Merica Jensen

Merica May is dedicated to her studio practice, research, teaching, and community. Building on her first career as a ballet dancer, she is interested in bodies, time, movement and the power of architecture as a social agent. As a twin, she cares deeply about our interconnectedness.

At Pratt she teaches intuitive structures (Techinics) and urban studies (Urban Genealogies) in the College of Architecture.

In 2022, she founded the studio Gray Matters . The interdisciplinary practice, located in the Hallway in the East Village, spans the fields of multi-media, performance, installation art, architecture, and urbanism. The studio has completed site works for Georgia Institute of Technology (Ariniara – a social structure dedicated to women) and a temporary glass-work in front of the New York Stock Exchange. They are designing buildings for Minnesota Dance Theatre and the city of Thornton in Colorado’s Art Center. They won NYC’s Small Lots Competition and have created dwellings in NYC, Connecticut, and Utah. Their ongoing research of the Lower East Side’s Cultural Ecology, with East Village Community Collation and Lower Eastside Preservation Initiative, explores the the interwoven forces contributing to the fabric of the neighborhood.

Merica May gained her architecture experience during a decade at the multi-disciplinary studio Diller Scofidio and Renfro (DS+R). There she led and helped build a range of cultural and institutional projects, including the 250’ sculptural Park Union Pedestrian Bridge in Colorado Springs, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the top-floor event space at the Shed in New York City, Microsoft’s Corporate Headquarters, and the winning competition entry for the Adelaide Contemporary in Australia.

She is committed to her community, serving on the boards of 6BC Community Garden, Citygroup (a city-activist-art-space that was recently awarded the ArchLeague Prize), the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, and Junior Boards of American Ballet Theatre and Kaatsbaan. She built a sandbox with Lotek in La Plaza Cultural Community Gardens and is working on a foodbank and community center for Sisters with Purpose in Bed–Stuy. She is a licensed Architect in New York State.

M.Arch., Georgia Institute of Technology.