Uzma Mirza AIA, LEED AP,NCARB
Principal
AYN Architect LLC
SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE 
ART PHILANTHROPY THE PEN
www.aynarchitect.com www.thepenandtheinkpot.org www.pifdn.org thepenandtheinkpot@yahoo.com
PROFILE OF SKILLS:
Registered and Licensed Architect with 15 years experience various building types
LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) –USGBC
Sustainable and green Architecture: Initiative, Research and Application of measures
NCARB-Registered and Licensed Architect: Illinois and Indiana, USA
Auto Cad Release 2010 and previous versions, ADT 4 (2-D, 3-D)
Project Architect, Project Manager, Design and Technical Architect
Construction Detailing/ Construction Documents/Planning/Site Analysis/Engineering Coordination
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Interior Design, including millwork and furniture detailing
Adobe In design, Illustrator, Photoshop, Power Point, Microsoft Word, Excel
Hand rendered perspectives/sketching in any media
Artist: Painting: watercolors, oils, acrylics, marker, pencil crayon & all media
Photography, digital and film
Model Building
Marketing presentations including graphic design and logos
Competitions
WORK EXPERIENCE:
AYN Architect LLC , base Fort Wayne, IN August 2008-Present
Principal/Owner
Registered Architect: Architecture and Consultancy specializing in Sustainable and Green Architecture
Panyijiar Library Design, Sudan, Africa – Schematic/Design Development design 2008-Present
A sustainable design for a tropical/equatorial climate with Autocad, Hand drawings, perspectives & renderings
First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana: Green Consultancy and speaker on Sustainability
Office building ‘Study’ to be Green and LEED certified, Delaware, Maryland
Currie Sustainable Restaurant, Columbia City, Indiana
Green Muslim Community Center-preliminary study- Anchorage Alaska
MTI Islamic School of Knowledge-Schematic Design, Indianapolis, Indiana
A Vision of a Sustainable Design Complex for a community, ICFW-Fort Wayne, Indiana
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP, Chicago, Illinois 2006
Registered Architect: Architecture, Engineering, and Design Firm
NATO Headquarters: Design and detailing of Garden/Green roof structure; Brussels, Switzerland
High Rise Residential Tower & Gardens; Various High-rise buildings in Dubai, UAE, Saudi Arabia & China
Theater Design and Sustainable Measures (LEED): Schematic Design sketches and design work
Hotel Renovation in Colorado: Landscape design and infrastructure of site & bldg with Sustainable measures
SOM Green team: Presentation of Green/garden roofs
Green Roof Presentation: Organized a company-wide lecture on Garden roofs. Invitation, to series of guests
Islamic design for Garden and building façade design, Saudi Arabia
Centerbrook Architects and Planners, LLC, Centerbrook, Connecticut 2001- 2005
Registered Architect: Architecture practice specializing in university facilities, museums, residences, high schools
Selected Projects:
Hotchkiss Private High School: Copper roof and wall siding, brick, and curtain wall Music Pavilion. Design, initiated Green construction documents. Prepared and coordinated all construction details, sections, exterior elevations through all phases of design with engineering disciplines; initiated, researched and compiled all interior/exterior materials and methods for LEED certification. Published Eco Structures Magazine Sept. 2006. Published EcoStructures Magazine 2006
Essex Public Composting Toilet: Granite stone, concrete block and copper construction. Project Manager;
Prepared all construction documents and used sustainable materials. Produced watercolor perspective.
Quinnipiac University (Athletic Center): Pre-cast, concrete block, and brick construction. Prepared detail
drawings for construction documents; Coordinated engineering disciplines; Rendered interior design drawings.
University of Michigan: Interior architecture. Prepared construction documents.
Residential: Hyneck, Nuzum, Ilany wood clapboard/stud construction residences. Prepared construction documents.
CBK Office: Built a plastic bottle recycle chute and a drip irrigation system (for roof plants) as Green measures.
