Archinect - Features

Let's Move the Conversation From Demolition to Creating More Affordable Housing

2020-03-10T19:53:00-04:00

At the end of February, a surprising decision by a state judge revoked the approval for the top 20 floors of 200 Amsterdam Avenue, a market-rate, luxury, residential building on the Upper West Side in New York.

The developers amassed air rights, using a zoning loophole to create a 39-sided lot. While the city clarified that these zoning lots will no longer be allowed, it nevertheless sided with the developer to challenge this ruling. Despite the zoning gerrymandering that went into the design and approval of the 52-story building, few would have imagined that after receiving the required approval from the Department of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals, the developer would be asked to demolish the upper third of the building.

Leong Leong on the Power of Slowness, Weird Aesthetics, and Family in Architecture

2020-02-11T11:34:00-05:00

Rushing to found a firm may seem like a good idea for those looking to keep their creative naivete, but as proven by New York City-based practice Leong Leong, patience and deliberately planned growth pays off. Just over 10 years since its founding in 2009, the small office has already completed a handful of projects that include the first phase of the 180,000-square-foot Anita May Rosenstein Campus in Hollywood, as well as multiple high-end fashion stores, museum exhibitions, and furniture pieces. With even larger projects in the works, Leong Leong shows that widely accepted entrepreneurial mottos like “move fast and break things” don’t always apply so broadly -- architecture requires more than just charisma and fast-cash business acumen.

This week, Archinect talks with Chris and Dominic Leong, founders and partners at Leong Leong and Adjunct Assistant Professors at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where they teach an Advanced Desig...

"Decolonization Is a Gift"—CCNY's Lesley Lokko on Questioning Architecture's Inherited Futures

2019-11-25T10:00:00-05:00

Deans List is an interview series with the leaders of architecture schools, worldwide. The series profiles the school’s programs, pedagogical approaches, and academic goals, as defined by the dean–giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty, and academic environment.

For this installment, Archinect spoke with Lesley Lokko, a multi-talented architect, best-selling novelist, architectural educator, and now, Dean of the The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York (CCNY), New York City's premier public architecture school. The 420-student school offers a keen focus on "the urban environment as the most important generator of ideas" and offers professional undergraduate degrees in architecture and graduate degrees in architecture, urban landscape architecture, urban design, and sustainability in the urban environment.

We caught up with Lokko as she prepares to move to America from South Africa—where she has b...

A Deep Dive Into the Salaries of NYC Architects

2019-11-18T12:52:00-05:00

Defining what constitutes fair compensation represents perhaps one of the most contentious and divisive workplace issues roiling the architectural profession in the contemporary era. Whether it’s the spirited conversations surrounding unpaid and underpaid internship culture, the fight for equal pay regardless of gender, increasing pushes for unionization in architecture and aligned professions, or the popularization of the four-day workweek, the news is heavy with compensation discourse.

Not only that, but views on proper, fair, and equitable compensation vary widely by practice, firm type, and even among managers themselves, fueling uncertainty and secrecy that ultimately does little to help the average employee.

To help lend an element of transparency to these conversations, Archinect initiated the Architecture Salary Poll in 2013 to provide an anonymous forum for architectural workers to list their compensation figures. Over the years, we have collected thousands of submissions...

Alloy Development: "We get to define the program, priorities, and the principles of how we engage"

2019-11-08T14:45:00-05:00

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 c...

Abruzzo Bodziak Architects Embraces the Beautiful Complexities of Architectural Practice Through Optimism and Narration

2019-11-01T15:45:00-04:00

What happens if running a practice can be viewed as one long project? With this perspective and approach to establishing themselves as a formidable architecture studio, the Brooklyn-based duo of Abruzzo Bodziak Architects has continued to make their design imprint within the fabric of New York's diverse design community.

As practicing architects and academics involved in teaching and fellowship, Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak use their multidisciplinary approach to design solutions that work toward a built environment which "engenders belonging."

