Archinect - News

Seeking expansion, atelier masōmī rebrands to Mariam Issoufou Architects

2024-04-02T18:50:00-04:00

The ten-year-old practice known as atelier masōmī has announced it is rebranding as Mariam Issoufou Architects.

Formed by Mariam Issoufou (née Kamara) shortly after her graduation from the University of Washington, the Niger-based practice is now a widely known entity with projects featured in exhibitions worldwide and their name included as finalists for several top industry honors, such as the 2019 Prince Claus and Royal Academy Dorfman awards, 2020 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture nomination, and 2022 Aga Khan Award shortlist.

In an announcement detailing the name change, the studio said: "We have seen a growing interest in our work and our intersectional approach to sustainability from South America, North America, Middle East and Europe. This expansion in the geographic scope of our work has presented an opportunity for us to open a design studio in New York, where our founder and principal, Mariam Issoufou, is building a team. Through her professorship at ETH Zu...

ShubinDonaldson rebrands as Donaldson + Partners following Russell Shubin departure

2024-02-01T15:31:00-05:00

Southern California architecture studio ShubinDonaldson has been renamed Donaldson + Partners following the departure of Founding Partner Russell Shubin. The firm, based in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, was founded in 1991 by Shubin alongside Robin Donaldson, who remains as a Founding Partner, Design Director, and Head of Studio, alongside Partner and Managing Director Mark Hershman.

“As Donaldson + Partners, we remain committed to delivering the same extraordinary architecture we have been privileged to create as ShubinDonaldson,” the firm said in an update on its website. “We wish Russell Shubin all the best as he departs for new endeavors and thank him for his contribution to the success of ShubinDonaldson.”

Related on Archinect: Explore Shubin Donaldson’s completed restoration of Richard Neutra’s Mariners Medical Arts building in Orange County. Image © Benny Chan Fotoworks

“It’s relatively easy to start a partnership, but it’s a lot harder to end or alter a partnership many yea...

James Corner Field Operations announces name change and restructuring

2023-09-11T15:53:00-04:00

James Corner Field Operations will be continuing under a newly-announced partnership renamed Field Operations after 24 years in reflection of what it says are the diversity, character, and experience of its new leadership team and staff members.

The newly branded firm announced its transition from a sole proprietorship and has named Sarah Weidner Astheimer, Richard Kennedy, and Lisa Switkin as new Partners. They join Founding Partner James Corner and new Associate Partners Megan Born, Isabel Castilla, Tatiana Choulika, Matt Grunbaum, Jayyun Jung, Veronica Rivera, Karen Tamir, and Hong Zhou in the new partnership model, which they hope continues the success built on projects such as the New York High Line and San Francisco Presidio Tunnel Tops, among many others.

“This new structure elevates some of the field’s most skilled and experienced professio...

Deborah Berke Partners relaunches as TenBerke to promote ‘ethics-based vision’

2023-04-18T12:27:00-04:00

Deborah Berke Partners has relaunched as TenBerke in a move that the firm says “re-articulates our ethics-based vision for our practice.” The new name, which still retains the surname of founder Deborah Berke, seeks to evoke ideas of multiples and multiplicity, reflecting how the firm sees the broad responsibilities of architects.

“The number ten speaks of multiples and unity, a reflection of the creative collective who form TenBerke,” the firm said in a statement. “The name evokes the Powers of Ten: Our duty as designers to look at the biggest picture and the finest detail. And simply, we like ten because it’s a handy number — a human measure.”

Deborah Berke formed Deborah Berke Partners in 2002 with Maitland Jones and Marc Leff. Since then, the firm has amassed an extensive portfolio of institutional, residential, and commercial work, with recent projects including an adaptive reuse project for Ha...

Autodesk's new look has the architecture and design community talking

2021-09-12T09:00:00-04:00

A strong visual identity is essential to propelling a company's product, service, and overall brand. However, when it comes to logo designs in architecture, for example, the design's overall look on top of its size, type, and color choice can spark polarizing responses from the community. While not everyone is a trained graphic designer whose expertise and critical analysis of a logo goes beyond the general public, everyone has an opinion on whether a logo satisfies their perspective of the company or goes against what "they" envision.

A while back Archinect conducted a special feature reflecting and reviewing new logos from 10 of the most followed firm profiles on Archinect. During this review, the Archinect team collaborated with Armin Vit, co-founder of the graphic design firm UnderConstruction. Vit, a seasoned graphic designer, and writer lent his knowledge and provided expert analysis on logos from firms like OMA, Snøhetta, BIG, Gensler, and Zaha Hadid Architects, to name a fe...

Richard Meier is retiring as name change signals firm restructuring

2021-06-24T13:34:00-04:00

Architect Richard Meier is retiring from his firm renamed Meier Partners in a restructuring plan that signals an official end to the 86-year-old architect’s involvement with the practice.

Meier has been away from the office since the fall of 2018 after sexual harassment allegations published in The New York Times that spring ensnared him in the Me Too movement sweeping across various high-profile industries at the time.

Meier founded the firm in 1963 after brief stints in the studios of SOM and Marcel Breuer, eventually contributing designs for the Getty Center and San Jose City Hall before stepping down. Richard Meier & Partners Architects was then headed briefly by Bernhard Karpf, who left in July of 2019 to start his own practice in Brooklyn.

Previously on Archinect: Richard Meier steps down

New additions to the firm were also announced as Meier and his daughter Ana continue on in advisory roles. George Miller will become COO and Dukho Yeon is the firm’s new lead designer. Both...

WeWork is making moves, should other co-working spaces be worried?

2019-01-11T15:12:00-05:00

The We Company will be comprised of three main business units: WeWork, its main office business; WeLive, a fledgling residential unit; and WeGrow, a still-evolving business that currently includes an elementary school and a coding academy. Although the company could not provide specifics, it says plans are in the works to build out its residential and education units this year. Also

Early this week, WeWork's CEO Adam Neumann revealed significant changes to the infamous co-working space that took the globe by storm when it opened their first workspace in 2010. Quickly becoming one of "the fastest-growing lessee of new spaces in America," by 2014, the company seemed unstoppable. Since then, numerous other co-working/office space companies appeared on the scene. However, many alternative companies could not compete with WeWork's services as well as their overall design aesthetic.

2019 will be a big year for the company turning 9. Neumann will announce at the WeWork Global Summit that the company will no longer be called WeWork, but The We Company. In a recent interview, Neumann expressed the company's transition from renting desks and office ...