BSA Design now called BSA Life Structures, Indianapolis, IN 1998-2001
Architect: Architecture and engineering, construction management firm specializing in healthcare
Selected Projects:
Seymour Hospital LDR renovation Project: Project Manager: Interior architecture and mechanical renovation & Design Arc-hitect. Prepared specifications/addendum and all design phases and drawings to occupancy.
Indiana University School of Business: Limestone building. Prepared/detailed all Construction Documents and shop draw-ings; Detailed all Indiana limestone usage, anchorage, sizes, and structure, plans, sections/elevations.
Ben Davis Christian Church: Brick construction. Project Architect: Prepared construction documents for all phases with all engineering coordination and details.
Indiana Dialysis Center and Doctor’s Office: Project and Design Architect. Planning/programming.
New Age Combustion Products, Fort Wayne, IN1997- 1998
Director of Research and Development of Sustainable Invention: Mechanical systems
Clean energy Furnace system for residences
Research & Site study/Script writer/screenplay, ITV. Karachi, Pakistan Jan. 1998-May 1998
Surveyed and analyzed and prepared screen script on a 16th century Mausoleum and Tombs in Pakistan
Schenkel Shultz Inc, Fort Wayne, Indiana 1995-1997
Graduate Architect: Architecture and engineering firm specializing in elementary schools, prisons, jails
Selected Projects:
Little Professor’s Book Company: Project Manager: Prepared all construction documents
Specifications; Water-colored perspective drawings.
Rockville State Prison: Concrete block/precast construction: Schematics/planning/design of recreation building.
Grissolm Prison: Renovation of U.S. Air Force base renovation into Men’s Prison Built model.
EDUCATION:
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada1995
5 Year Bachelor of Architecture-post professional
Ontario Association of Architect’s Medal
High Distinction and Dean’s Honor List
Michael Coote Scholarship
Harry Southam Scholarship
Excellence in Research/Design: 1st Prize
DSA-Directed Study Abroad: Italy and Turkey 4th year
Various self initiated Travel studies: Spain and Pakistan
Self initiated Study: Sound and Geometry study of the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Pakistan
Drawings/sketches: Beaton Institute, University of Cape Breton; Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada 1990
Art history and Sciences
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada1989
•Art History & Architectural History
Riverview High School; Sydney, Canada 1988
Salutatorian
Female Athlete of graduating class
OTHER RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENTS & AWARDS:
Art published: Green Notes: a Goodly Tree-co-authors: George & Peggy Daress-Muslim-Christian Dialogue
With Fons Vitae: Spring 2010
Poetry published, IWA: Anthology, Many Poetic Voices, One faith
Cover Design Art Published, IWA: Anthology, Many Voices, One Faith II, Islamic Fiction Stories Sept. 2009
Group Art Exhibit- 4th Presbyterian Church, Michigan Ave. Chicago IL- Interfaith exhibit April-June 2009
Various Solo Art Exhibits: Flat File Gallery, Chicago, Illinois-Endless Eye Production event 2008
ISNA Parallel session: Speaker/Presentation on Faith, Sustainability & Green Architecture July 4/09,Washington
Owner and Principal: AYN Architect LLC – Sustainable and Green Design Present
The Pen and Inkpot Foundation Inc: 501c3-Non-Profit organization Founder/President Present
Spiritual Art: www.thepenandtheinkpot.org - Commission Work 1997-Present
Zanbeel ART Gallery, California: Group Exhibition 2009
Ball State University: Guest Juror-Critic. Sustainable/Green Issues, Muncie, Indiana December 12, 2008
Woman Made Gallery, HER MARK publication and exhibit, 2008 Selected. Chicago, IL August 2008
Art Exhibit with EndlessEye Production Film Screening: Flat File Gallery, Chicago, IL 2008
La Academia, Bridge competition. Venice, Italy (Sustainable/green Design) submission- July 2006
*‘EcoStructures’ Magazine: Published building-Hotchkiss Music and Arts Building, CT September 2006
Woman Made Gallery, 9th International Open Juried Exhibit. Chicago, IL (selected) 2006
Indus Women Leaders. Art exhibition by Blank Canvas, Chicago, IL Chicago, IL, Dec.11, 2005
Open City Wide Studios Art Exhibit, New Haven Connecticut. Oct. 29,30 2005