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect connected with Abruzzo and Bodziak to learn more about their journey as a budding architectural practice and showcasing the "synthetic process" of the built form through narrative.

How SHoP is Re-thinking Skyscraper Design and Transforming New York’s Skyline in the Process

2019-10-30T11:50:00-04:00

One doesn’t need to visit New York City in order to understand that the city’s skyline is undergoing drastic change, both within and—increasingly—outside of Manhattan.

In an attempt to better understand the micro- and macro-forces at play shaping the city’s skyline, we’re taking a look at three recent distinctive tower projects designed by SHoP Architects in partnership with JDS Development, Property Markets Group and Spruce Capital Partners, including: 111 West 57th, a spindly supertall under construction on Billionaire’s Row; the American Copper Buildings, two metallic skyscrapers overlooking the FDR expressway; and 9 DeKalb, a forthcoming supertall tower set to become Brooklyn’s tallest building.

Together, along with a forthcoming set of acrobatic high-rises slated for the Brooklyn waterfront that SHoP has also had a hand in crafting, the featured buildings highlight several of the dynamic conversations taking shape within the realm of skyscraper design, as issues of extreme he...

Fellow Fellows: Ranitri Weerasuriya, the 2018 Goodman Fellow at GSAPP

2019-10-25T13:00:00-04:00

Fellow Fellows is a series that focuses on the increasingly important role fellowships play in architecture academia today. These prestigious academic positions can bring forth a fantastic blend of practice, research, and pedagogical cross-pollination, often within a tight time frame. They also, by definition, represent temporary, open-ended, and ultimately precarious employment for aspiring young designers and academics. Fellow Fellows aims to understand what these positions offer for both the fellows themselves and the discipline at large by presenting their work and experiences through an in-depth interview. Fellow Fellows is about bringing attention and inquiry to the otherwise maddening pace of academia, while also presenting a broad view of the exceptional and breakthrough work being done by people navigating the early parts of their careers.

This week, we talk to Ranitri Weerasuriya, the 2018-2019 Percival and Naomi Goodman Fellow from Columbia University Graduate School of ...

Peterson Rich Office: Rethinking The Value (and Values) of a Small Architecture Practice

2019-10-24T06:00:00-04:00

Peterson Rich Office (PRO) is a New York City-based architecture and design practice that pursues cultural and residential projects with an inventive and joyful spirit.

The young firm, founded by Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich in Brooklyn in 2012, was awarded a New Practice New York prize by the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter in 2018. Over the years, PRO has steadily produced provocative and challenging proposals that interrogate how finance, form, and use interrelate at the urban scale. Whether crafting a secluded artists' studio, mixed-use towers, or proposals for maximizing the land adjacent to public housing projects, the firm manages to think-through and sometimes entirely re-think the role architects can play in bringing transformative projects to life.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect was able to connect with Peterson and Rich to discuss, among other topics, how architects represent but one part of a "massive network of stakeholders for any bui...

Size Matters: A Conversation on Storefront for Art and Architecture’s History with Founder Kyong Park

2019-10-23T12:49:00-04:00

For art and architectural venues, growth is a commonly accepted measure of success. As the story usually goes, an upstart museum or gallery begins life small and then, with enough reputation and investment capital, gets a larger and larger space; with expansion and higher ticket sales comes the ability to support ever-larger shows that reach a broader public. But for New York City’s Storefront for Art and Architecture, however, a small, irregularly-shaped 868-square-foot space provides a physical constraint that has long been a key part of its ability to showcase relevant, vital exhibitions.

In an extended interview with Kyong Park, Storefront founder and director between 1982 and 1998, we take a look at the origins of The Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Conversations Amongst Friends: Architect Charles Renfro and Artist Anton Ginzburg Discuss Art, Architecture, and the Idea of Disappearance

2019-07-01T10:13:00-04:00

Conversation between colleagues can lead to new perspectives unveiling new areas of discourse, especially between differing practices. The art and architecture disciplines have experienced much overlap over the years, and many would argue for or against the notion of these disciplines having an interchangeable set of methodologies. Despite differing views and stances on where these practices might fall into each other, discussions between architects and artists are common, and entertaining. From Frank Gehry and Ai Weiwei to David Adjaye and James Turrell, it can be observed that artists and architects have more similarities than differences in certain aspects of practice and approach.

