Ada: My Mother the Architect Screening

  • Date

    Tuesday, December 09 2025-Wednesday, December 10 2025

  • Time

    Multi-day event.

  • Location

    Cafritz Hall

Ada Karmi Melamede is one of the most accomplished architects in the world but very little is known about her outside her home country of Israel. ADA – MY MOTHER THE ARCHITECT is a deeply moving portrait of an extraordinary women directed by her daughter, filmmaker, and former architect Yael Melamede.

Ada is a true pioneer who, like many successful working mothers of her time, was forced to make impossible choices, Despite personal sacrifices, Ada’s work gave physical form to some of Israel’s highest democratic ideals, most notably in the acclaimed Supreme Court building in Jerusalem, the Open University, Ben Gurion University, the Institute for Democracy and numerous other civic institutions around the country. ADA explores the impossible tensions between professional ambition and private life, and the ongoing challenge of holding onto ideals in a country increasingly drifting away from them.

Conversation with director Yael Melamede following the screening.

December 9 screening moderated by Susan Wertheim, former Chief Architect at the National Gallery of Art.

December 10 screening moderated by Mary Kay Lanzillotta, FAIA, a preservation architect and partner of Hartman-Cox Architects.