Denise Arnold
Denise Rebecca Arnold ’07, AIA, passed away on November 8, 2024 at the age of 57. The daughter of Sandra and Hugh Arnold, she was a distinguished architect, designer, and researcher who devoted her life to inclusive design and fairness in development. Her work includes universal design of housing and public spaces like transportation hubs, schools and parks, to ensure that the places where we work, live and play are inclusive to all. Her custom designed interiors promote aging in place and are usable by people of varying physical and cognitive abilities.
Denise served in several departments of the City of Chicago, fostering equitable design and development for public housing residents, people with disabilities, and grandparents raising their grandchildren. In 2005 when she founded the private architecture practice Denise R. Arnold LLC. She lectured and wrote widely on accessible design, consulted, and served on public boards, most recently in the city of Highland Park on the zoning and housing committees and the planning commission. In 2014, she founded the nonprofit APLUS to research environmental impacts on people with cognitive disabilities like autism. This work continues under the leadership of her partner and husband Gerardo Fitz-Gibbon, AIA.
Denise earned a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan (1991), and a Master of Urban Design from Columbia University (1994), and most recently completed a PhD in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2024).
Denise was a beloved daughter, wife, and mother. In addition to her husband, she is survived by sons Benjamin Arnold Fitz-Gibbon and Lucas Arnold Fitz-Gibbon; her mother Sandra Arnold; and sisters Sharisse Rehring, Paige Farber, Andrea Arnold, and Susan Freel.