Archinect - News

Studio Museum in Harlem will open new building in late 2025

2024-10-10T14:02:00-04:00

The Studio Museum in Harlem announced it will reopen in the fall of 2025 at the conclusion of a seven-year and $300 million expansion project designed by Adjaye Associates.

The new building is set to be inaugurated with the first major career retrospective of sculptor Tom Lloyd, whose solo exhibition was notably the first shown at the museum’s founding loft space on 125th Street when it opened in 1968.

The institution will thereafter regain its rightful place in the upper echelon of New York City’s cultural economy, offering visitors a vastly improved experience defined by a collage-like approach to spatial configuration and topped by a roof terrace designed by the landscape firm Studio Zewde.

Image: © Albert Vecerka/Esto

The project is 82.000 square feet and features a public 'reverse stoop' bleacher-style seating amenity, a once novel feature that has recently been labeled a trope for critics. The museum had previously cut ties with Adjaye, who earned the commission for its design...

Vermont's Shelburne Museum names three-firm replacement for Adjaye design

2024-09-26T17:03:00-04:00

The question of who will replace David Adjaye for the opportunity to design the Shelburne Museum’s expanded Perry Center for Native American Art has been answered by the Vermont institution after it cut ties with the architect in July of last year.

Image courtesy Annum Architects

In lieu of a single architect or firm, the museum now says they are pursuing a “collaborative approach” to designing the square-foot Center. Included in the project team are Annum Architects of Boston; the Indigenous owned Two Row Architect of Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation; and Reed Hilderbrand for the landscaping component. Annum, formerly Ann Beha Architects, designed the museum's Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education in 2011.

Image courtesy Annum Architects

"The design of the Perry Center for Native American Art and the many steps that led us to this moment are the result of a collaborative approach focused on communication and relationship building with Tribal Nations to create a national...

Assessing an unequal Accra in the wake of David Adjaye's recent controversies

2024-08-05T17:53:00-04:00

The firm’s website still tags the National Cathedral, the Du Bois Museum Complex and others as ‘current’ projects, in contrast to on-the-ground reality. In the midst of a lack of transparency, and accountability, what remains clear is the mistake we make when we expect global celebrities who have cut their teeth in the transactional corridors of the corporate world to switch to an opposite ethic in the name of local solidarity or values.

Adjaye had faced criticism from numerous political figures in Ghana over alleged favoritism and high-profile public commissions even before being swept up by the sexual misconduct allegations that shocked the architecture world last summer. Now, writer Anakwa Dwamena reports that his visions for an increasingly unequal Accra have gone largely unrealized, leaving behind 17-acre “eyesores” in place of the controversial Ghana National Cathedral project and looming threats to two important heritage sites imposed by his Marine Drive redevelopment vision — both of which have yet to be built.

Pascale Sablan, Kofi Bio, Lucy Tilley announced as new co-CEOs of Adjaye Associates

2024-03-18T14:59:00-04:00

Adjaye Associates has announced the promotions of three new CEOs in an organizational restructuring that will see founder David Adjaye step into a new role as the Executive Chair of the group and the firm's Principal.

Pascale Sablan, Kofi Bio, and Lucy Tilley will now lead the New York, Accra, and London studios as CEOs, respectively. Sablan, most recently the 2023-24 NOMA President, is perhaps the best-known architect of the group. She will impart her past experience as an Associate Principal in the New York office, which she first joined as a Senior Associate in January of 2021. Her time there has coincided with a host of important national recognitions, including being named winner of the 2021 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.

Bio and Tilley both have experience as Associate Prinicapls in the Accra and London studios, respectively.

In a statement published to the firm’s website, Adjaye said: “Today’s announcement reflects a fundamental change in the way Adjaye Associates will now be r...

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios wins re-tendered bid for International Slavery Museum revamp in Liverpool

2024-01-23T19:04:00-05:00

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has named Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios as the replacement for Adjaye Associates on the design team for the new International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum.