Boston Social Forum: Speaker: Sustainable Architecture; Boston University, Boston 2004
Water Fountain Design: Winner. Drill Bit Gallery at Centerbrook Architects. 2001
Ball State University: Guest Critic. Sustainable/Green Issues, Muncie, Indiana 2000
Firm Design Student Award, BSADesign, Indianapolis, IN (now called BSA Life Structures) 2000
Birdhouse Design Competition: Winner. Indianapolis Botanical Conservatory. 2000
Poetry Contest: Semi-Finalist, Published in Book: ”Echoes of Yesteryear”. 1999
Treasure Box Competition: Winner. Make-a-Wish foundation. BSA Design 1998
Birdhouse Design Competition: Winner Selection. Fort Wayne Day Break Abused Children’s Fund. 1996
Analytical Study/measure of the Geometry of the Badshahi Mosque: Independent Undertaking. Lahore, Pakistan. 1994
U.C.C. Art Mural Competition: Winner. (8’-0”-8’-0”) mural. Ottawa, Canada. 1990
Dog House Design Competition: Honorable Mention. ACSA 1990
Provincial Art Competition: First Prize. Nova Scotia, Canada. 1987
ACTIVITIES & MEMBERSHIPS
IPFW Center for the Built Environment & the Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition: 2010
Invited Design Charrette Advisor/Guest: The Eel River Trailhead Project, Columbia City,IN
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Judge for Scholastic Arts Competition 2010
Arts United, Allocation Committee. Fort Wayne, Indiana 2009-Present
USGBC-LEED certified (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Present
AIA- American Institute of Architects
NCARB-National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Present
IPLA-Licensed in Indiana Present
IDFPR license in Illinois
Registered Canadian Architect Present
Community Grants Committee. Fort Wayne, Indiana 2009
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Membership. Certified Course 101
Green Building Member
World Trade Center Memorial Competition: Individual Submission.
United Nations Conference on Civil Society: Delegate. United Nations, New York. 2002
Inter-Religious Eco Justice: Board Member. Sustainability Consultancy for Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues.
Rebuilding Demolished Homes Global Campaign: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and Jerusalem Center for
Social and Economic Justice-Fundraising and Education
Construction with Habitat for Humanity
CT Green Building: Council Member
Community services, teaching, fundraising
Poetics of Space Competition: Japan. 1998
Sun Wall Competition: Entrant. DOE-Department of Energy, Washington. 1999
Reciprocity Ideas Competition: Entrant. “Designing a Canadian Pavilion in Venice”. 1995
Glass House and House Competition: Judged, Philip Johnson and Tadao Ando,respectively, Japan. 1991
Extended Resume
Islamic Design/ history/philosophy, Study and Experience
The following Islamic Design experience is divided into:
a) Professional experience with Volunteer work
b) Islamic study in Academia and other
c) Personal Islamic design, study and travel
a) Professional Experience with Volunteer work:
-Worked with two well known firms most particularly Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) who are a world renowned firm with self initiated work for SOM's green team and detailed the green roofs for NATO in Brussels.
-Design work for buildings and garden in Saudia Arabia with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) from an Islamic calligraphy stand point as advisor and designer of facade and garden layout.
-EcoStructures Magazine: Published building-Hotchkiss Music and Arts Building, Lakeville Connecticut. Centerbrook Architects September 2006
-Preliminary cost and design studies/programming phase with a preliminary model for the Fort Wayne Islamic center, in Fort Wayne, Indiana 1997
-Board of the Building committee, for programming, for the School addition for the Masjid Al Fajr center in Indianapolis Indiana called The al-Huda Center. 1999
-Professionally advised the ISNA Mosque in Plainfield Indiana on possible renovations needed and a preliminary consultancy on adding a kitchen and other renovations to the mosque. 1996-2000
-Helped in the community to raise funds for the Masjid in Berlin Connecticut and much interfaith work with the CT Israeli committee against house demolitions (raising funds and awareness primarily).
