Archinect - News

Watch Riken Yamamoto's remarks from the 2024 Pritzker Prize ceremony

2024-11-14T15:35:00-05:00

Video from this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Riken Yamamoto’s May lecture and award presentation ceremony in Chicago has been shared with Archinect to celebrate the 46th edition of architecture’s most important individual honor.

The documentary-style film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the festivities, featuring commentary from Norman Foster and Yale School of Architecture dean Deborah Berke, among several others.

Berke tells us "I think the most important thing about it is how subtle it is and how willing he is as an architect to let the buildings be background in order to foreground human interaction" in deference to Yamamoto's deep understanding of both relational aesthetics and the art of the urban form.

Video courtesy of The Hyatt Foundation/The Pritzker Architecture Prize

More commentary from jurors Barry Bergdoll, Stephen Breyer, André Corrêa do Lago, Kazuyo Sejima, and Wang Shu provided an additional spotlight on Yamamoto’s legacy of social advocacy th...

TenBerke announces University of Washington residence hall project with Mahlum Architects

2023-07-28T12:25:00-04:00

TenBerke has announced a new dormitory project for the University of Washington in Seattle co-led with local mainstays Mahlum Architects, a leader in green building design.

The scope of the new Haggett Hall project encompasses a 200,000-square-foot residential hall with 800 beds and a fitness center located in the North Campus neighborhood of UW, which is currently undergoing a housing-focused transformation.

The firm’s first-ever West Coast project will incorporate its surroundings on an acre-and-a-half site on the periphery of campus and a woodland area. The project will be delivered using an “integrated design-build process” with Anderson Construction as its lead contractor and using the findings of a student engagement process that began in May.

Senior Principal Arthi Krishnamoorthy says it is part of TenBerke’s push to deliver a new generation of student housing marked b...

TenBerke’s new Princeton residences blend a refined exterior with an eclectic interior

2023-05-11T14:43:00-04:00

TenBerke, formerly Deborah Berke Partners, has completed what the firm calls its “most ambitious completed work to date.” The 485,000-square-foot project comprises two new residential colleges at Princeton University, each serving 510 students.

Image credit: Chris Cooper

Image credit: Christopher Payne/Esto

The taller building, named New College West, features soft-grey metal ‘treehouses’ inspired by its woodland setting. Meanwhile, the smaller Yeh College building is described by the team as “low-slung by outward-looking.” Both buildings feature a mixture of warm grey calcium silicate brick to create a “contemporary interpretation of historic masonry on the campus.”

Image credit: Chris Cooper

The ground floor of the buildings sees wood-formed precast concrete blended with extensive glazing framed in warm white oak. Inside, public and social activities are concentrated on the ground floor, seeking to depart from what the team calls the campus’ “traditionally h...

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...

Deborah Berke Partners unveils completed adaptive reuse project for Harvard Law School

2023-03-07T15:35:00-05:00

A transformational new adaptive reuse project for Harvard Law School’s Lewis International Law Center has been completed recently by Deborah Berke Partners.

Meant to “holistically” meet the demands posed by modern legal education, the project remade the original 1957 Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott design into a “porous, open connector” located at the heart of HLS’ Cambridge campus.

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Existing limestone edifices were removed to add an influx of natural light into the structure, which retained 80% of its original concrete foundation, steel-frame structure, and most of its modernist envelope. Terraces were added to the fifth floor and rooftop. A slate of new or repositioned entrances now helps to define the project’s exterior renovations, with the end of enabling greater accessibility to a campus that is now addressed from all sides.

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Ber...

Sharon Prince, visionary force behind Grace Farms, on her career-guiding ethical compass

2022-03-23T16:25:00-04:00

“Think about it. First it was food,” she says, referring to the decades-long push for local, sustainable and ethical eating, as well as reliable sourcing and labeling. “Then came clothing. I’m proposing that shelter will be next.” “Our velocity for good has been established day by day.”

Writer Ted Loos visited the SANAA-designed Connecticut retreat virtually for a profile of founder Sharon Prince, a former fashion retail executive who founded the 80-acre venue in 2009 around the five core principles of nature, the arts, justice, community, and faith.

Prince spoke about her collaboration with new American Academy member and Yale SoA Dean Deborah Berke on a project called Design for Freedom that looks to hold the industry into account for support unethical labor practices by creating a database that is exclusive of firms with a known history of dealing with sordid entities at the front end of the building materials supply chain.

