Ana Franco
Born into a creative family in Los Angeles including an architect, painter, inventor, structural engineer, art teacher and seamstress to the stars - Ana Franco was certain to end up in the design profession. She attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where she received a Bachelor’s of Architecture degree. During her architectural studies Franco spent a year abroad studying in Florence, Italy, and working for an architecture firm in Madrid, Spain.

After completing her degree, Franco moved to New York City where she worked for two distinguished architectural firms. While at Caples Jefferson Architects, she worked on the award winning Times Capsule for the New York Times and the AIA award winner Heritage Health and Housing. Subsequently, Franco worked for Parsons+Fernandez-Casteleiro Architects where her projects included the renovation of a townhouse in Greenwich Village and the interiors of numerous apartments and offices.

It was her experience working on interiors projects at P+FC Architects that convinced Franco to return to school for a Master of Science in industrial design at Art Center College of Design. With a new concentration on furniture design, she has received many accolades. Franco’s work was selected to represent Art Center at the 2004 Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. Her Dino chaise was also featured in the New York Times, IDSA’s Design Perspectives, and received a Merit award in the 2004 IWF’s Design Emphasis competition. Her chaise entitled Mommy & Me was exhibited at the Japanese American Cultural Center as part of the Neoteric Conjunctive exhibition.

While at Art Center, Franco has interned with noted industrial designer Lisa Krohn of Krohn Design. She will be working with Don Chadwick and Associates upon graduation.