The opportunity to replace Adjaye on the project came after the museum cut ties with his firm last summer following the revelation of sexual misconduct allegations in the Financial Times that preceded a string of high-profile project cancellations in the United States, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.

The NML redevelopment, which was first announced in 2021, has since increased in cost to £58 million (or about $73.5 million USD). Work will now begin once more from the RIBA Plan of Work scale's stage 3 (Spatial Coordination) through to the completion stage 7. The NML says this will entail adding an entirely new entrance inside the Martin Luther King Jr. building and additional major renovations to the site’s Hartley Pavilion.

Previously on Archinect: National Museums Liverpool re-tenders Slavery Mu...

National Museums Liverpool re-tenders Slavery Museum design contract after Adjaye departure

2023-09-19T18:55:00-04:00

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has issued a new tender for design contracts for the anticipated new Liverpool Slavery Museum a month after its original architect David Adjaye was formally removed from the project over sexual misconduct allegations that were first made public in June.

The announcement was picked up today by UK-based publications. NML says whoever is selected will shepherd the project from the RIBA Plan of Work scale's stage 3 (Spatial Coordination) to the completion stage 7 (Use) in coordination with community partners and the museum. The hope is for whoever takes over the project to complete the planned overhauls of Albert Dock's existing Hartley Pavilion and the Martin Luther King Jr. Building, which houses the new museum. Ralph Appelbaum Associates will remain on as the project’s exhibition designers as well.

Previously on Archinect: David Adjaye accused of sexual misconduct by three former employees

Adjaye had already stepped away from the larger waterfront rede...

NEOM draws a Line in the sand: Adjaye now off the project

2023-08-15T18:29:00-04:00

David Adjaye’s public reckoning over sexual misconduct allegations launched by three former employees has now reportedly cost him his seat on one of recent history’s most-publicized architecture projects, as the Architects’ Journal is revealing that Adjaye Associates is no longer involved in NEOM’s controversial The Line megacity development in Saudi Arabia.

The news broke Tuesday in the wake of several other public institutions’ decisions regarding his status on projects worldwide. The AJ reported officials as saying his inclusion was only for a preliminary "pre-concept" design consultation and that the project's "third and final" design phase would be announced in September sans his participation.

Earlier today, we reported on Adjaye’s dismissal from the International Slavery Museum renovation project in Liverpool. With the move, his firm has now officially been taken off of Vermont’s Shelburne Museum extension, the planned waterfront redevelopment in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Sh...

Liverpool's International Slavery Museum cuts ties with Adjaye over misconduct allegations

2023-08-15T10:49:00-04:00

The forthcoming International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England has formally terminated their contract with Adjaye Associates over allegations involving its director’s misconduct with women first surfaced in a Financial Times report in the first week of July.

Adjaye had already left the larger Canning Dock redevelopment project over a year ago, though his design (with Ralph Appelbaum Associates) for the remade museum was still in tow and worth a reported £57 million (or about $72 million USD). The design, which calls for an overhaul of the existing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. building, will still be pursued by National Museums Liverpool (NML), albeit with a different architect they will select following the rewarding of a new tender that was announced along with the cancellation.

With the announcement, the NLM joins a growing list of other entities to have split with Adjaye that includes the UK Holocaust Memorial team, Vermont's Shelburne Museum, the City of Cleveland, and the A...

Vermont's Shelburne Museum formally cut ties with Adjaye Associates over sexual misconduct allegations

2023-07-14T10:27:00-04:00

Adjaye Associates’ involvement with Vermont’s Shelburne Museum has ended as the institution is now looking to distance itself from the firm two months after its embattled founder was announced to lead the design of an important $12.6 million extension project in May.

The move comes amidst a torrent of project cancellations, voluntary withdrawals, and other relinquishing measures that followed accusations of abuse and misconduct on the part of David Adjaye, in addition to further details of a “toxic work environment” at his firm.

“The recent allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against David Adjaye, and his admission of inappropriate behavior, are incompatible with our mission and values, which left the museum with no alternative but to immediately sever ties with the architect and his firm,” the museum’s CEO Thomas Denenberg said in a statement to the media. “We remain committed to moving forward with the project and the many other partners and collaborators who have been invol...

