Jeff Geisinger, a graduate of Rice University and currently a designer at Ennead Architects in New York, will travel to Medellin, Colombia, to research his project, “Connective Spaces and Social Capital in Medellin.” The project, examining the well-publicized design transformation of the once troubled city of Medellin and Mayor Sergio Fajardo’s “social urbanism” of investment in poor neighborhoods and public works, will look specifically at the ways in which impoverished, informal settlements were empowered and reconnected to the city’s urban fabric and public spaces. “The study explores those spaces that, through physical connectivity and careful adjacencies, foster social contact and interaction, in turn promoting socially cohesive communities.”

Shima Baradaran Mohajeri received her MArch and MPhil of Architecture from Islamic Azad University, Tehran and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University in College Station. Her project “Alternative Modernity: Spatial Discourse in Architectural Paper Projects in Iran, 1960-1978″ will allow her to travel to archives in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Her research will focus on the two decades leading up to the Revolution of 1979, when, commissioned by the Shah of Iran, foreign modernist architects, such as Louis Kahn, Alvar Aalto, Josep Lluis Sert, Moshe Safdie, James Stirling, and Alison and Peter Smithson, came into close contact with traditional Persian culture, designing a number of architectural and urban paper projects. These architectural drawings along with competitions and conferences during the period reveal a “modernizing event that initiated, but remained incomplete and partially dismissed, due to the Iranian Revolution of 1979.” Her work will examine these paper projects and consider them through the development of the theory of “a-place,” drawing upon Persian and Western philosophical and artistic concepts, and the design methodologies resultant from such theoretical explorations.

The Architectural League Prize (formerly known as the Young Architects Forum) is an annual competition and series of lectures and exhibitions organized by the Architectural League and its Young Architects and Designers Committee. The League Prize was established to recognize specific works of high quality and to encourage the exchange of ideas among young people who might otherwise not have a forum.

Participants in the program are chosen through a portfolio competition that is juried by distinguished architects, artists and critics, and the Young Architects and Designers Committee. The committee, a group selected each year from past winners of the League Prize, is responsible for developing the program’s theme and selecting competition jurors. Open to designers ten years or less out of school, the competition draws entrants from around North America. The lecture series and exhibition by winners of the competition provide a lively public forum for the discussion of their work and ideas. Winners’ designs will also be illustrated in a catalogue to be published by Princeton Architectural Press. For a list of past Young Architects Forum and League Prize publications, click here.

For additional information on this year’s Call for Entries, click here.

The Architectural League Prize is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The program is also supported by the LEF Foundation, and by Dornbracht, Ibex Construction, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

LECTURE SCHEDULE

Tuesday, June 22
Jason Austin and Aleksandr Mergold, Austin+Mergold, Philadelphia and Ithaca
Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas Toledo, FAR frohn&rojas, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Santiago
Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres, Bittertang, Brooklyn and Guadalajara

Tuesday, June 29
Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak, ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS, Brooklyn
Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu, ESKYIU, New York and Hong Kong
Keith VanDerSys, PEG office of landscape + architecture, Philadelphia

Both evenings of lectures begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Receptions will follow the lectures. Admission is free for League members and $10 for non-members. League members may make reservations by emailing rsvp@archleague.org. For further information, please call 212-753-1722 x13. AIA and New York State CEUs are available.

EXHIBITION
The Architectural League Prize exhibition will be open to the public beginning on the first evening of the lectures on June 22 and will be on view through August 6 at the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue. The gallery is open daily from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and late Thursday evenings until 8:00 p.m. Admission is free. The exhibition will also be open on the evenings of the lectures.

THEME
The competition theme, “ReSource,” created a basis for entrants to compose their portfolios and critically evaluate their work. This year’s committee posited that architectural practice relies on resources: disciplinary resources, such as theory and technique; physical resources, such as materials and production technologies; and practical resources, such as coordination planning, and financing. Suggesting that recent global shifts from the financial to environmental crises have demanded the rethinking of resources within architecture, the committee asked entrants to pause and reflect: to measure outdated paths to salvage what remains valid and relevant, while simultaneously reinventing the discipline’s resources anew within an uncertain context.

