Sandra Vivanco

Sandra Vivanco (died March 31, 2020) was a Peruvian-born architect, educator, writer, and professor at the California College of the Arts. She practiced architecture in Japan, Portugal, Peru, Italy, Mexico and Brazil.

Education Vivanco was born in Lima, Peru, and received her undergraduate education from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1985

Career Vivanco founded her San Francisco-based architecture firm A+D (Architecture + Design) in 1994. The firm prioritized housing and affordable community building was the central focus of the firm's work. As one of only a few Latinx-owned architecture firms in the country, A+D explored cultural identity representation as design inspiration for new and invigorated public spaces. In 2017, she received the Education Award in the AIA San Francisco Community Alliance Awards program. She was the Architect of Record for The Mexican Museum in San Francisco, due to open in 2020.

Vivanco also focused on raising awareness of Latin and South American women architects since the mid-1990s. This includes curating exhibitions and publications. Two recent publications include chapters in Transculturation, Cities, Spaces and Architectures in Latin America and Baroque New Worlds: Representation, Transculturation, Counterconquest. After the award of the Lebrun Travel Grant in 2018, Vivanco went to Mexico to document the work of Clara Porset published as an article From Resort to Gallery: Nation Building in Clara Porset's Interior Spaces.

Awards 2018 AIANY Stewardson Keefe Lebrun Travel Grant

2019 ACSA Diversity Achievement In 2019, Sandra was Awarded the National Diversity Achievement Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. It recognizes "the work of faculty, administrators, or students in creating effective methods and models to achieve greater diversity in curricula, school personnel, and student bodies, specifically to incorporate the participation and contributions of historically under-represented groups or contexts." Recipients are chosen based on the positive stimulating influence they have had on diversity within architecture education, schools, and/or the community at large.

Legacy In 2020, the California College of the Arts established the Sandra Vivanco Diversity Scholarship in honour of Sandra Vivanco and her advocacy for underrepresented groups in architecture and design. The scholarship supports students at the college, with a focus on women of colour, non-binary, transgender, and DACA / Dreamer students experiencing financial need.