Following the recent opening of Anton Ginzburg's exhibition, VIEWs, at Helwaser Gallery in New York, Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Anton Ginzburg met for an exclusive discussion with questions provided by Archinect. The two reflected on each other's work, spoke of observational techni...

Garrick Jones of Ten to One on How to Fold Pro Bono Work Into Your Business Model

2019-04-15T13:32:00-04:00

In only six years, Ten to One Architectural Design Studio has built up an impressively high volume of projects, many of which are offered up as pro bono services. Working across a diverse range of budgets, scales and types, the New York-based firm is motivated by a commitment to public architecture, and bringing design equity to underserved communities—an aim that was further codified after the 2016 election, the firm's founder Garrick Jones says.

While providing free architectural services can be tough, especially for a small firm, the benefits are worthwhile. In this week's Studio Snapshot, we talk with Jones about how him and his team of four manage to make it work.

'It's Not Corporate Architecture!' Insist David Bench and Jonathan Chesley, the Duo Behind the NYC-based INC_A

2019-03-18T10:00:00-04:00

In 2016, the Storefront for Art and Architecture held an unusual design competition asking architects to compete for the most creative way to tear down a building. The brief had come out of a prior competition, the New York non-profit's 'Competition of Competitions', in which David Bench and Jonathan Chesley proposed the idea for a dream-up demolition competition.

At the time, the two were beginning to form their own studio, born out of lunchtime chatter with one another in Union Square Park. Now, the New York-based INC_A (which stands for 'It’s Not Corporate Architecture') is busy growing as a design firm, working on a number of public and semi-public projects. For this week's Studio Snapshot, we talk with Bench and Chesley about their radical proposals and many evolutions as a practice.

Simple, Playful, Ambitious; A conversation with Benjamin Cadena on his journey to finding his voice in architecture.

2018-12-31T18:01:00-05:00

His intuitive approach to architecture can be summed up by his playfully ambitious works that not only showcase his talents as a designer, but as an innovator in the field of architecture. Pulling from his influential upbringing in Bogotá, Cadena's use of simplistic forms and color has allowed him to shape his own voice and approach to design.

As we wrap up 2018, we welcome the New Year with this week's Studio Snapshot on an architect whose passion for community and dialogue inspires him and his creative practice. Benjamin Cadena, of Studio Cadena, talks freedom in architecture, the joys of model making, and color's association with habitation.

An American Palazzo in Greenwich Village; The Headquarters of the National Maritime Union by Albert C. Ledner

2018-12-26T17:47:00-05:00

Callouts is a review series in praise of architecture, art, and the city.

Contrary to the common use of the modal verb “to call out” which emphasizes negative criticism, “Callouts” here draw from the architectural drawing tradition. Callouts in architecture establish a closer look towards a part of a project that requires more explanation and emphasized attention due to its complexity, uniqueness or typicality. They create a different, more detailed view of what has already been seen, expanding the reader’s understanding of the project.

Following that tradition, “Callouts” is a series of carefully selected complex, unique and banal projects, that have the potential to initiate a discussion, be didactic and affect their contemporary contextual mythology. Reviews for projects that do not satisfy these criteria can be found by typing “architecture” on your search bar.

New York's Dynamic Duo, Hou De Sousa, Blends Their Passion for Detail and Spatial Adaptability Into Beautifully Composed Projects

2018-12-18T12:05:00-05:00

After graduating architecture school, Nancy Hou and Josh de Sousa knew right away they wanted to start their own practice. After gaining experience by working for notable design offices, the two strived to create a practice which fed their appetite for creative freedom. Their attention to detail, and passion for building with a sense of purpose and camaraderie, has the firm quickly becoming a catalyst for designs that incite human interaction.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Nancy and Josh talk about the joys of cultivating a creative environment, and how starting their practice twice lead to a deeper understanding of the work they wanted to produce.

