architecture, studying the history of the subject and advocating fuller participation of women in the field. Her work is strongly engaged in a dialogue of Modernist and Post-modernist forms. Susana Torre has received several awards, including recognition from the Edgar Kaufman Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Torre has served on national juries for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) as well as other educational institutions. She is well known for her renovation and remodeling projects such as the master plan for the restoration of Ellis Island in New York Harbor (1981); renovation of Clark House, a turn-of-the-century carriage house in South Hampton, New York (1982) which received an Award of Excellence of Design from Architectural Record ; the renovation of Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia University (1985); and Fire Station Five in Columbus, Indiana (1987).

Torre has published many articles in journals, newspapers, and magazines and has exhibited works at the Museum of Modern Art, The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, The Otis Art Institute, MIT's Hayden Gallery, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum. Ms. Torre was the editor, curator and designer of the exhibit "Women in Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective," that toured United States in 1977 and the complementary book of essays (1977) that accompanied it.