Karen Fairbanks

Karen Fairbanks is a founding partner of Marble Fairbanks where she has focused on the design and planning for both public and private educational and cultural clients.

Karen Fairbanks is a founding partner of Marble Fairbanks where she has focused on the design and planning for both public and private educational and cultural clients. She has extensive experience with current library design, and her work as a member and past Chair of the American Libraries Association Committee for Buildings for College and University Libraries includes panels and presentations on library design around the world. Karen is a past member of the Board of Directors for the New York Chapter of the AIA, and has served on the Exhibition Committee, the Scholarship Committee, and as Co-Chair of the NYC AIA Design Awards Committee. She serves as a juror for architecture awards panels across the country and lectures extensively on the work of the firm. 

Karen received her Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia University and Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from the University of Michigan. She was honored by Michigan as the 2013 Distinguished Alumna of Taubman College of Architecture. Prior to forming Marble Fairbanks, she worked on award-winning educational and institutional projects at firms in New York City and Boston.

Karen is the Claire Tow Professor of Professional Practice, Chair of the Architecture Department, and Faculty Director of the Design Center at Barnard College. While at Barnard she has participated in the capital planning of the campus – including serving on the Capital Campaign Advisory Committee, the Long Range Capital Planning Committee, the Master Plan committee, the Trustee’s Buildings, Grounds, and Environment Committee, and the Teaching and Learning Center Steering Committee. Karen brings this extensive knowledge of institutional organizations and the specific needs of academic clients to the work of Marble Fairbanks.