JURY
Matilda McQuaid
Billie Tsien
Dan Wood
Alejandro Zaera-Polo

and the Young Architects Committee
Cristina Goberna
Jinhee Park
Ben Pell
_

YOUNG ARCHITECTS & DESIGNERS 2010

Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak founded ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS, a Brooklyn-based architectural office, in 2009. Responding to the theme, the firm writes: “It is here…the unconsidered – that many time-tested vernacular typologies, materials, methods and forms reside largely forgotten. It is possible, however, that a reconsideration of these issues – indeed, these resources – through the lenses of contemporary design techniques…might reveal new uses, methodologies, forms, and effects.” Recent projects include The 4D Lightful Gardens; a proposal for the Somerville, Massachusetts Arts Union Beacon; 100 Straight Skeletons, an investigation into the reuse of common suburban roof construction techniques and a collaboration with Gehry Technologies through their “What’s Your Problem” competition; and the Charlottesville Green housing proposal. The firm’s work has been widely published and exhibited at numerous institutions including Columbia University, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and The Boston Society of Architects.

Emily Abruzzo received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College and her Master of Architecture from Princeton University. She has been a lecturer and guest critic at numerous institutions, including Parsons The New School for Design, where she is currently an instructor in the Interior Design Program. Abruzzo is a founding editor and publisher of 306090. Gerald Bodziak received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The University of Michigan and his Master of Architecture from Princeton University. He has been a guest critic at numerous institutions and is a co-editor of 306090 14, “Making a Case.”

Austin+Mergold is an architecture and landscape practice based in Philadelphia and Ithaca. Founded in 2007 by Jason Austin and Aleksandr Mergold, the firm “operate[s] on the cusp of architecture, landscape, design, and installation art…Believing that it is preferable to rethink and repurpose existing resources than to tap new ones, we infiltrate existing systems that are responsible for constructed environments, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. …For us, this is sustainable design—both vis-à-vis the environment and our own practice—and it is particularly well-suited to the twinned economic and ecological crises that we face today.” Projects include: House-in-a-Can/Park-in-a-Can, Mechanicsburg, PA; SURAL wall; RVG club house, Mechanicsburg, PA; The Grand Resource, Hong Kong; and ParkView, Carlisle, PA. Their work has been widely published including in Inhabitat, The New York Times, The Architect’s Newspaper, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Jason Austin received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Master of Landscape Architecture. He currently serves on the adjunct faculty in the Department of Architecture at Temple University and Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Pennsylvania. Aleksandr Mergold received his Master of Architecture at Princeton and his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. Currently he is a Visiting Critic in Cornell’s Department of Architecture.

FAR frohn&rojas is a networked architectural design and research practice led by Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas Toledo, located in Berlin, Santiago de Chile, and Los Angeles. Through its name the office acknowledges “both its geographically distributed anatomy as well as the increasingly widened professional scope that is literally shaping its work…establishing a more diversified type of architectural production in which both the inherent contradictions between geographies, as well as the stretching of disciplinary boundaries will let formerly undeterminable links thrive.” The firm also investigates “’deep structures’ at play in each new project: the legal and financial constraints, desires, power structures and technological, ecological, material, and institutional frameworks that shape the built environment.” Projects include the Wall House in Santiago; the House in Heat, Rancagua, Chile; 2 in 1 in Cologne; and the Zero Emission Campus in Düsseldorf. The firm has won the DETAIL Prize and the AR award for emerging architecture. Widely exhibited, the firm’s work has been published in Architectural Record, Icon, Architectural Review, Azure, Domus, and other journals.

Marc Frohn received Master of Architecture degrees from Rice University and the University of Houston. He recently taught at SCI-arc. Mario Rojas Toledo received his diploma from the School of Architecture, RWTH Aachen and a degree in architecture from the Secretaría de Educación Superior. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello in Santiago.

Bittertang strives “to bring humor and pleasure to the built environment by digging deep into the sensual world that surrounds us; extracting rich and hilarious fodder from overlooked eras that have contributed integral matter to the production of architectural atmospheres. One of our goals is to resurrect the Rococo continuing where its practitioners left off, privileging interactive pleasure, frothiness, plant, and animal sourcing as well as immersive design…Our explorations are based in digital and visceral matter with output transitioning between scales and localities leaving traces of our frothy matter in various disciplines.” Currently, Bittertang operates out of Guadalajara and New York City and has had work published in the U.S. and South Africa. The partnership of Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres began in 2005. Recent projects include Microcosmic Aquaculture, “gelatinous orbs” of living and man-made matter to produce recreational and farmed spaces; Plush Toy Collection, explorations of tectonics, sensation, atmosphere, and narrative in soft body miniatures; and the Gondwana Circle garden design.

