Being named an Emerging Voice is considered a big honor. Since 1982, The Architectural League of New York's reputable portfolio competition has helped launch the careers of over 250 North America-based architects, many whose names are now well known, like Steven Holl, Morphosis, Toshiko Mori, Deborah Berke, Jeanne Gang, Tatiana Bilbao, Enrique Norten, Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, and many more.

The two-stage, invite-only competition distinguishes eight mid-career practices and individuals who not only have distinct design voices, but also demonstrate strong potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design, and urbanism.

Receiving submissions from approximately 50 firms, the jury reviewed significant bodies of built work, how the work addresses issues in the built environment and landscape, and accomplishments within design, academia, and the public realm. The 2020 Emerging Voices are:

Marc Blouin, Catherine Orzes
Blouin Orzes architectes | Montreal, Quebec 

“Marc Blouin has been working in Nunavik, north of the 55th parallel, since 2000. Catherine Orzes joined the firm in 2012 and became a partner in 2018, forming Blouin Orzes architectes. The firm has designed and built a number of civic projects for the Inuit communities in the region, and their work is attuned to native tradition and environmental issues. 

Recent projects include the Katittavik Multidisciplinary Hall in the northern village of Kuujjuaraapik, Nunavik, Quebec; and Polar Bears International House and the MARS Arctic Research and Conservation Centre in Churchill, Manitoba.”

Brandon Dake, Andrew Wells
Dake Wells Architecture | Springfield and Kansas City, MO 

“Founded in 2004 by Brandon Dake and Andrew Wells, Dake Wells Architecture's work is rooted in the context of the Midwest and presents creative, economic solutions for projects that range from schools to community centers to university buildings. 

Recent projects include the Sue Walk Burnett Journalism & Student Media Center (Kimpel Hall) at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR; the Davis-Harrington Welcome Center at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO; and Reeds Spring Middle School in Reeds Spring, MO.”

Lazbent Pavel Escobedo Amaral, Andrés Soliz Paz
Escobedo Soliz | Mexico City, Mexico 

“Established in Mexico City in 2016, Escobedo Soliz was founded by classmates Lazbent Pavel Escobedo Amaral and Andrés Soliz Paz. With built projects ranging from ephemeral art installations to rural public schools, Escobedo Soliz aims to do more with less in order to create a contextual yet sensorial architecture. 

Recent projects include Escuela José María Morelos, a collaboration with Gutierrez Arquitectos in Santa Isabel Cholula, Mexico; Weaving the Courtyard, a temporary installation at MoMA PS1 in New York City; and Módulo de Vigilancia, a security pavilion in Mexico City, Mexico.”

Casper Mork-Ulnes
Mork Ulnes Architects | San Francisco, CA and Oslo, Norway 

“Casper Mork-Ulnes founded Mork Ulnes Architects in 2005. The firm combines ‘Scandinavian practicality’ with the ‘‘can do’ spirit of innovation’ of California. Born in Norway and raised in Italy, Scotland, and the United States, Mork-Ulnes brings a broad range of cultural perspectives to his work. The firm’s projects are guided by an economy of means, resulting in buildings that are both playful and restrained. 

Recent projects include Troll Hus, a contemporary alpine chalet in Norden, CA; Meier Road, a single-family building complex in Sebastapol, CA; and Ridgehouse, a compact, concrete guesthouse in Sonoma, CA.”

Olalekan Jeyifous | New York, NY 

“Through his multi-disciplinary design practice, Olalekan Jeyifous examines placehood as something continuously constructed, instead of as a given or imagined notion. A visual artist trained as an architect, Jeyifous's work has been exhibited at venues such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. 

Recent projects include The Boom and The Bust, a monumental sculpture referencing challenges of housing discrimination and the inequities of urban life in Grand Rapids, MI; Durham in Continuum, a large banner wrap created as part of downtown Durham, North Carolina’s SmArt Vision Plan; and Protest!, four steel silhouettes commissioned for Cleveland, Ohio’s Public Square.”

Miriam Peterson, Nathan Rich
Peterson Rich Office | New York, NY 

“Founded in 2011 by Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich, Peterson Rich Office focuses on residential and cultural buildings as well as urban design and research-based projects. According to the principals, the practice’s design process favors ‘precision over abstraction, users and context over the diagram.’ The result is an architecture that ‘engages place, is resistant to trend and style, and attempts to be communicable and accessible.’

Recent and ongoing projects by the firm include Galerie Perrotin in New York City; Roof by Roof, part of a series of research projects to modernize and expand NYCHA campuses in Brooklyn, NY; and Telfair Studio, an artist’s studio in Lyme, CT.”

Christopher Marcinkoski, Andrew Moddrell
PORT | Chicago, IL and Philadelphia, PA 

“PORT was founded in 2013 by Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell. Their design projects seek to transform neglected and forgotten spaces within cities, and the firm also provides strategy development for the management of large, complex territories. 

Recent projects include Lakeview Low-Line, a transformation of an underutilized space under the Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line elevated train tracks; Oval+, a series of pavilions transforming the public space in Philadelphia’s Eakins Oval; and Knoxville Battlefield Loop, a plan for a series of scenic trails and event spaces in 600 acres of forest in South Knoxville, TN (in partnership with Sanders-Pace Architecture).”

Bryan Young
Young Projects | New York, NY 

“Bryan Young founded New York City-based Young Projects in 2010. The design studio’s work spans buildings, interiors, material prototyping, and furniture. Their work, which emphasizes ‘the relationship between our material research and our approach to space itself,’ is driven by a fascination with pattern, texture, and spatial complexity. Using experimental techniques for hand-pulling plaster and forming concrete with palm stems, Young Projects strives for ‘material and tectonic ambiguity...or at least the unexpected.’

Recent and forthcoming projects include the Glitch House and the Retreat at Playa Grande in the Dominican Republic; Pulled Plaster Loft (Gerken Residence) in New York City; and 6 Square House in Bridgehampton, NY.”

Each of the Emerging Voices will give lectures at Scholastic’s Big Red Auditorium in New York City in March.