Adjaye Associates' Cleveland waterfront master plan is now being 'evaluated' as other clients cut ties

2023-07-06T20:36:00-04:00

The fallout from David Adjaye’s sexual misconduct scandal is beginning to be felt by his firm, as now the New York Times and other national outlets are beginning to report on clients who have cut ties with the architect in light of this week’s allegations.

The city of Cleveland’s 35-acre waterfront development to which Adjaye Associates was attached in April of 2022 is the largest project to appear to be in jeopardy following the publication of the Financial Times' piece Saturday. Cleveland.com reported earlier today that Bedrock, the developer behind the plan, is now “evaluating” its “business association” with the firm going forward.

Adjaye’s design, which was finally unveiled in December, would radically alter the city’s once-faltering downtown area with 2,000 residential units, 850,000 square feet of office space, and a brand new Tower City Center anchoring its "central spine."

Add...

Sir David Adjaye accused of sexual misconduct by three former employees

2023-07-04T10:58:00-04:00

The prominent architect Sir David Adjaye has been accused of sexual misconduct by three former employees. The claims were reported first by the Financial Times, in which the three women accuse Adjaye and his firm, Adjaye Associates, of “different forms of exploitation — from alleged sexual assault and sexual harassment by him to a toxic work culture — that have gone unchecked for years.”

In response, the architect has denied the claims of sexual misconduct, abuse, or criminal wrongdoing, while stating that he was “ashamed” to have entered into relationships that “though entirely consensual, blurred the boundaries between my professional and personal lives.”

The three women, whose names are changed by the Financial Times to protect their identities, told the paper they came forward in order to “prevent other women from encountering similar abuse and to make public the architect’s private behavior.” To corroborate their accounts, the Financial Times interviewed colleagues, family mem...

Adjaye Associates' 130 William debuts in Lower Manhattan

2023-06-30T19:15:00-04:00

David Adjaye’s statement-making first skyscraper design for the New York City market has debuted in Lower Manhattan, marking the culmination of a project that will stand as a testament to his attention to historical context and the elevation of craft in architecture.

The design for the 66-story 130 William residential tower in the heart of the Financial District includes a total of 242 units whose careful, well-appointed interiors are complemented by another 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and curated amenities apiece.

Image © Ivane Katamashvili

Photos of the newly-completed project reveal a range of built-in luxury options, including a small IMAX theater, two lounges, a golf simulator, basketball court, full-scale health club, infinity-edge spa pool, dry sauna, and yoga studio. The ten uppermost floors of the building are lined by loggia terraces, with a rooftop observation deck located on top that offers residents privileged views of the city’s skyline and harbor beyond....

David Adjaye previews his Asaase III earthwork installation for COUNTERPUBLIC in St. Louis

2023-06-02T13:51:00-04:00

It’s very significant. In terms of personal meaning, I have approached it as a kind of meditation and reflection on the idea of deep time—planetary and galaxy time that is beyond the human timeline. Asaase III is, in a way, a representation of how I imagine an ideal city—a city that is in symbiosis with the Earth, acknowledging it and honoring it in a very deep way, but also absolutely transforming it and creating new features.

The new (permanent) addition to the Griot Museum of Black History is Adjaye’s second foray into rammed earth sculpture, following a 2021 installation at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. COUNTERPUBLIC curator Allison Glenn says the commission was born of her desire to connect the museum to the history of land use and the story of architecture in the community — in addition to Adjaye’s previous U.S. museum designs.

Adjaye says he was motivated to use materials as a means of invoking historical reference in light and also breaking us from our lost sense of place in universal spacetime, adding his concern that "Artifice has taken over our sense of reverence for the Earth."

The three-month COUNTERPUBLIC exhibition is on view in St. Louis until July 15th.

Adjaye debuts preview of India's new Kiran Nadar Museum of Art project in Venice

2023-05-17T00:01:00-04:00

As part of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, David Adjaye will be on hand to present an architectural model of the new Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) project in New Delhi.