Previously on Archinect: SANAA's Grace Farms “River” building wins latest MCHAP

“At Yale, Sharon provided initial support for a new joint course between the architecture school and the law school that traces the role of forced labor in the building supply chain and seeks to eradicate it from the architectural design process,” Berke explained...

Mabel O. Wilson, Deborah Berke, Thomas Phifer, and Michael Van Valkenburgh among members of the 2022 American Academy of Arts and Letters

2022-03-10T13:19:00-05:00

Writer and academic Mabel O. Wilson, architect Thomas Phifer, landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, and Yale SoA Dean Deborah Berke are among the newly-elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters according to an announcement from the institution yesterday.

The quartet joined the Academy with fourteen other honorees in music, art, and literature on a list of names that included painter Charles Gaines and The Things They Carried author Tim O’Brien.

Deborah Berke of Deborah Berke Partners

2022 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education recipient, Deborah Berke, FAIA. Photo: Winnie Au, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Berke has served as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture since 2016 in addition to operating her own New York-based practice, which she founded in 1982.

Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners

Image courtesy Thomas Pfifer and Partners

Phifer is the architect behind the recent expansion of Maryland’s Glenstone Museum and...

Yale School of Architecture Dean Deborah Berke has been awarded the Topaz Medallion

2021-12-10T16:54:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects jointly with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture has today announced Yale School of Architecture Dean Deborah Berke, FAIA as the 2022 recipient of the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education.

Berke, who has served as Dean at Yale since 2016, was commended for her “engaged approach in every graduate architecture student’s education” in addition to the initiatives that she has spearheaded during her tenure in New Haven, which include the introduction of an undergraduate Urban Studies major, the creation of Yale’s Center for Ecosystems in Architecture as well as the school’s first architectural sciences lab.

Relisten to Archinect's 2016 podcast conversation One-to-One #41 with Deborah Berke

Berke was also lauded for her efforts to diversify the school and for leading an initiative to tackle and investigate the issue of slave labor in the construction supply chain.

Berke speaks about the Yale Building Project. P...

Expanding the definition of universal design in a post-COVID world

2020-06-19T17:34:00-04:00

Rather than respond with temporary barriers or signs, [Joel] Sanders is trying to use MIX’s research process to arrive at designs that minimize the spread of the coronavirus and appeal to diverse users. This, he hopes, will result in buildings that endure, whether or not a vaccine becomes available.

Writing in The New York Times Magazine, journalist Kim Tingley takes a long look at the ways in which the design of everyday and communal spaces might shift to become more universally accessible following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article engages with emerging design ideas resulting from new social distancing guidelines and includes perspectives from Joel Sanders of Joel Sanders Architect, Vishaan Chakrabarti of PAU, Mabel O. Wilson of Columbia University, Rosalie Genevro of the Architectural League of New York, and Deborah Berke of Yale University, among others.

Deborah Berke Partners completes luxurious Wardman Tower renovation in Washington D.C.

2018-01-31T15:35:00-05:00

Deborah Berke Partners recently completed the two-year renovation of Washington D.C.'s iconic Wardman Tower. First built in 1928 by developer Harry Wardman and architect Mihran Mesrobian, the 9-story Georgian Revival tower was once home to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Marlene Dietrich. In 1984, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

Aiming to maintain the tower's original luxurious aesthetic, the original window configurations, balconies, and doors were reintroduced. Thousands of square feet of the facade were also renovated with brick, stone, metal, and cast iron.

Front portico. Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

Club Room I entrance + bar. Clubroom. Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

Club Room I. Photo credit: Wardman Tower.

The renovated tower features 32 two- to four-bedroom homes ranging from 2,200-4,600 square feet, and whose interiors were designed by Deborah Berke, Darryl Carter, and Jeff Akseizer. The...

Deborah Berke Partners to receive a 2017 National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt

2017-05-08T15:47:00-04:00

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum recently bestowed a 2017 National Design Award to Deborah Berke Partners in the Interior Design category. The awards competition recognizes designers, patrons, and companies for “excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life” in ten categories. Firms and individuals are nominated and portfolios are evaluated by a multidisciplinary jury of prominent design leaders, as well as previous winners.

