Teresa Borsuk

Teresa Anna Borsuk was born in November 1956.[1] She was interested in architecture from a young age; she has said that building model homes in her father's garage and playing with Lego "made me curious about the profession".[2] She attended The Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, receiving her Graduate Diploma in Architecture in 1981.[3] She also spent a scholarship year at the University of Kansas.[2]

The first architectural firm where Borsuk practised was DEGW, an architecture and design company founded by Frank Duffy, Peter Eley, Luigi Giffone and John Worthington that specialised in workplace design.[4] Her first project was a conversion of Christie's offices in Amsterdam. She joined the practice Pollard Thomas Edwards in 1984 and has since completed projects in housing, refurbishments and mixed-use developments.[2] These projects include the award-winning project 'The Granary', Walthamstow Town Centre in Walthamstow, Greater London, and the restoration of the Royal Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey.[5][6]

Borsuk was appointed executive director of Pollard Thomas Edwards in 1999 and became senior partner in 2014 as the firm celebrated its 40th anniversary. In the same year Borsuk completed a 76-home residential development called "The Avenue" in Saffron Walden, Essex.[3] In 2015 she was named Woman Architect of the Year by Architects' Journal for her efforts to improve gender equality in her practice; the proportion of women on the staff of Pollard Thomas Edwards increased to over 50 percent under Borsuk's leadership.[2]