The model will be staged inside the Arsenale as part of the Curator’s Special Projects Mnemonic section, which runs from May 20th until the close of the Biennale.

Once it is completed in 2026, the museum building is expected to become India’s largest cultural center. Offering space for the museum’s collection of over 10,000 modern and contemporary works, the project is being undertaken in collaboration with S. Ghosh & Associates and will consolidate its currently disparate locations in New Delhi and Noida into a 100,000-square-meter (one-million-square-foot) new home on a plot adjacent to the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Architectural model of the new KNMA, New Delhi. Courtesy David Adjaye Associates and KNMA

The museum’s founder and namesake explains: “Our presentation at the Biennale Architett...

Adjaye-led expansion announced at Vermont’s historic Shelburne Museum

2023-05-09T16:50:00-04:00

Adjaye Associates has just been announced to lead the design of the newly-commissioned Perry Center for Native American Art at the Shelburne Museum in northern Vermont.

The project’s brief calls for a “sustainable building with integrated landscape created in collaboration with Indigenous voices whose cultures and people are represented in the works to be stewarded in the space.”

The extension will be 9,750 square feet in total and created at a projected cost of $12.6 million. Once completed it will join the Shelburne’s stock of 39 other structures, the most recent of which, the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education, was designed by Annum (formerly Ann Beha Architects) in 2011.

Previously on Archinect: Several museum expansions and design research projects among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

“Our team is inspired by the potential of the Perry Center to not only enhance Shelburne Museum as a destination for education but also to amplify and empower the Indi...

National Museums Liverpool releases new Asif Khan and Theaster Gates-led waterfront development proposals

2023-04-19T15:06:00-04:00

Weeks after the announcement that David Adjaye and Mariam Kamara would be leaving the project, National Museums Liverpool (NML) has unveiled its revised vision for the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront area co-authored by Asif Khan and Theaster Gates respectively.

Under their direction, a pair of interconnected proposals are now being advanced. The scope of the projects includes a newly-created public realm, pedestrian footbridge, and visitors’ pavilion in the place of two historic dry docks that are linked to the overhauled International Slavery Museum, Maritime Museum, and the Museum of Liverpool, which all tell their story.

Image courtesy National Museums Liverpool (NML)

The NML says it hopes the development will work to present a “prototype for a fresh new mode of co-production between community partners and museums.”

Image courtesy National Museums Liverpool (NML)

Khan says the project must in the end work to help the city recon...

David Adjaye, Mariam Kamara depart major Liverpool waterfront project

2023-03-29T17:04:00-04:00

Two big-name architects are departing from the National Museums Liverpool (NML) scheme to create a new public realm at the city’s Canning Dock, according to a report published earlier today by the Architects’ Journal.

David Adjaye and Mariam Kamara are now out of the project team for the redevelopment, which includes Asif Khan, Theaster Gates, Arup, and a host of other UK-based firms.

The team first was first announced as the winners of an international competition in October of 2021. Adjaye will reportedly remain on to finish their International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum restorations, which are both separate projects. Neither architect has provided a statement addressing the changes at press time.

An aerial view of Canning Dock. Image: Gary W. Smith

A spokesperson from the museum told AJ simply, “Once the direction of the project was established, the collective agreed that Khan and Gates would take the project forward.”

Ultimately, the £75 million ($92.4 million) project wi...

Adjaye Associates completes Abrahamic Family House, a collection of religious spaces that ‘dissolves the notion of hierarchal difference’

2023-02-24T11:50:00-05:00

Adjaye Associates has completed their Abrahamic Family House project in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The development is comprised of three religious spaces: a mosque, a synagogue, and a church, all of which sit upon a secular visitor pavilion, with a mission of “nurturing the values of peaceful co-existence and acceptance among different beliefs, nationalities, and cultures.”

Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue. Photo credit: Dror Baldinger

Within each of the three places of worship, visitors will be able to observe religious services, listen to scriptures, and experience sacred rituals. The fourth sacred space will meanwhile serve as a center for people of all faiths, offering educational and event-based programming.

