Alloy Development is a New York City-based architecture, development, and building management practice with over $1.6 billion in projects under its belt. The 17-person firm pursues an integrated and collaborative approach to practice that unifies design, finance, and construction to pursue a series of handsome buildings that manage to simultaneously prioritize design and the bottom line, a not-too-easy feat given the city's predominantly profit-driven development model.
Founded in 2006 by Katherine McConvey, Jared Della Valle, and AJ Pires, the firm works to not only develop its own projects but also invests the profits generated by the work it performs back into the practice itself. According to the firm, "We pursue our own work in a fun and granular practice where the definition of value unique to each project is the ultimate aspiration."
For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect was able to connect with Della Valle and Pires to discuss, among other topics, how a firm's legacy can go beyond a project portfolio, the potential for "counter-cyclical" investments in affordable housing, and how the firm's integrated approach can help the practice weather potential economic downturns.
Where and When did your studio start?
Alloy started in 2006 in DUMBO and we have been in the same space since we started.
How did you come up with your name and company ethos?
The idea of merging or combining differing elements to make a stronger whole reflects the underlying approach at Alloy. We bring the diverse capacity and values of architecture, brokerage, construction, and development together to create a stronger impact on the built environment.
We bring the diverse capacity and values of architecture, brokerage, construction, and development together to create a stronger impact on the built environment.
How many people work at the company? Are you looking to grow?
We are currently 17 people and are not looking to materially grow the size of our office. We rigorously focus on the entire process of making buildings from concept through management of the stabilized asset, and our employees participate in the entirety of that process. By choice, we are limited to one or two projects at a time to ensure that each aspect of the process—design, construction, brokerage and management—gets the time and attention it deserves. At the end of the day, we are making homes for people and buildings in our city and we must be proud of when they're complete. When we started Alloy, we thought our portfolio would be limited to a dozen or so great buildings, but we are now realizing we have created a shared value-set and culture in our office that will last beyond the principals who founded it.
Alloy is a fully integrated design, development office—Can you share some of the benefits of controlling so many aspects of a project?
The benefits of our integrated approach are directly related to having exclusive access to determining how value is defined for a project. As architects doing development, we get to define the program, priorities, and the principles of how we engage. Seeing the impact of our work in the places in which we live—not just as objects in the built environment but as places for people to come together—is probably the greatest benefit.
By choice, we are limited to one or two projects at a time to ensure that each aspect of the process—design, construction, brokerage and management—gets the time and attention it deserves.
What are other offices that you look at for guidance and why?
We have an admittedly unusual practice. There really aren’t many other development firms where the values of architecture lead the practice. If anywhere, I think we end up looking to similarly unusual companies that promote their value-set in an otherwise defined space. We have found that we need to look outside of our industry at companies like Ben & Jerry’s or Patagonia (both B Corporations) that have prioritized societal and environmental agendas respectively.
You have been in business for over a decade—What were the biggest obstacles along the way?
We believe our success is defined largely by what we say “no” to, not what else we can do at any given moment. Having the discipline to focus on mission over the economic potential that accompanies increased success is probably the biggest challenge.
What are you currently working on?
We are currently working on two projects. 168 Plymouth Street, our fifth project in DUMBO, is a loft conversion project of two historic warehouses into 46 homes. It’s currently under construction with a completion date in late 2020. We are also in the middle of design development on a full city block in downtown Brooklyn: 100 Flatbush. One of the first buildings is a 38-story mixed-use tower that contains 258 apartments, office space, and retail. We are also building two public schools as part of the first phase. The second phase of the project will contain another 550 homes, office space, retail, and a cultural facility. It’s incredibly exciting to be working on a large, mixed-use and dense project in Downtown Brooklyn.
How would you define your firm’s perspective on work-life balance?
One of the benefits of being both the developer and the architect of a project is that we get to define its schedule. So relative to an architectural practice, we have incredibly rational work hours. The days have a certain intensity given the variety of issues we’re tackling, but we also leave plenty of time to enjoy life outside of the office.
Where do you see the office in 5 years? In 10 Years?
Our hope is that the scale of our projects relative to their impact in New York City continues to grow. That and we hope to begin rebalancing the expectation of what developers should be delivering given the great privilege of working here. We also hope to expose the potential of what it means to be an architect.
One of the benefits of being both the developer and the architect of a project is that we get to define its schedule. So relative to an architectural practice, we have incredibly rational work hours.
You are known predominantly for high-end projects, do you have plans to tackle other types of work?
“High-End” is an interesting concept. Quality of design is an underlying principle of our work. As our projects have expanded to include public infrastructure and housing for all income levels, we believe we have more of a responsibility to make great buildings. Our hope is that we continue to be known for work that is of the highest quality despite our desire to expand the scale of our projects.
A few years ago, you mentioned in an interview that you preferred to take on mid-sized projects of 100,000-200,000 square feet, can you elaborate on why those projects have worked best for your practice so far?
The amount of time and effort to build a great single-family home is not much different than that needed for a much larger building, but the latter's impact is so much greater. Our track record has afforded us larger opportunities, and so it is simply less rewarding to focus on a smaller project unless there is some other achievement–like building our first passive house project with a series of townhouses– that is worth the effort.
Since public subsidy is typically driven more by policy than markets, investing in affordable housing can offer the opportunity in a downcycle to build meaningful work that is counter-cyclical.
As you know, there has been a lot of talk in recent months regarding a potential economic recession—As a real estate and architecture firm, is your practice twice as exposed to the potential economic fallout or does the blended focus insulate you somehow?
We are not in a service profession where we are reliant on securing business from clients in the same way an architecture firm would. Additionally—and unlike a lot of other developers—we take project returns and invest in our company such that we can sustain periods of time when it’s not smart to be acquiring new work. We would rather not acquire projects that are not perfectly suited to our mission, and we are rigorous about supporting that discipline.
In a related vein, there has been discussion in some circles regarding the importance of “counter-cyclical” investment in workforce and below-market-rate affordable housing as a potential countermeasure to an economic downturn. Do you agree?
Given the housing crisis, it is always the right time to invest in affordable and workforce housing in New York. Since public subsidy is typically driven more by policy than markets, investing in affordable housing can offer the opportunity in a downcycle to build meaningful work that is counter-cyclical.
What are some other “defensive investment” project types an integrated firm like yours is well-positioned to take on due to your specialization?
We believe our biggest risk is not sustaining our business, but focusing on the larger impact our work can have to ensure the sustainability of our city. We feel a responsibility to lead the private development community to seek more conscious and impactful work, and to lead the architecture community to find comfort in taking the risks that definitively afford them the agency that the profession deserves. We’re defending against "business as usual."
Antonio is a Los Angeles-based writer, designer, and preservationist. He completed the M.Arch I and Master of Preservation Studies programs at Tulane University in 2014, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. Antonio has written extensively ...
4 Comments
Seems like a great idea... although nothing new... conceive an asset, design an asset, build an asset, stabilize the asset and the asset sustains you... hmm... brilliant.
The work is quite good, and it's an inspiring business model.
Antonio, thanks for this series - I've been enjoying them. Would be cool to see follow-up pieces on occupants and users of the spaces too to see if the various firms' different intentions hold up in reality, or are legible to the public.
New York is an incredibly diverse city.The range of projects incredibly diverse.Unfortunately the office is not.
It’s important to have architects go into fields like development (or government) so they can employ their values and quality. Alloy is a good example of that
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