Antonio Torres and Michael Loverich both hold Master of Architecture degrees from UCLA. Michael Loverich received his Bachelor of Art in Architecture from the University of Washington. Antonino Torres received his Bachelor of Art in Architectural Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelors Degree from the E’cole de Architecture de Versailles.

Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu founded ESKYIU in 2005 as a design collaborative integrating culture, art, community, technology, and architecture. Based in New York and Hong Kong, the firm’s interests are in “examining the ways in which built environments shape social relationships by forming connections between civic engagement and sustainable design.” Selected projects include Chinatown WORK 2006, an interactive public arts installation sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Department of Cultural Affairs, and 3form material solutions; SINO, a video installation shown at the Brooklyn Museum; Nutritious: an Aeroponic Façade exhibited at the Architectural Association in London; Human Motor: Narratives from the Assembly Line exhibited at the International Architectural Biennale Ljubljana; and Linear Landscapes: Fabricating a Rural/Urban Interface, an award winning project created for a noise barrier competition. Current research projects include “Urban Pastoral”, “Heirloom,” and “Farming Factory”. Recently they served as curators for the 2009 HK SZ Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. Their work, research, and writings have also been published in Thresholds MIT, Domus China, LOG Journal, Architectural Record, and A/D.

Marisa Yiu received a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. She currently teaches at the University of Hong Kong. Eric Schuldenfrei received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, where he is completing his PhD. He has held numerous teaching positions.

Keith VanDerSys is a partner of Philadelphia-based PEG office of landscape + architecture, which he co-founded with Karen M’Closkey in 2004. The office “explores the expressive potential of surface techniques that open up more integrative thinking about natural systems in urban environments. We utilize pattern as a discernible, repetitive system that enables the display of new combinations of organic and inorganic material in the formation of public space.” Projects include Hustle & Flow, Chicago; Double Jeopardy, west lounge, Ann Arbor; Mies van der Rohe Plaza, Detroit with PLY Architecture; Not Garden, Philadelphia; and Ripple Effect, New York. PEG has been published internationally and has won numerous design awards, including the Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) Prize, three American Institute of Architects Awards, and an I.D. Magazine award.

Keith VanDerSys received his Bachelor of Architeture from the University of Detroit and a Master of Art in Critical Studies in Architectural Culture from the University of California Los Angeles. He currently teaches studios and technology courses in the departments of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

PODCASTS
The Architectural League will produce podcast excerpts from each of the participant’s lectures, as well as a roundtable discussion between winners of the Prize and this year’s committee. Podcast interviews from previous year’s League Prize winners, along with podcasts of many other League programs, are available on the League’s website, www.archleague.org, or on the League’s page on iTunes. All podcasts are free.

Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act; the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Images from top to bottom: ReSource; Peaks & Valleys / © ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS llc; RVG club house, © Austin+Mergold; WALL HOUSE , Santiago de Chile (2004-2007). FAR frohn&rojas; Plush Toy Collection: Mother and Child, Bittertang; URBAN PASTORAL: Fabricating a Vertical Landscape. Image courtesy of ESKYIU; Double Jeopardy, west lounge/ PEG/ Photo: Beth Singer.

Submission information for project consideration
Deadline: rolling
Note: the committee selects projects quarterly for presentation in New York Designs. Please submit material by March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1 for consideration in the following quarter.

2010 New York Designs Committee
Andrew Berman, Stella Betts, Phu Hoang, Joe MacDonald, Anne Rieselbach, Linnaea Tillett, Shawn Watts, Claire Weisz, Barbara Wilks, and Stephen Yablon

Call for Submissions
Architects, landscape architects, engineers, and other designers are invited to submit projects to the Architectural League’s New York Designs series. Projects of all types at any scale, either built (completed within one year of submission) or under construction in New York City, are welcome. Quality is the sole criterion for selection.

New York Designs recognizes accomplished built work in New York City. If your project is selected, League staff will work with you to develop an appropriate presentation, most often taking the format of an on-site tour or brief lecture. We invite designers to include project collaborators, such as consultants, contractors, engineers, clients, and others in the project presentation. Submission assumes the accessibility of the space by a group of 20-30 people and availability of the designer to take part in a New York-based program. Travel monies will not be provided.

Submission deadlines
New York Designs is an ongoing project recognition series. You may submit a project at any time.

