Anna Bates

Regional Director New York

Anna Bates, Co-Founder of Make Make NYC architectural and design practice, brings an international experience in transforming spaces into vibrant, inclusive environments.The award-winning studio combines Scandinavian values of equity, sustainability, and quality with a mission to tackle uniquely American challenges. With over 25 years of experience spanning diverse projects, from public plazas to adaptive reuse and new construction including housing, high-rise buildings, hotels, museums, and commercial centres, Make Make is committed to effecting impactful change.

Anna Bates is driven to spaces and places that engage all publics and seek to surprise, delight, and inform with a focus on creating human connections, supporting diverse values, and making that transcends time and place. Her approach is influenced by her early career designing sets for commercials and plays. Beyond honing her abilities to make decisions rapidly and produce work very quickly with large teams, this experience taught her how to use spatial design to communicate while always leaving room for change, for imponderables, for growth. Her architectural work has expanded these notions to satisfy a more profound need to create designs with a lasting impact.

Anna’s most recent work includes Zuzeum, a museum and art centre in Latvia, and the book and exhibition INCEPTION, which reframes the concept of inspiration and authorship through the lenses of 111 notable architects worldwide.

Anna was also a founder and leader of ANNVIL Architecture and Design Practice in Riga, Latvia, from 2005 to 2023.