As Incoming Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning of Cornell University, Meejin Yoon Shares Her Insights From Her Own Experience as an Architecture Student

2018-09-11T10:00:00-04:00

At the beginning of the upcoming Spring semester, Meejin Yoon is the newly minted dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning of Cornell University. According to the Cornell Chronicle, Yoon is the first woman named to the position since the college was formed in 1896.

As SHoP Architects evolves, Associate Principal Lisa Schwert shares how potential new hires can stand out when applying to their firm

2018-06-21T13:18:00-04:00

Since their founding in 1996, SHoP Architects in New York City remains dedicated to an open-minded, collaborative work culture and design process, ensuring that new employees get involved as much as possible from day one. “At every step we stopped to ask ourselves, what will best support open, healthy, lateral collaborations across the studio?,” says SHoP Associate Principal Lisa Schwert.

To this day, SHoP continues to grow and evolve with its staff of 180 people. So what does the firm expect from job candidates when it's time to hire? In Archinect's latest “How To Get A Job At ___”, Schwert got in touch with us to share some job application tips as well as a glimpse into the firm's office culture.

How One Architecture Remains Small While Working on Massive Urban Resiliency Projects

2018-01-22T09:00:00-05:00

Matthijs Bouw is a Dutch architect and urbanist and founder of One Architecture, an award-winning design and planning firm that was established in Amsterdam in 1995 and again in New York in 2015 after the firm won the Rebuild by Design competition in partnership with BIG. Bouw is also the Rockefeller Urban Resilience Fellow for PennDesign at the University of Pennsylvania, where his work centers on urban resilience and water management projects.

For this week's Small Studio Snapshots, we talk with Bouw about opening up his New York office, the difference between working in the Netherlands versus the United States, and the benefits of keeping a small team despite working on large-scale projects.

Removing the Scaffolding of Architecture

2018-01-03T12:36:00-05:00

When I think of architecture I think of the Salk Institute in La Jolla by Louis Kahn, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Florence Cathedral by Brunelleschi, The Yamanashi building in Kofu by Kenzo Tange... there are so many great buildings by so many great architects.

The Founders of NY-based New Affiliates Discuss How Their Love for Arguing Betters Their Work

2017-09-18T12:12:00-04:00

N/A, our latest Small Studio Snapshot, is a New York-based architectural design practice led by Jaffer Kolb and Ivi Diamantopoulou. They are interested in using known forms, techniques and materials in new ways; creating work that is both textured and layered, typical and novel. Current projects of the firm include a house completing this fall, a hotel facade renovation, a cliffside viewing platform, and a collection of design objects.

There Are Over a Thousand 9/11 Memorials Around the World. Here Are Just a Few You Probably Haven't Seen.

2017-09-11T12:22:00-04:00

I spent more than five years studying entries to the 2003 World Trade Center Memorial Design Competition, compiling them in my book “9/11 Memorial Visions” (McFarland & Co, 2016). Soon after, I learned that the New York City memorial is only one of many, and I thought, “There must be some interesting ones that have been built…”

Jenny Sabin Discusses 'Lumen' as MoMA PS1's 2017 Young Architects Program Opens

2017-06-29T12:08:00-04:00

Jenny Sabin, principal of Jenny Sabin Studio and director of the Sabin Design Lab, has been selected as the 2017 winner of MoMA PS1's annual Young Architects Program, which kicks off today, June 29. Sabin is active in academia and the cultural sphere, often showcasing her work in pavilions and installations like this year’s Lumen.