“As an architect, I want to create a building that starts to dissolve the notion of hierarchical difference — it should represent universality and totality — something higher, that enhances the richness of human life,” said David Adjaye about the interfaith complex, which is set to open in t...

The NY Times' Michael Kimmelman reviews Adjaye Associates' Bronx 'DREAM'

2023-02-20T12:31:00-05:00

In this case, architecture is the issue and the engine of renewal. With its triple-height library and exalting, barrel-vaulted classrooms with huge punched windows overlooking Manhattan, the redesigned ice plant becomes one of the most spectacular school buildings in the city. [...] the historical arc of 20 Bruckner, as the building is called, is instructive and tells a larger tale about the Bronx, change and renewal.

The NY Times critic gets off the sixth train to explore Adjaye Associates' first American K-12 project in Mott Haven, The Bronx. Kimmelman mentioned his two best-known New York projects – 130 William Street and Sugar Hill Mixed-Use Development – in addition to D.C’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for context and said its well-placed lightwells and other design features place a “premium on architecture [that] makes an obvious statement about the value of Dream’s students.”

He went on to add what seems like a heartfelt note on the tragic deaths of three immigrant construction workers on the site between 2019 and 2021. “I didn’t begin this column with that information because Assemblywoman Septimo is right," he wrote. "Stories about the South Bronx invariably start with trauma, casting the community as victim. For students, the new DREAM school is a place of hope and opportunity — a new chapter and good news for the neighborhood.”

It seems like a critic trying...

David Adjaye designs revitalized Bedford Stuyvesant campus to fight racial disparities in Brooklyn

2023-02-17T11:44:00-05:00

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation has unveiled plans for an Adjaye Associates-designed Restoration Innovation Campus in Brooklyn. A re-imagination of the milestone corporation’s longtime Fulton Street home, the 840,000-square-foot campus will be dedicated to closing Brooklyn’s racial wealth gap.

The project will include a significant expansion of Bed-Stuy’s cultural center and the Billie Holiday Theater, new public open space, and two commercial buildings serving private, nonprofit, and government partners focused on addressing the racial wealth gap. 600,000 square feet of office space will be offered in the new hub alongside 190,000 square feet of retail, while a publicly-accessible rooftop will accommodate cultural programming and events.

Image credit: Adjaye Associates

Since its opening in 1972, the center has served as “a beloved town square for one of the country’s largest African American communities.” Once a milk bottling plant, the center now attracts more than 1.5 m...

Revived Toronto Quayside master plan is making headway

2023-02-03T17:16:00-05:00

A clearer vision is emerging for the futuristic Quayside project planned to transform a stretch of Toronto's waterfront, one that is shaping up to be one of the most architecturally-distinct pockets of development in the entire country.

Following over two years since the cancelation of the Sidewalk Labs plan to develop Toronto’s Quayside, a new approach to bring a mixed-use community to the lakefront site is being led by public entities Waterfront Toronto, the City of Toronto, PortsToronto, and private landowners. This past December, Waterfront Toronto’s Board of Directors approved an agreement with development partners Great Gulf Group and Dream Unlimited. The development is set to feature buildings designed by the likes of Adjaye Associates, Alison Brooks Architects, and Henning Larsen.

A recently-presented master plan update highlights new details about upcoming features at the site, including information on the Adjaye Associates-designed Timber House, the Alison Brooks Architects-designed Western Curve, and the Overstorey by Henning Larsen. The development will feature residential spaces, including affordable housing, retail, food, and cultural offerings. The master plan also aims to achieve near-zero greenhous...

Adjaye's Restoration Plaza project gets a little clearer in Brooklyn

2023-01-30T18:11:00-05:00

First announced in 2019, the project spans a block of Fulton Street between Brooklyn Avenue to the east and New York Avenue to the west. Plans call for the construction of three buildings featuring approximately 840,000 square feet of offices, educational, cultural, and commercial space. While the project would roughly double the size of the existing 1970s structures at Restoration Plaza, the property's namesake open space would be retained by building up, rather than out.

