Katie Winter Architecture’s (KWA) designers come from a variety of countries and backgrounds, bringing a rich breadth to our design vocabulary, and to our approach to programming and aesthetics. KWA serves a diverse clientele throughout New York. We work with our clients to find visual vocabularies that resonate with the community and express their ideas and missions.
Katie Winter has been working in the design of educational spaces for over 20 years. Before starting her own firm in 2000, she worked at Skidmore Owings & Merrill and with Peter Gluck and Partners. She was a fellow of the Design Trust for Public Space, authored a guide to designing after school centers for LISC — Local Initiatives Support Corporation — and was named a "Tastemaker of the Year" by House & Garden.
Florencia Vetcher teaches at New York Institute of Technology and directs their Bachelor of Arts program in Interior Design in addition to her work at KWA. As a teacher of architecture, Florencia has been able to explore the design of educational spaces in her studios as well as in the office. This teaching experience is important to keeping the office current with discourse on educational design.
Sigfus Breidfjord is an Icelandic architect who graduated from the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York and has since founded Situ Studio LLC, a Design/Build firm and Vetcher-Breidfiord LLC. With passion for architecture design and sustainable construction, Sigfus embraces the challenge of making educational spaces that focus on the relationship between the built environment and human emotion.
Veronica Aspillaga is an architecture and interior design professional from Peru with a specialty in lighting design. She has worked on various projects with KWA since 2013. Veronica is a multi-skilled designer that understands the importance of interior lighting to develop high quality educational environments.
Vicki Danyang Long is a user interface, user experience, and interior designer based in the New York area. With KWA, she conduct research and creates 3D models and renderings based on user needs and schematic designs. Her online and offline work always relies on a design thinking approach to problem solving, which aligns closely with KWA’s integrated design process in which clients and tradespeople play formative and ongoing roles at all stages of the projects.
Melissa Ossa is an experienced designer and project manager. Having received her Masters degree from the Pratt Institute, she has worked with Katie Winter Associates on all stages of project design and management, from programming, conceptual and schematic design, design development, and space planning to code analysis and creating of filing sets and working drawings. She enjoys being on-site during construction to monitor progress and ensure that all members of the team (from contractors and vendors to clients) are up to date on the project’s progress. By working across a range of project types (with KWA and with other firms), Melissa has added a diversity of experiences with varied interior and exterior design in New York City and beyond.