"I think of architecture as an act of writing in the city": Vishaan Chakrabarti discusses PAU's upcoming projects

2017-06-22T13:27:00-04:00

As the founder of PAU, Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect and urban planner who considers every aspect of the city with foresight, but isn't as concerned with the culture of celebrity that has often dominated the profession. "Calling oneself a humanist over the last couple of decades was a real no-no," he explains via phone. "You're supposed to be a bad-boy, cape-wearing starchitect." He purposefully did not name the firm after himself in order to place emphasis on intelligent discussion, not hierarchy. Although he's excited about taking on more projects, he never wants PAU to grow beyond roughly 30 employees so that he will always know everyone in his office.

S9 Architecture is Remaking the City and Suburbs Through Iterative Design

2017-05-02T12:14:00-04:00

S9 Architecture, a Manhattan-based firm, is involved in a plethora of projects that are not so much shaping the skyline of the city as quietly addressing the context of the city and the impacts of new spatial needs from the street and human scale. Their work has even attracted the likes of ‘starchitect’ Bjarke Ingels, who recently moved into a rustic, rusted penthouse in one of their Brooklyn buildings. A relatively young firm, S9 has a style and philosophy that has helped them secure a position at the forefront of a new market for vibrant mixed-use development in New York and its surroundings, with projects like the Dock 72 building in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard under construction—which has WeWork as a major tenant—to iterations on reviving and adapting the shopping experience in suburbia.

How To Get A Job At: Dattner Architects

2017-03-01T06:37:00-05:00

The search for employment is unpredictable and demands unrelenting patience. When you're at your wit's end, it can be tempting to send the same exact resume to what feels like the same job ad over and over again. However, no two firms are identical. Possessing certain technical skills are required across the industry, but there are particular qualities and red flags that a firm won't always simply list on their job ad. In Archinect's “How To Get A Job At ____”, we asked some architecture firms how candidates can stand out from the crowd when applying to their practice.

"The environment we design, designs us back:" A Conversation with Eran Chen of ODA

2017-02-16T12:53:00-05:00

Founded in 2007 by Eran Chen, ODA’s distinctive residential projects seem to ripple and blossom in the urban realm. From housing to libraries to mixed-use structures, ODA’s design philosophy is both socially inclusive and visually compelling. I spoke to Eran Chen about his ideal city, the challenges behind designing “permeable buildings,” and what he learned from his dealings with Donald Trump.

Behind the façade: WORKac's hidden penthouse, 3D-modelled capitals, and other subtle interventions in 'the Obsidian Building'

2016-11-11T13:42:00-05:00

In the latter half of the 19th century, areas of New York City, in particular SoHo, got a facelift courtesy of a major new technology: cast-iron. Cheap, sturdy, and easily to install, cast-iron façades were used to dress up older industrial buildings and attract new tenants. The material was pliable yet durable, and could be easily cast into ornate forms, which were often informed by classical Italian and French designs with an American twist. More than just an aesthetic embellishment, replacing the façade dramatically changed the experience of the interior, allowing for enlarged windows and higher ceilings.

Between art and design: rethinking function with Hand Job Gallery Store

2016-02-23T17:55:00-05:00

Google “art vs design” and you’ll find a slew of fairly common sense diagrams and articles. “Good art is a talent”, stipulates one, while “good design is a skill”. Or, similarly, “good art is interpreted”, whereas “good design is understood”. My favorite includes two identical images of a chair. Beneath one reads the caption, “a chair: design”, while beneath the second, “a tree: conceptual art”.

Liz Diller gets high: discussing The High Line's development with Christopher Hawthorne

2016-02-19T18:07:00-05:00

Few would have predicted that a “used-condom-strewn” elevated railway line running through what used to be seedy Chelsea would become one of New York City’s biggest cultural attractions. And yet, according to Elizabeth Diller in conversation with Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne at LAX Art on February 16, last year over seven million people walked Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s High Line. That’s about four million more than attended MoMA or even all of the Yankees games, making The High Line not just a renovated railway, but a literal cultural bridge between the pedestrian and the aesthetic realms.