Submission requirements
Submissions are digital. Please submit a PDF of no more than four pages that includes project images, a written statement not to exceed 250 words, and a brief project description and timeline.

Submissions should be sent to Nick Anderson at anderson@archleague.org. For more information, call 212.753.1722 x13.

League programs are made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Deborah J. Norden Fund
Travel/Study Grants
Call for Applications

Application Deadline
March 29, 2010

About the Norden Fund
The Deborah J. Norden Fund, established in 1995 in memory of architect and arts administrator Deborah Norden, awards a total of up to $5,000 annually in travel/study grants to students and recent graduates in the fields of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies. For a list of past winners, click here.

The Deborah J. Norden Fund is administered by the Architectural League of New York.

How to Apply
Applicants should submit in letter form a brief proposal (no more than three pages), which succinctly describes the objectives of the grant request and how it will contribute to the applicant’s intellectual and creative development. The grant amount requested (up to $5,000) must be specified. The submission should also include a résumé of not more than two pages, project schedule, and budget for travel and other project costs. Two letters of recommendation must be requested from individuals who are knowledgeable about the applicant’s ability and project.

Eligibility
The fund may award one or more grants. Applicants must reside in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico. The application process is extremely competitive. The intention of the fund is to support genuinely independent projects that require travel. Grant funds cannot be used for tuition, and grants will not be awarded to support an individual’s participation in an organized program, such as a university’s summer abroad program. While requests for support of dissertation research will be considered, they are not a priority of the fund. Preference will be given to strong proposals from applicants who have not had this sort of opportunity before.

Application Deadline
Applicants must submit six (6) copies of their proposal, résumé, schedule, and budget. The applicant’s name and brief project title must appear on the first page of the proposal. The postmark (not metered) deadline for these materials is March 29, 2010. Faxed or emailed applications will not be accepted. Late applications will not be accepted. The two letters of recommendation should be sent by the recommenders directly to the Architectural League by mail or email PDF; letters of recommendation must be postmarked by April 5, 2010.
Applications and letters of recommendation should be sent to:

Deborah J. Norden Fund
The Architectural League
of New York
594 Broadway, Suite 607
New York, NY 10012.

PDF recommendations
should be emailed to:
info@archleague.org.

Announcement
Awards will be announced in early June 2010.

Publication
Travel Reports from the Deborah J. Norden Fund, a publication documenting the first ten years of Norden Fund grants, was published in January 2007. For more information, click here.

For more information
Email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13.

The Architectural League created the annual Emerging Voices lecture series in 1982 to recognize and encourage architects who are beginning to achieve prominence in the profession. The series focuses primarily on built work, at a variety of scales, and is structured to reflect the diversity of contemporary practice–geographically, stylistically, and ideologically.

The 2010 Emerging Voices are:

Tatiana Bilbao, Mexico City
LA DALLMAN, Milwaukee
L.E.FT, New York City
molo, Vancouver
Rojkind arquitectos, Mexico City
Slade Architecture, New York City
studio SUMO, New York City
UrbanLab, Chicago

For more information on the 2010 Emerging Voices lectures, click here.

Competition Deadline
February 8, 2010

Young Architects and Designers Committee
Cristina Goberna
Jinhee Park
Ben Pell

Jury
Matilda McQuaid
Calvin Tsao
Billie Tsien
Dan Wood
Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Call for Entries
Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the annual Architectural League Prize Competition. Projects of all types, either theoretical or real and executed in any medium, are welcome. The jury will select work for presentation in public programs, an on-line installation, podcasts, and an exhibition in late spring 2010. Winners will receive a cash prize of $1,000, as well as an additional stipend for transportation determined at set levels based on the applicant’s proximity to New York. A catalogue of winning work will be published by the Architectural League and Princeton Architectural Press.

The Architectural League Prize is an annual competition, series of lectures, and exhibition organized by the Architectural League and its Young Architects + Designers committee. The Prize (formerly known as the Young Architects Forum) was established to recognize specific works of high quality and to encourage the exchange of ideas among young people who might otherwise not have a forum. For work by past winners, please click here.

Theme: ReSource
Architectural practice relies on resources: disciplinary resources, such as theory and technique; physical resources, such as materials and production technologies; and practical resources, such as coordination, planning, and financing. However, recent global shifts – from the financial crisis to the environmental crisis – are demanding that architects and designers rethink their resources, producing new approaches, techniques, and even terminology within our discipline.

