Lia Gartner

Lia Gartner Dinerstein died on February 2, 2023, from complications of ovarian cancer after a three-year illness. She leaves her husband of 45 years, James, her brothers Max and Michael, son Jonathan and daughter Rebecca, and grandchildren John Emmanuel and Rosalind. Lia was born in Romania in 1946 to Holocaust survivors Emmanuel and Rosalie Gartner, and emigrated with her family to Paris before they settled in New York in her teenage years. Undaunted by a new culture (“I was from the moon” she would always say), she quickly overcame language barriers to excel academically, winning admission to Harvard.

After a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia, she forged a distinguished career in architecture. Lia was responsible for design and construction for sixteen New York City municipal agencies, and then for the twenty campuses of the City University of New York. She taught architectural design and theory at The New Jersey Institute of Technology, Columbia, City College of New York, and the New York Institute of Technology. From 2004 to 2020, she was Vice President for Buildings at The New School, where she oversaw the design and construction of the 18-story, LEED Gold-certified University Center building. Lia was named the 1998 New York AIA Public Architect of the Year and was awarded AIA’s highest honor of Fellowship.

Lia delighted in the inspired making of form at any scale, and had a life-long passion for exceptional children’s toys and illustrations. She had a brilliant mind and a generous and loving heart, and found joy in works that speak immediately to the spirit, from Louis Kahn to Fred Astaire. She never tired of saying that her greatest accomplishment and reward were her children and grandchildren, whom she adored beyond measure. A funeral service will be held at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 180 West 76th Street, NYC, at 11am on Monday, February 6th.