Ed Gavagan

In his day job, Ed Gavagan is the owner of PraxisNYC, a design/build firm practicing across a broad spectrum but specializing in boutique residences. Ed creates homes and furniture for fancy people and humble folk the world over. He aims to produce architecture of sustainability, habitability, durability and beauty.

In 2009, Ed began telling stories with the Moth, a New York City non-profit organization devoted to conducting live storytelling events. He has been featured in the award-winning Moth Story Hour on the radio, the Moth podcast on iTunes and the recently published Moth book of stories. The Moth was a recipient of a 2012 MacArthur Grant for Creative and Effective Institutions.

He is a founder of Design Starts Here, an architect’s collaborative that offered free design services to the public from a pop-up storefront in Manhattan. Two weeks after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Design Starts Here mobilized a fundraising effort and Ed traveled with a three-man team on a relief mission into Haiti; delivering tons of food, medicine and clothing to refugees, clinics and hospitals.

Ed gave a TED talk at TEDMed2012 in Washington, DC.

He was one of 40 innovators invited by Todd Park, the Chief Technology Officer of the US, to participate in the Safety Data Initiative organized by the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Ed lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter