Parsons Alum Found Dead

Photo courtesty of Patrick McMullan

A talented lighting designer and Parsons alumnus was found dead in his 90th Street apartment early on the morning of April 12.

Alejandro Bulaevsky, 26, who graduated from Parsons in 2007 with a masters in lighting design, was sprawled out on the kitchen floor of his uptown apartment when police found him. Police say he was found wearing a latex body suit and mask, with his hands handcuffed behind his back.

Police said that they found no evidence of a burglary in the apartment.

Bulaevsky's work has been featured at Claremont University, a new eco-friendly low-energy Chipotle, and several chic restaurants in Las Vegas and New York City. 

"He was an interesting individual," said Derek Porter, director of the Parsons MFA program and member of the lighting faculty. "Very dynamic, very intense. He talked fast, he moved fast, he worked crazy hours—he was kind of the typical mad scientist."

"He had an amazing technical mind," Porter added. "He was doing some very advanced research and science with controls and with LED lighting technologies. I’m very confident he would have been a pioneer in the field in the future."

The university expressed its condolences in an official statement on April 13. "The university is deeply saddened by the loss of a promising alum and sends its sympathies to Alejandro's family, friends, and those who knew him while he was a student at The New School," read the statement.

Porter said that Bulaevsky would often return to Parsons to help current students with their work. "Last Thursday he was here meeting with students, and I hadn’t seen him in a while, so I said hello and we talked for 30 seconds or so," Porter said. "He was happy, smiling, enthusiastic, just normal Alejandro. Everything seemed perfectly, you know, normal in every regard."