This call for entries asks: In what ways is our discipline proving itself resourceful in the face of these challenges? How have young practices redefined themselves, from new models of professional practice, to emergent theoretical approaches or techniques of construction? Are architects and designers by necessity becoming better at sourcing materials and techniques to meet both a heightened environmental consciousness –looking ‘beyond the green’– and the current economic sobriety? Or are they turning to models outside of the discipline for sources of inspiration, novelty, and change?

It’s time for a pause, for a reflection; for measuring outdated paths to salvage what remains valid and relevant, while simultaneously reinventing our resources anew within an uncertain context. It’s time to resource architecture.

Eligibility
Entrants may submit as individuals or as a group of individuals. If the individual(s) is/are the sole principal(s) of a firm, the firm name will be listed as a winner as well. Entrants must submit work done independently; no work done as an employee of a firm, where the entrant is not a principal or partner, is eligible for submission. Entrants must be within ten years of graduation from an undergraduate or graduate program. Students enrolled in a doctoral program beyond a first professional degree are eligible to apply; however, no student work completed for any academic program or degree is eligible for submission. Educators may not include work done in their studios. Past Young Architects Forum winners are ineligible. If only one partner of a firm is eligible, he or she can enter as a single entrant. He or she must include a signed document from all other partners outlining the collaborative nature of the work and the firm will not be listed as a recipient of the Prize. Collaborative work between unrelated firms or individuals is eligible if the partnership is equal and any project with collaborators must include a signed document from the other collaborator(s) describing the collaborative nature of the work. Collaborative work will be considered within the context of an individual’s complete portfolio.

The competition is open to residents, who need not be citizens, of the United States, Canada, and Mexico only – residency must be met six out of the twelve months preceding the portfolio deadline. There is no restriction on where submitted projects, speculative or built, are located.

Entry Forms
Entry Form
Partner Acknowledgement Form
Collaborator Acknowledgement Form

Competition Deadline
February 8, 2010
Entries must be received at the League office by 5 p.m. or postmarked by this date. There will be no exceptions to this deadline. The League cannot be responsible for entries received by mail after the jury date, which will be approximately a week after the deadline.

Submission requirements
The competition theme is given as a basis for young architects and designers to reflect upon and reevaluate their work. A written statement not to exceed 250 words is requested, which defines and considers the work under the rubric of the competition theme. Significant weight is given to how an applicant’s work addresses the theme. A single portfolio, which may include several projects, must be bound and no larger than 11” x 14”. The portfolio may not contain more than thirty doublesided pages. CDs, models, slides, and transparencies will not be accepted. Entries must be received at the League office by 5 p.m. February 8, 2010 or postmarked by that date.

Each entrant must submit an entry fee of $25. Entrants may submit cash or a check payable to “The Architectural League of New York.”

Each submission must include an entry form. Insert form, intact, into an unsealed envelope attached to the inside back cover of the submission. To maintain anonymity, no identification of the entrant may appear on any part of the submission, except on the entry form and return envelope (see below).

Portfolios will be returned by mail only if a self-addressed envelope with postage is also enclosed. Please ensure that return postage does not expire before August 2010. The Architectural League assumes no liability for original drawings. The League will take every precaution to return submissions intact, but can assume no responsibility for loss or damage. Portfolios may be discarded after six months if no return envelope is provided.

The Architectural League
of New York
594 Broadway, Suite 607
New York, New York 10012

For more information, email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13. To download a copy of The Architectural League Prize call for entries click here.

Selection
Winning entrants will be notified by mid-March 2010.

Sponsors
The Architectural League prize sponsors include Dornbracht, Ibex Construction, LEF Foundation, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

League programs are made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

League project sponsorship deadline
January 11th, 2010

The Architecture, Planning and Design Program of the New York State Council on the Arts awards project grants for professionals in the design, planning, and historic preservation fields through its Independent Projects Category. Individuals must apply through a nonprofit sponsor. The Architectural League welcomes anyone interested to apply through the League.

Grants of up to $10,000 will be available for architects, landscape architects, planners, designers, historic preservationists, and scholars to realize specific projects that advance the field and contribute to the public’s understanding of the designed environment. The development of design prototypes, historical studies of building types, theoretical design studies or texts, or explorations of new technology in the design fields are all welcome. The program is particularly interested in innovative ideas being explored outside of traditional practice. Individuals whose work is not broadly known are encouraged to apply.

