UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — David Leven, co-founder and principal of the award-winning LEVENBETTS architecture practice, joins the Stuckeman School at 6 p.m. on Sept. 29 in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space as part of the School’s Lecture and Exhibit Series. The event, which is free and open to the public, is being produced and broadcast by WPSU at watch.psu.edu/stuckemanseries for those who wish to view the lecture remotely.

In his talk titled “Live + Learn,” Leven will focus on living spaces and learning spaces, primarily in the architectural types of the house and the library, in the work of LEVENBETTS.

LEVENBETTS was established in 1997 by Leven and Stella Betts in New York City. The duo originally trained as artists and fabricators, and thus bring an extraordinary sense of craft and care to how their buildings are made. They are both teachers of design and partners in life, as well as work. 

Central to the LEVENBETTS practice are the values of equity, dignity, sustainability, and an integrity of material practice and social responsibility. The firm’s depth and breadth of practice can be seen in all its work — from “Zoid,” an intimately sheltering 2019 sculptural installation at Art Omi in New York’s Hudson Valley, to the Taystee Building, an innovative 300,000-square-foot building in Harlem that was awarded through the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

LEVENBETTS has received numerous honors over the years and was recognized with the American Institute of Architects (AIA)/AIA New York State Firm of the Year honors in 2020. The practice has been honored by the Architectural League of New York for the 2009 “Emerging Voices” series, Architectural Record’s 2007 Design Vanguard and the 2003 Young Architects forum. It has received six New York City AIA awards for significant projects and its work has been exhibited and published worldwide.

In addition to professional practice, Leven is currently a professor of architecture at Parsons School of Design where he served as the director of the architecture graduate program from 2008 to 2012. He has also taught at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, the School of Architecture at Syracuse University and the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University.

Leven has served as a guest critic and studio review juror at Yale University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Penn State, Pratt Institute and the Southern California Institute of Architecture, among others. 

In 2018, Leven was named an AIA Fellow, the organization’s highest membership honor, for his “exceptional work and contributions to architecture.” He is the vice president of professional development of the AIA New York City chapter and is a licensed architect in New York and New Jersey.

Leven earned his bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and his Master of Architecture from Yale University’s School of Architecture. He also studied at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, and apprenticed with the performer-artist-architect Vito Acconci.