2001-05
-As a delegate, spoke at the United Nations at the conference on 'Social activism in Support of the Palestinians', on the degradation of the environment due to the Occupation of Palestinians in Israel. 2002
-Architect- present- once Funds allocated for the Auburn Masjid in Auburn Alabama-it's been 5years. I was invited to exhibit my Art at their University by the MSA and Women's group at Auburn University, AL in 2003, in addition to Architecture. 2003
-Delve into intense Islamic studies for each Architectural project, not just from an architectural perspective but from the aspect of the natural world as emphasized in the Quran to consider, and as I mentioned in the concept of sustainability and green as rooted in Islam, though it is at present a Western concept which the East has forgotten in daily practice, as it's rooted, under the word of 'balance' as emphasized in the Quran by Allah. My outward actions is the making of a balanced built environment and my inwards actions have been the Quran through my Spiritual Art and study in order to build a balanced inner world. A sustainable or balanced inner will aid in producing a healthy outer world in which the built environment (Architectural space) has a huge role. Not just in waste management but in optimization of energy, renewable energy use, reuse of materials, air quality, water use/reuse, and site sedimentation/drainage, rain collection/reuse, recycle... My Art and written work or inner reflection has been part of this Muslim struggle, since I was a small child. The use of nature (God's science) as the book to read from which to learn and produce such functions in design has been a preoccupation in my space-work as it's the clockwork of our Creator.
-Inclusion of women and the handicapped in Mosque Design
For Example in such areas as the use of the dome, for sound amplification and the use of various geometry's as found in nature with which to design; or the minaret and its function for calling to prayer, a sound extending vast distances; the ablution halls and facilities, the soup kitchen, shelter, Orphanage, the medical or hospital facility/clinic, have always been a core of Islamic community design and this history and science has been part of the flavor of my Architecture, Art and written designs of my work and its implementation in my philanthropic work. Through the context and budget dictates the extent of function, beauty and application. By seeing some of my Art you will get a flavor of my Architecture: www.thepenandtheinkpot.org And also please check my web site for the current project for a Sustainable Design in Africa in South Sudan for a Library: www.aynarchitect.com.
b) Islamic study in Academia and other:
-Part of Directed Studies Abroad Program(DSA), in Architectural studies, initiated the DSA trip to Turkey in lieu of Rome, Italy. Studied in Turkey and traveled extensively studying and visiting most of the well known Mosques, Medreses's, hospitals and soup kitchens in Turkey seeing much Ottoman approach to Islamic Architecture. Eg. Sinan's Mosque designs, women in mosque design.
-Professor, Gulzar Haider, PhD is a well known teacher/expert of Islamic Architecture and Geometry in Islam in the world. He has designed/built six major Mosques in America. He has led studios on specifically Islamic design of Mosques in the West with a new context in mind where the minaret and dome may need to be reinterpreted for a seasonal and cold climate in the West. Though, I do believe they can be interpreted and inserted in a new way with a new structure and design that makes them functional again. He was also one of my thesis advisors. He now has returned to Pakistan after over 40 plus years and is the Dean of the Architecture department at Beacon House in Lahore.
-Dr. Gulzar Haider has written the Mosque design section, in the Architectural Graphic standard-a standard used in the Architecture/Space planning industry in this country in the designing of the built environment.
-As Architecture Student, a guest critique and advisor on several Mosque design final studios with Professor Haider. Various approaches to women in Mosque Design.