According to Urbanize NYC, the Restoration Plaza development will include two 13- and 16-story mixed-use structures separated by a 4-story community building to house art galleries, a dance studio, and other cultural spaces. This will be Adjaye Associates’ next New York project, after 130 William, the Carriage House, the Studio Musem in Harlem, the Sugar Hill Mixed-Use Housing Development (also in Harlem), and the 2015 Pitch Black office and studio space project for artist Lorna Simpson.

"We want this to be the tech hub of Central Brooklyn that’s very similar to downtown Brooklyn, that’s very similar to the Navy Yard," Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation CEO Blondel Pinnock told THE CITY. Current estimates are for an eight-year construction timeline.

David Adjaye answers critics in National Cathedral of Ghana financing dispute

2023-01-24T14:24:00-05:00

David Adjaye has issued a statement in response to the ongoing scrutiny of the design fees and commissioning of the National Cathedral of Ghana project in his home country.

Speaking to the Ghanaian outlet Joy News after the new year, the architect dismissed claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety on the project, stating that nothing was “hidden or opaque” within the process that has become the subject of legal action taken by political opponents to President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The dispute centers on $21.37 million USD worth of fees paid to Adjaye Associates in two installments by the government that were allegedly not approved by the parliament, according to a minority politician who is campaigning for their repayment dependent on the outcome of the country’s 2024 national elections.

Previously on Archinect: Adjaye may be asked to repay National Cathedral fees as Ghanaian political campaign turns ugly

It has been established, however, that approvals did go through G...

James Corner Field Operations selected to lead master plan design for Cleveland lakefront

2022-12-09T11:11:00-05:00

Last month, it was announced that the City of Cleveland selected James Corner Field Operations to design a master plan for the city’s downtown lakefront.

The firm was chosen out of 18 design teams that responded to a request for proposals issued in September. It was reported that following this announcement, legislation was introduced to consider a contract that wouldn’t exceed $500,000 for the planning stage.

The lakefront plan aims to create stronger connections between downtown Cleveland and the city’s North Coast Harbor, which hosts attractions, such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and FirstEnergy Stadium, the home of the Cleveland Browns.

The planning process is expected to take around a year. The design team will evaluate the potential for enhanced lakefront connections, public spaces, amenities, and economic development. Additionally, a $5 million traffic feasibility study is being conducted by Cleveland and the Ohio Department of Transportation that is exploring alternat...

Adjaye Associates designs major 35-acre master plan for Cleveland waterfront

2022-12-06T12:03:00-05:00

Adjaye Associates has designed a major master plan along the Cleveland riverfront in collaboration with real estate firm Bedrock. The Cuyahoga Riverfront development spans 35 acres and is described by its designers as a “15-to-20-year vision” that “prioritizes accessibility, equity, sustainability, and resilience with the development of an 18-hour, 15-minute downtown.”

Under Adjaye’s plans, the waterfront development will host over 3.5 million square feet of space, including 2,000 residential units, 850,000 square feet of office space, 12 acres of public space, and supporting hospitality, retail, and entertainment venues.

“Our redevelopment strategy for the downtown Cleveland Riverfront taps into the lost heritage of the city, establishing a new relationship between the urban core and the shore,” David Adjaye explained. “As I became more deeply immersed, the need to build a more tempered flow of movement through the city became immensely clear.”

...

Adjaye announces new rammed earth commission for The Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis

2022-11-28T12:03:00-05:00

The Griot Museum of Black History will soon be home to a public art installation from the designer of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Architect David Adjaye will design Asaase III, a monument that surrounds the museum. The structure will be built of rammed earth, a process using soil and other natural materials from the St. Louis region to make solid structures.

The rammed earth installation is the new Order of Merit appointee’s second such following his well-profiled commission for Antwaun Sargent’s Social Works show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Adjaye had also incorporated earthwork into his commission for the 2019 Venice Biennale and design for the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library and has referred to it beyond materiality as “another creature” that will join 30 other designs in the three-month public art installation COUNTERPUBLIC, which debuts this Spring.

