Following last week’s visit to Arizona-based Studio Ma, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to New York this week where we meet S9 Architecture.

From their office on 8th Avenue, the team of 60 designers has built a portfolio around a theme of “modern contextualism” inspired by local urban narratives. “We believe our projects are part of a larger whole, acting as the glue that helps bind and enhance their context for human experiences,” the firm explains. More recently, we covered the news that the firm’s Universal Hip Hop Museum in The Bronx is set to open in 2024.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions across their New York office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about the studio’s work, we have rounded up five New York projects by S9 that demonstrate their design ethos.

205 Water Street, Brooklyn

Located in the DUBMO Historic Landmark District, 205 Water Street was designed to complement and preserve the character of the area’s 19th and 20th-century industrial architecture. Externally, the scheme features a cast-in-place concrete typical to the area, but rendered in a more contemporary, smooth, cool grey and contrasted by corten steel accents.

The top floors of the scheme feature a cantilevered penthouse balcony inspired by the nearby Manhattan Bridge, within which sit loft-like living spaces featuring white oak flooring, 10-foot-high ceilings, and concrete accent walls. Meanwhile, the lobby features a reclaimed Coney Island Boardwalk accent wall, a double-height ceiling, concrete floors with recycled steel plate inlays, and refrigerated storage.

Empire Stores, Brooklyn

S9’s Empire Stores scheme saw the transformation of a vacant, 19th-century warehouse on the DUMBO waterfront into a contemporary creative workplace and community hub. The 450,000-square-foot complex includes office space, retail, dining, public space, and exhibition galleries.

Among the most significant interventions in the building is a large passageway carved out of the masonry structure creating a pedestrian link between the street and the waterfront. The link is reinforced by a four-story, open-air courtyard excavated from within the center of the building, where glass curtain walls offer a contrast to the historic fabric.

Dock 72, Brooklyn

A 16-story mixed-use office building situated in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Dock 72 sees a former shipyard and industrial park reimagined as “a locus of creativity, entrepreneurship, and modern industry.” Developed in conjunction with a team including WeWork, the building adds 450,000 square feet of commercial and light industrial space, with WeWork serving as an anchor tenant.

The first floor of the complex serves as a marketplace and lounge open to the entire building, while the second floor features a lounge and juice bar as an extension of the lobby with bleacher seating above. A gym also occupies the second floor with membership for building tenants while the 16th floor houses a 10,000 square foot conference space with a kitchen and both indoor and outdoor lounges.

111 Varick Street, New York

Located in a former industrial neighborhood on the western boundary of SoHo, 111 Varick Street sought to “resonate with the industrial character of Hudson Square’s existing architecture.” The resulting 27-story, 131,800-square-foot building includes 100 affordable and market-rate rental units in addition to 1,670 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

“111 Varick’s stepped massing evokes the classic setbacks found on Gotham’s early skyscrapers, while the facade stylishly reinterprets the industrial aesthetic of the loft buildings nearby,” S9 explains. “The gridded fenestration pattern and a palette of industrially-inspired materials such as glass and blackened steel echo the buildings in the surrounding vicinity. The use of sculptural elements in dark, pre-cast concrete adds a dimensional aspect to the grid, creating an undulating surface that captures the interplay of light and shadow.”

606 Broadway, New York

For 606 Broadway, S9 sought to develop an underutilized wedge-shaped site in SoHo which had been vacant since the 1930s. The resulting six-story, 34,000 square-foot building sees a glass curtain wall running 200 feet along East Houston Street, which appears to ‘slice’ the building lengthways to expose the building’s inner life.

“606 Broadway pays homage to the details, textures, and proportions of the surrounding 19th-century buildings,” S9 explains. “The sliced East Houston Street façade is punctuated at intervals by recessed frit glass and aluminum window bays that reference the setback windows of the neighborhood’s cast iron façades. The Crosby Street façade blends in with the adjoining historic buildings by adopting a contemporary take on the architectural details that give this neighborhood its distinctive appearance.”

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.