A Lifelong Learner
Efrat Nizan (B.Arch. ’98) was just 12 years old when she had her first experience as an amateur architect: helping her parents design their new house. “I always wanted to be an architect,” she says. “I just didn’t know when or where.”
The “when” has become “now” and the “where” is New York Tech. An alumna herself, Nizan has served as an adjunct instructor in the School of Architecture and Design for nearly 17 years, after spending more than a decade working in the industry.
Nizan’s life was a wild ride before she landed at New York Tech. In the Israeli army, she married young. She was barely an adult when she had an unexpected career seeding clouds as a commercial pilot for the Italian government. She moved 16 times in just 10 years and lived on three different continents before she and her husband settled in California, where she was finally able to begin her architecture studies. When the couple moved to the East Coast, she completed her bachelor’s degree in architecture at New York Tech. Then she joined an architectural and engineering firm, making her childhood ambition a reality.
“Every 10 years I feel like I need a big change in my life,” Nizan says. “I wanted a new challenge, so I quit my job at a high-end residential architecture firm and went to graduate school [at Columbia University] so I could teach.”
She joined New York Tech in 2010 and has been teaching at the university ever since.
“When I was a student at New York Tech, my professors gave me the tools to express myself; they gave me confidence and mentored me. Now, I want to do the same for my students,” Nizan says. “I’m giving them the support they need to think about their time at school as a life-changing opportunity.”
Overdue for her next 10-year life-changeup, she has started a personal project—designing and building her new home—and she’s bringing her experience into the classroom. Nizan and her husband bought some land near a lake and demolished the house on the lot. She is now using inspiration from the earth, water, and sky in her design: “I’m obsessed with integrating landscape and architecture,” she says.
“It’s a dream project for any architect. I’m bringing in years of lessons that I’ve been teaching,” says Nizan, who won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching for part-time faculty in 2025 for her dedication to teaching and to students. “Everything I research at home, I get my students to research at the same time. I’m learning new software and technology with them.”
As part of her work, Nizan writes curriculum and coordinates the second-year architecture design studios, incorporating opportunities for students to get out of the classroom and into the real world. “You can’t ‘read’ an experience in a book; you can only imagine it,” she explains. “There’s nothing better than being in a space that has an impact on you.”
Nizan is also committed to serving and supporting the adjunct faculty members at New York Tech as co-chair of the Adjunct Affairs Committee in the School of Architecture and Design.
“We bring the community together so that adjuncts have a voice, and they feel that their opinions matter,” Nizan says. “I want to help adjuncts feel invested in New York Tech and their students.”
She says she feels blessed to have so much support from her family, colleagues, and students.
“Some people think about retirement at this age, but when I reflect on my career and life so far, I feel like I’ve just gotten started,” Nizan says. “It’s very exciting to learn, adapt and start again, and I see many opportunities ahead. I’m looking forward to what the future holds.”
By Ashley Festa