Pietta Donovan is an interior and product designer based in Brooklyn, New York. Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Pietta’s 24 year career has focused on private and luxury high rise residential interiors, commercial design and product design. Her years with leaders Paul Segal Associates Architects, CetraRuddy Architecture and Extell Development sharpened her intuition and afforded her exposure as lead designer for a substantial portfolio of New York City luxury residential condominium towers and boutique conversion loft spaces, interior projects that allowed for the design of custom furniture and lighting fixtures, shaping her interest in product design.
An expert in natural stone and tile, Pietta has refined her approach to finishes from her decades of exploration and discovery in quarries and suppliers throughout France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and beyond. Perhaps her most powerful professional transition occurred when Pietta took time away from active design work with the intent of focusing on motherhood and her new family. It was during those years that she was provided with the much needed distance from the grind of studio deadlines and briefs and where she gained valuable time to observe and conceive of design solutions more in a reaction to what she wanted and what she felt was missing from the industry.
Through product design, Pietta expresses her personal story as a designer by playfully experimenting with her design heritage, influences, nostalgia and the personal experience collected during her most formative years in Australia. Her experience and exposure in both the design studio, real-estate development and construction, has provided her with a natural curiosity not just for design, but for both the manufacturing and construction process. Her current product design work is a manifestation of her experience and wisdom to date.
Now heading her own firm and working with private residential clients, commercial clients and real estate developers in New York City and Connecticut, she continues to draw from her design training and experience in addition to her private design collections.
Pietta received her initial design training and degree from the University of Technology, Sydney, where she graduated with Honors.
