Ada: My Mother the Architect
Dates : December 9, 2025 — December 10, 2025
A deeply moving portrait of an architect tested by the impossible choices between career, country and motherhood.
Ada: My Mother the Architect
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 extrordinary 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.
- Dir. Yael Melamede | 2024 | United States, Israel | 91 min
- Documentary
- Hebrew (w/ English subtitles)
Until recently, Susan Wertheim served as the chief architect and deputy administrator for capital projects at the National Gallery of Art. Both a mother and architect herself, she retired after 28 years managing a large portfolio of renovations and capital projects, directing and guiding complex projects totaling more than $400 million.
Mary Kay Lanzillotta, FAIA, is a preservation architect and partner of Hartman-Cox Architects in Washington, DC, where she has been responsible for managing complex institutional and historic projects in Washington, DC, and throughout the country. Her historic preservation practice includes the renovation and restoration of the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery; the restoration of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Hay-Adams Hotel, the Patterson Mansion; and renovations to the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art—all historic landmark properties in Washington, DC. Her work also includes numerous institutional projects involving historic campuses, such as the renovations the John A. Campbell Courthouse (Mobile, AL), the Tomochichi US Courthouse and Federal Building (Savannah, GA) and the Cadet Chapel, Sijan Hall and McDermott Library at the US Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, CO).
In 1991, Ms. Lanzillotta founded the Architecture in the Schools program within the Washington Architectural Foundation, where she continues to serve as a program advisor. Within the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), she has held numerous offices including Chapter president in 2000, and she has participated with the national Young Architects Forum Advisory Committee, serving as chair in 1999. She has lectured in numerous academic and professional venues, including the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, the DC Preservation League, the AIA Grassroots Convention and National Convention, Building Virginia, Architecture Exchange East, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Building Museum, and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums.