Mónica Ortiz-Cortés

Associate AIA

Preservation Specialist

Mónica Ortiz-Cortés, Associate AIA, joined the VMA preservation studio in Fall 2021. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. Her academic career included several accolades: she was a member documentation teams that won third place in the 2017 Charles E. Peterson Prize and first place in the 2016 Holland B. Leicester Prize, both administered by the Library of Congress’s Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program, and was awarded a Mildred Colodny Diversity Scholarship from the National Trust of Historic Preservation.

As preservation specialist, Mónica can often be found surveying existing historic buildings or producing detailed assessment reports for a variety of projects throughout the region. Mónica currently volunteers with the Royal Institute of British Architects – USA chapter (RIBA-USA) and has recently begun learning to make pottery.