-5th year thesis work: a self initiated extensive study/research, written with a design/built through understanding Islamic and Western Astronomical instrumentation and it's physics reflecting the natural world, -‘Architecture as a laboratory under scrutiny by nature’- in the Islamic world, through a practical, philosophical, economical and artistic application with extensive physics and self initiated mechanics(gearing systems), as a core aspect of study, to space planning. Please see my web site for the result. Such instruments were used to find the Qibla. Sun dials were used as part of the gardens in Islamic Architecture as was water. Islamic Design is the oasis for the Muslim 'as traveler' in this world, like ibn Battuta, or I, as Bint Battuta.
-Couses in Islamic Garden design
-Study the use of sound, light, water and color in Islamic design
-Delved into intense Islamic study for each Architectural studio project
-Self Initiated Collective and broad experience in Islamic Architecture, design, theory, philosophy, history and practice with history and understanding of other faiths and their legacy and connections to the Islamic world.
c) Personal Islamic design, study and travel:
-Originally Canadian of Pakistani/Indian descent, raised in Canada where Nature and the built environment has always been a focus. My focus has been Green and Sustainability because it's a core in our faith-Islam.
-Since childhood, studied and researched solar home design for earth and the moon. From the very palette, God asks of us to realize Him through His signs is the very palette of the natural world which we are destroying including our inner and outer self. The natural world is the palette of God's creation from which we learn about the physics of our self and all our technologies through its geometry. But we are hurting that book from which to read. Our built-environment (construction) reflects about 25 plus percentage of the waste in our country.
-Age eleven, built a model of a renewable city and studied, at my own, much Sustainable practice done by my elders including all the Prophets and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), who emphasized simplicity and less.
-My teachers of Islamic Spirituality have been various
-Travelled and studied extensively all over Pakistan during summers to understand various Architectural designs of various cultures as: Islamic/Mughal, Gandara civilization, the wind catchers of Thatta, Muqlai tombs, various Mughal designs as the Badashai Mosque, Noor Jehans' and Jehangir's tomb, Shalimar gardens, the Red Fort across from the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Taxila, Moenjadaro...and many others.
-Studied an Islamic design in Pakistan by measuring the Badshahi Mosque as a vehicle to understand Mughal Islamic Design and the geometry of Domes and Hyperbolic parabaloids in Islamic design and the importance and geometry of sound. Understanding, how sound and water is used in Islamic Architecture has been a focus in my Architecture and Art.
-Travel to Spain to study the Geometry of a well know Architect, Antonio Gaudi. Geometry is a core of Islamic Architecture which is the reflection of the natural world which the supplicant is asked to understand and preserve as a steward and vicegerent, in order see God's signs in the natural world palette as a marvel of His creation and supplicate this Majesty.
-The Pen and Inkpot Foundation: President.
Organized two food drives 2008 and 2009:
-Iftar for Human Dignity 2008 & 2009 food drives to feed the needy in Fort Wayne, Indiana
-Hosted & initiated, Taste of Ramadan: an Education Forum on interfaith, diversity and multiculturalism
-To improve women and the handicapped inclusion in all Mosque design all over the world.
Following are recent presentations and/or articles written, interviewed and presented:
-ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) 2009 power point presentation called: Faith, Sustainability and Green Architecture: Envisioning a green mosque and sustainable built environment for the 21st century.
-Interview: The Baltimore Examiner, on the ISNA 2009 presentation in Washington, DC.
-Article: Faith, Sustainability and Green Architecture, and green consultancy: 1st Presbyterian Church on Green building; Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2008
-Article: Compassion is the Score of Balance, Lombard, Illinois for the Muslim Women’s Alliance. 2009
-Poetry publication: 2 poetic renditions for the IWA Poetry Anthology 2009 in the Islamic Writers Alliance:
-Radio Podcast: Muslim Voices and Vision with the Waldron Art gallery: Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
-IOL, Radio Islam Podcast: Islam on line Radio interview on Islamic Arts, Cairo, Egypt
-EcoStructures Magazine: Published building-Hotchkiss Music and Arts Building, Lakeville Connecticut. Centerbrook Architects
September 2006