“Since it’s outdoors and it's intended to be a community of public peace, we really wanted it to be reflective of that,” the museum’s founder Lois Conley said of the deeper inspiration behind the project. “Some of the soils will be coming from various areas that had relevantly large African American populations, whether they exist anymore or not. We still wanted to have some of that material.”

David Adjaye appointed to Britain's esteemed Order of Merit

2022-11-15T11:12:00-05:00

Sir David Adjaye has achieved yet another accolade after being named as one of the six new Order of Merit appointments announced this weekend and selected by Queen Elizabeth II shortly before her death in September at the age of 96.

Adjaye is now also one of five architects on the list, joining Basil Spence, Norman Foster, Giles Gilbert Scott, and Edwin Lutyens. The Order was created during the reign of King Edward VI and is meant to "honor 'exceptional distinction' in areas such as science, medicine, culture and the arts in the UK and Commonwealth realms," according to the BBC.

Previously on Archinect: Sir David Adjaye receives RIBA Gold Medal at illustrious virtual event

Adjaye’s presence in the now-201-member roster helps to diversify the institution that, even with the new appointees, only includes five women and a few people of color. He was joined by news presenter Floella Benjamin, biologists Paul Nurse and Venki Ramakrishnan, Nurse Elizabeth Anionwu, and Canadian historian Ma...

Adjaye may be asked to repay National Cathedral fees as Ghanaian political campaign turns ugly

2022-06-24T18:55:00-04:00

A homegrown dispute in Sir David Adjaye’s native Ghana is boiling over after news that the architect could be asked to repay some $21.3 million in fees associated with the firm’s National Cathedral design, which politicians from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party claim is part of a sole-sourced tender process that has favored the architect for a number of years.

The online news site GhanaWeb has reported several stories recently in relation to the efforts of MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of the NDC, who is insisting that the 10.5% design fee asked by Adjaye Associates at the project’s inception in 2018 was never formally approved by the governing body. The politician also claims the Cathedral will not be completed by its originally planned 2024 date – the same year the country is set to hold a presidential election upon which, he says, the project's status most likely relies on.

Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion opens as a shrine to community building and sacred practices

2022-06-07T13:53:00-04:00

Theaster Gates' Serpentine Pavilion has been revealed in London's Kensington Gardens, showcasing his vision for a Black Chapel that advances the fair's evangelizing mission to be an incubator for community building, civic culture, and public engagement.

In a circular form evoking several architectural traditions and cultures, including traditional African structures and Hungarian round churches, the pavilion is rendered in the same stark-looking black tar color as the suite of 14 new paintings Gates executed for the exhibition, providing an additional reference to the meditative elements present in Houston's Rothko Chapel, which the 48-year-old artist credited as an additional source of design inspiration.

Gates conceives of his pavilion as “a site for contemplation and convening” where gatherers are hailed together artistically in remembrance of lost places of “spiritual communion” that populate urban areas like London and his hometown of Chicago. It was executed with design help...

Planning approval has been granted to PLP Architecture and Adjaye Associates’ Whitechapel Estate overhaul

2022-05-13T13:55:00-04:00

Tower Hamlets Council has granted planning permission to PLP Architecture and Adjaye Associates’ amended plans to overhaul the Whitechapel Estate in east London. PLP masterplanned the development and designed seven buildings, while Adjaye Associates designed five of the six buildings on the west of the site. The duo first submitted plans for the estate in 2015, which were rejected by Tower Hamlets Council but later approved on appeal.

The revised plan was finally approved after an affordable housing plot was relocated “to a better setting” outside of the scheme, which also is now serviced by more energy-efficient heat pump technology. One-third of the scheme’s now 529 residences are still considered affordable under the approved update.

Adjaye Associates are continuing on a banner year in the face of a recent UK High Court decision to halt the planned Holocaust Memorial in London. The firm has been named to several major development projects internationally in the past six months, including a mass timber design for the Toronto Quayside project and Cleveland’s plan to create an entirely new mixed-use district called the Cuyahoga Riverfront.