“Our work, especially with old buildings, is quietly resistant to throw away-culture, to junk-space,” Deborah Berke said in a statement. “Call it architecture, interior design, or adaptive reuse. Labels don’t matter. It’s about creating spaces that people love, spaces that dignify contemporary life.”

Partners Deborah Berke, Maitland Jones, and Marc Leff and Senior Principals Stephen Brockman and Caroline Wharton Ewing will accept the award on behalf of the firm during the ceremony on October 19.

...

Comedy meets architecture as Michael Ian Black chats with Deborah Berke

2017-04-06T12:18:00-04:00

Although certain architects have attempted to inject humor into the profession, architecture is generally not known for its slapstick and wry timing, which makes the pairing of interviewer Michael Ian Black (formerly of classic comedy show The State) and Yale Dean of Architecture Deborah Berke just...unusual, but great. You can listen to their talk about the role of architecture in everyday life here.

While you're at it, take a listen to Archinect's podcast conversation with Deborah Berke...

Deborah Berke-designed stylish, sustainable tower opens in Indianapolis

2017-01-17T17:13:00-05:00

Nine glassed-in, metal-fin bearing stories make up the new Deborah Berke Partners-designed Cummins Indy Tower, which officially opens this month. With its "projections and inflections," the building simultaneously juts and struts through the metropolis, creating a slender and ecologically conscious corporate HQ.

Referring to Cummins' past collaborations with architects like Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche, Deborah Berke notes that “over the decades, Cummins has demonstrated a commitment to great design that benefits its employees, its customers, and the community. This building carries that legacy forward with an environmentally sustainable design that dignifies the work going on inside while enhancing the urban realm.

The building’s articulated facades and distinctive form serve a purpose—to create a comfortable, light-filled work environment for employees that adds to the vitality on Market Street. Adding some muscle to the great bones of downtown Indianapolis, the park is a public am...

One-to-One #41 with Deborah Berke

2016-10-10T14:58:00-04:00

The small town of Columbus, Indiana is packed with the works of famous modernist architects, but unlike cities like New York or Chicago, Columbus’s pedigree isn’t so often brought into the national architectural discourse. Exhibit Columbus, a new symposium and exhibition happening annually in the city, is hoping to change that.

Deborah Berke, architect and dean at Yale, has worked extensively in Indiana and was a keynote speaker at this year's inaugural Exhibit Columbus symposium. She joined me on the podcast to reflect on the local and regional influences of Columbus, Indiana, and the impact they've had on her career.

Listen to One-to-One #41 with Deborah Berke:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessions One-to-One" podcast
SoundCloud: click here to follow Archinect
RSS: subscribe with any of your favorite podcasting apps via our RSS feed: http://onetoone.libsyn.com/rss
Download: this episode

Listen to our Sessions podcast about Exhibit Columbus for more bac...

Yale Dean Deborah Berke advocates pluralism in pedagogy

2016-07-28T13:45:00-04:00

Deborah Berke, a practicing architect with a firm of over 60 employees and former adjunct Yale professor, has replaced the inimitable Robert "Bob" A.M. Stern as the dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Berke has ideas about how to shape the future of the school's pedagogy. In an interview with the CTPost, she lays out her vision, which is centered on advancing the "history of pluralism":

In terms of curriculum, her definition of pluralism will expand to include more emphasis on how architecture can respond to the impact of climate change and globalization, both of which she emphasizes as “rapid.” For the student body, which is already about 50 percent female, and faculty, pluralism translates to broader diversity.

“Let’s put it this way,” she says, “the profession of architecture does not look like the population at large and I am going to work hard toward having the architects we train and the architects who teach be more reflective of the population at large.”

Deborah Berke about her childhood, RISD, and the desire for simplicity

2016-03-01T15:13:00-05:00

Though I'd lived minimally my whole life, I have a husband and a grown daughter, and they do have stuff. We make dinner and have dinner parties and entertain a lot. But what's stayed the same is that the spaces are really spare. We pay attention to the art that's on the wall and the books that are in the room, something I picked up from my parents. How we're in a room alone and how we're in a room with friends and family both matter. In a way, I want the rooms to be perfect containers for life.

