Following last week’s visit to Providence-based CIVIC, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series (slightly) southwest to New York City, where we find the cultural architecture specialists Rice+Lipka.

Directed by Lyn Rice and Astrid Lipka, the practice has emerged from its art world beginnings to build a portfolio of cultural, educational, and public works, underlined with what the firm calls a “civic-minded intelligence and resourceful vigor.”

From their studio on Worth Street on the southern tip of Manhattan, the firm is now looking to expand with several open job opportunities on Archinect Jobs.

Rice+Lipka’s artistic roots are encapsulated by Dia:Beacon, for which Lyn Rice served as a design partner and architect-of-record (in collaboration with Robert Irwin). One of the world’s largest museums of contemporary art, the adaptive-reuse project is celebrated for its expansive, naturally lit spaces, with an atmosphere that balances the needs for individual artworks with a celebration of the wider exposed structure and large factory floor plates.

Rice+Lipka’s cultural portfolio has subsequently grown to include an interest in public libraries, a typology that the firm calls “one of our last civic spaces.” For the New York Public Library’s Hamilton Grange Library Teen Center, a rare library floor dedicated entirely to teens, the firm created an open, social, technology-rich environment with spatial features including a cylindrical glazed media room, tiered book stacks, and a bamboo bleacher seating structure.

“R+L seeks to elevate the civic experience of architecture by amplifying openness, connectivity and sense of place,” the firm says. “By creatively calibrating spatial relationships, a nuanced range of personal and social experiences emerge to connect people, while offering a varied spatial landscape with degrees of privacy.”

The firm’s dedication to civic works is furthered by engagements with several progressive branches for the architectural community. As well as being a founding signatory of US Architects Declare, the firm maintains links with the USGBC, The Architectural League of New York, OpenHouse NYC, and the Van Alen Institute.

Lyn Rice and Astrid Lipka have also both engaged heavily with architectural academia. Rice has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP, a visiting lecturer at Princeton, and a Visiting Associate Professor at The Cooper Union, while Lipka serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Parsons School of Design/The New School where she leads a thesis studio and seminar on architecture and cultural production.

Meet Your Next Employer is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Job Highlights series looks at intriguing and topical employment opportunities currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.