Résumé

Draftswoman, Paul Hayden Kirk, Architect, Seattle, WA, 1953-1954.

Architect, Minoru Yamasaki and Associates, Troy, MI, 1955-1960.

Teaching

Lecturer, University of Washington, Seattle (UW), 1965-1968; Zarina began the UW's Rome Program for College of Architecture and Urban Planning students in 1970, when she accommodated visiting UW architecture students at her Rome apartment. She founded a program on Italian hilltown architecture in 1976 at Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy.

Professor, University of Washington, Seattle (UW), College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Seattle, WA, 1985- ; beginning in 1985, she had a joint appointment as a Professor in the Departments of Architecture and Urban Planning; Zarina served as Director of the Rome Center from 1984 until 1994. Professor Emerita, University of Washington (UW), College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Seattle, WA. Zarina assisted the CAUP Dean and UW Provost in the negotiations for space in the Palazzo Pio in Rome, the UW's Rome Center home to the present. Located on the Piazza del Biscione, the center occupies the Palazzo dell'Orologio,a Renaissance building begun in 1450; architect Camillo Arcucci redesigned the palazzo's facade about 200 years later for the aristocratic Orsini Family, supoosed descendants of Rome's Julio-Claudian dynasty, and after them, the royal Pio da Carpi di Savoia Family resided here and renamed the building the Palazzo Pio.

Professional Service

In the 2000s, she and her husband established the Zarina-Heywood Civita Institute, dedicated to the preservation of Civita di Bagnoregio and other Italian hilltowns. Zarina and Anthony Costa Heywood co-founded the Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy (NIAUSI).
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Professional Awards

Recipient, Rome Fellowship, American Academy, Rome, Italy, 1960; Zarina was the first woman to receive a Rome Prize Fellowship.

Recipient, Fulbright Grant, Italy, 1960. While in Italy, Zarina became an expert in restoration architecture. She also worked on the Berlin-Märkisches Viertel, a housing project designed for 50,000 people located on the eastern periphery of West Berlin. Work on this Siedlung began in 1963 and ended eleven years later.

Recipient, Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Seattle, WA, 1979 for her Rome Center work. Recipient,

Honorary Membership, American Institute of Architects (AIA), Seattle, 1994.

Archives

For access to Astra Zarina's own work, please contact the Civita Institute.

College

B.Arch., University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Seattle, WA, 1953; at UW, Zarina formed close connections with Professors Wendell Lovett, Lance Gowen, Lionel Pries and Victor Steinbrueck. Like Lovett, Zarina attended MIT for her master's degree in architecture.

M.Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, 1955.

Parents

At her death, Zarina was survived by her sister, Vija Rekevics, brothers, Uldis and Valdis Zarins, nieces, Elizabete Rekevics Grove and Carmen Gudz, and nephew, Karlis Rekevic.

Spouse

Zarina married twice. She first wed Douglas P. Haner, (1930-2011) an architect.

Zarina then married Anthony Costa Heywood.

Biographical Notes

Zarina had outstanding language skills, being fluent in English, Italian, German, French and Latvian.

• Riga, Latvia (Architect's Birth)
  Riga, Latvia

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