More about Deborah Berke in the Archinect news:

The NY Times chats with Deborah Berke about her work on 21c Museum Hotels

2016-02-19T13:21:00-05:00

Deborah Berke’s appointment last year as the first female dean of the Yale School of Architecture might have brought her into the limelight, but the architect and interior designer had already been getting attention for her work on 21c Museum Hotels, a small chain of boutique properties doubling as art galleries. [...] In old buildings, you’re taking what you find and complementing that with the architecture and design of today.

More Deborah Berke stories in the Archinect news:

Deborah Berke named Dean of Yale School of Architecture, will succeed Robert A.M. Stern in 2016

2015-09-25T13:30:00-04:00

Deborah Berke, founder of Deborah Berke Partners in New York and architecture faculty member at Yale, has been named Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to succeed current Dean Robert A.M. Stern effective July 1, 2016. She has taught at Yale for nearly thirty years, and began her now 60-person practice in 1982.

Berke's academic approach to architecture is enthusiastically interdisciplinary, encouraging students to “understand they are part of a larger cultural conversation.” She plans to bring this collaborative focus to the deanship to develop stronger partnerships between the School of Architecture and other university disciplines. She will also be the first woman to serve as the school's Dean.

In her practice, Berke is known for a diversity of projects, ranging from preservation and adaptation of historic buildings, to large-scale urban landscape work, residential and commercial developments, cultural institutions, and recently, the corporate headquarters of Cummins in downtow...

Deborah Berke's design for new Cummins distribution HQ is unveiled

2014-12-03T15:11:00-05:00

Since Cummins Inc. appointed Deborah Berke Partners back in September, the company finally revealed DBP's design of their new global distribution business headquarters in downtown Indianapolis to the City of Indianapolis’ Metropolitan Development Commission today. The Commission could vote on the plan as early as December 17.

Deborah Berke went against Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and SHoP Architects for the development. The new distribution headquarters appears to have been receiving a very warm welcome from locals, as the project is considered a refreshing sight that can bring more architectural innovation into the city.

Located in a 4-acre plot in the Market East cultural district where the Market Square Arena previously stood, the plan includes a 10-story tower that will provide flexible office space, views, and natural light, a conference center, retail spaces, a parking garage, and an ample amount of public green space. The building is expected to break ground in early 2...

It's Deborah Berke for downtown Naptown!

2014-09-16T17:15:00-04:00

Cummins Inc. announced Tuesday morning that it has selected New York-based Deborah Berke Partners to design its global distribution headquarters in downtown Indianapolis.

Cummins Inc. has an important history of working with significant architects in Columbus, Indiana, the small Midwestern city where it is located. In selecting Deborah Berke Partners for its new global headquarters in downtown Indianapolis the company commits to fostering excellent design in the region, as well.

Cummins picks Deborah Berke, SHoP and TWBTA to design its Downtown Indianapolis HQ

2014-07-18T13:14:00-04:00

Cummins Inc. hasn't revealed even a back-of-the-napkin sketch of what its regional headquarters in Downtown Indianapolis might look like, but one thing is certain at this point: It won't be locally designed. The engine maker said today it's picked three small to mid-sized New York City architectural firms to compete for the contract to design the $30 million multi-story building [...]. The competitors are Deborah Berke Partners, SHoP Architects, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

Here's some additional information about the Indianapolis office design competition we've received directly from Cummins Inc.:

"The design competition engages design and architecture experts to assist in delivering on the Company’s goals to construct a building that enhances the community, creates a productive workplace for Cummins employees and reflects Cummins’ mission and values. [...]

The winning architect will be announced in September and selected based on a number of factors including their ability to align with Cummins values, deliver on the vision of the building, and assemble a diverse team. [...]

Cummins initially announced plans to build its new Indianapolis office in March of 2014. Cummins will build on approximately four acres that previously housed a portion of Market Square Arena and expects to break ground in early 2015 and open in late 2016. The company’s plan for the site includes an office building with ground floor retail, a flexible learning center, public green s...

New York Architect Deborah Berke Selected for Berkeley-Rupp Prize

2012-09-11T17:36:00-04:00

Architect Deborah Berke, founder of New York City-based firm Deborah Berke Partners, has been selected as the first recipient of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED) inaugural 2012 Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize.

The Berkeley-Rupp Prize will be awarded biannually to a distinguished practitioner or academic who has made a significant contribution to promoting the advancement of women in the field of architecture, and whose work emphasizes a commitment to sustainability and the community.