Sara Bega explores feasible ways to create an enduring built environment that celebrates and forms a valued tradition and culture.
In addition to her work at Notre Dame, Bega is Town Architect in Las Catalinas, a car-free hilltown on the northwest Pacific coast of Costa Rica, where she leads architectural and urban design efforts, developing strategies for car-free urbanism filled with vernacular architecture. Bega has served as design architect for over forty projects and has collaborated with design professionals to create urban plans for new phases of development. Las Catalinas has received a CNU Charter Award in 2022 and Urban Guild Design Excellence Awards in 2020.
Bega holds a Bachelor of Architecture with Minor in Art History from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, 2014. Her student work included researching the social housing of Rome districts San Saba, Testaccio and Garbatella as well as participating in the installation of a Guastavino structural tile vault in the Museum of the City of New York with John Ochsendorf. Her studio urban design work in Havana Cuba, led by Samir Younes, earned a CNU Student Award of Merit. Her undergraduate thesis, a South Bend Union Station, completed under advisement of John Stamper, explored endurance of structure, architectural language, and building type as was awarded a Students for Classical Architecture International Student Design Award.
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