nazli gonensay, m.arch principal born in istanbul turkey, nazli gonensay received her master of architecture degree in 1994 from columbia university graduate school of architecture, new york; her bachelor of arts degree in 1990 from connecticut college, new london. gonensay began her professional career in the office of eisenman architects where she developed a wide range of skills of the practice. she served in project teams for award winning projects. her employment experience continued with the new york firms gkv, where she acted as a project architect on projects the firm was commissioned to build in istanbul, and architectureproject (currently known as jansongoldstein) where she was a project manager in charge of design and execution of retail projects, mainly donna karan collection boutiques worldwide. in 1997 gonensay established her own practice in new york city, under the name 212 architecture, in 1999 extended it to istanbul. the company takes its name from the area code of new york city and Istanbul, two cities which play a pivotal role in the life and career of gonensay. currently gonensay manages her practice with a dedicated team of architects and a wide spectrum of client base both in istanbul and new york. gonensay received international recognition especially for her hospitality design, circus and loft restaurants. gonensay and her work has attracted much attention of international media, including the new york times magazine, wallpaper, harpers bazaar, timeout, spruce, ad design. gonensay won the 2003 timeout istanbul best design award with loft restaurant, and progressive architecture design awards with eisenman architects for aronoff center for design and art, university of cincinnati, and rebstockpark master plan in Frankfurt. gonensay has served many times as a guest juror in student juries at columbia university, istanbul technical university. she is an invited jury member for the uia student competition 2005.