Cynthia Vranas (M.ARCH. ‘01, Ph.D. ‘17), AIA

Cynthia Vranas Olsen, having studied classical ballet, classical piano (for performance) and Greek language and culture throughout her elementary and high school years, received her Bachelor of Science, Interior Design, Minor in Humanities, Harrington Institute of Interior Design and Northwestern University, with a Masters of Architecture and Ph.D. of Architecture with Emphasis in History and Theory both at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Cynthia is a licensed architect and registered interior designer. For over 15 years she has been co-principal of Olsen Vranas Design, an architectural and interior design based practice in Chicago shared with her partner and husband, Keith R. Olsen.

Olsen Vranas Design has received numerous commissions that have produced award-winning residential and commercial spaces throughout the U.S. Previously, her work was with renowned architectural firm Murphy/Jahn under the tutelage of Helmut Jahn and John Durbrow.

With a lifelong love for education she was an Associate Dean at Harrington Institute of Interior Design where she taught and revamped the curriculum, honoring its foundational courses and enhancing it with newly available technologies. More recently, at the Illinois Institute of Technology she is Director of the Mies van der Rohe Society and teaches for the College of Architecture and the Interprofessional Program to students across the university’s diverse fields of study.

Living in Chicago much of her life she spends time with her husband Keith and son Alexander in the Indiana Dunes, designated recently a National Park. There she is immersed in Mies work at IIT, the professional architectural design work of their firm Olsen Vranas, while teaching, writing, reading, drawing, playing piano and dancing alongside family life.