Projects may relate to any of the disciplines the program covers, including: architecture; architectural history; landscape architecture; urban and rural planning; urban design; historic preservation; graphic design; and industrial design.

Only New York State residents are eligible to apply. Tuition or projects being done in pursuit of an academic degree will not be funded. NYSCA funds cannot be used for out-of-state travel expenses. Applicants may only submit a project through a nonprofit sponsoring organization.

For more information on League sponsorship of NYSCA Independent Projects Grants, email Anne Rieselbach at rieselbach@archleague.org. The deadline to register a request on line through a nonprofit sponsor is Jan. 22nd, 2010. If you would like to be sponsored by the Architectural League you must email Anne Rieselbach by midnight January 11th, 2010. For instructions on applying click here; for material needed before the Jan. 22nd deadline click here. Additional written and visual material will be due on April 12th, 2010. A panel of design and planning professionals will evaluate the proposals, and final decisions will be made by late June, 2010.

For further information about this funding opportunity and application instructions, see the Architecture, Planning and Design Program’s guidelines for the Independent Projects Category on the New York State Council on the Arts’ website, www.nysca.org. To learn about the League’s Independent Projects program with presentations by past League sponsored NYSCA grant recipients and an introduction by NYSCA director Ann Van Ingen, click here.

The Architectural League created the juried lecture series New York Designs to provide a forum for the presentation of innovative and accomplished built work in New York City. The 2009 New York Designs committee, comprised of Craig Konyk, Scott Marble, Linnaea Tillett, Sandra Wheeler, and Barbara Wilks, asked designers to think about and define “public” today; and how they would imagine buildings, landscapes, and urban places that aspire to be for the public.

Update: To view podcasts of the New York Designs 2009 presentations, click here.

THIS YEAR’S WINNERS AND LECTURE DATES ARE:
This program was part of the 2008-09 program calendar. Click here for information about our current season.

Thursday, June 4, 2009
7:00 p.m.

TKTS Booth, Times Square
Perkins Eastman and Choi Ropiha
Presented by Nick Leahy

Triple Bridge Gateway, 42nd Street Port Authority Bus Terminal
PKSB Architects with Leni Schwendinger Light Projects
Presented by Henry Stolzman and Leni Schwendinger

NYC Information Center, Times Square
WXY Architecture and Local Projects
Presented by Claire Weisz and Jake Barton

Thursday, June 11, 2009
7:00 p.m.

Floating Pool, New York City, multiple sites
Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architect
Presented by Jonathan Kirschenfeld

GreenBranches Learning Gardens, Horticultural Society of New York, Queens Library, Whitestone Branch and Brooklyn Public Library, Stone Avenue Branch
Marpillero Pollak Architects
Presented by Sandro Marpillero and Linda Pollak

Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym, South Bronx
Stephen Yablon Architect
Presented by Stephen Yablon

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Nick Leahy, a principal at Perkins Eastman, and Michael Ludvik, associate at Dewhurst MacFarlane and Partners, the project’s structural engineer and façade design consultant, will discuss the new TKTS Booth, which serves not only the Broadway ticket outlet, but provides a “public amphitheatre” in the center of Times Square. The project is the sculptural centerpiece of a major urban renewal project transforming Father Duffy Square, which was funded through a combination of public and private funds for a client group including the Times Square Alliance, Theatre Development Fund, and the Coalition for Father Duffy. Resulting from a competition organized and managed by the Van Alen Institute in partnership with Theater Development Fund and NYC 2000 / New York City Millennium Committee, the design is based on the competition-winning concept drawing by Choi Ropiha. The complex, all-glass booth—including glass load-bearing walls and 28-feet long glass stringer beams—features a 27-step-high red glass sculptural roof, which encloses a fiberglass shell, housing the ticket office. The booth includes LEDs to illuminate the red glass steps, “creating a shimmering floating carpet of color and light” and a geothermal system with two parts: radiant panels to provide heating and cooling that regulates extremes under the steps; and an air handler for comfort in the booth. Other collaborators include: MEP engineers, Lewis Engineers, formerly Schaefer Lewis Engineers, PC; lighting consultant, Fischer Marantz Stone; glass fabrication design engineering, Haran Glass, with IG Innovation Glass LLP; plaza architect, William Fellows Architects, now part of PKSB Architects PC; landscape architect, Judith Heintz Landscape Architects; preservation architect, Bresnan Architects, PC; construction manager, D. Haller Inc.; civil engineer and geotechnical, DMJM Harris, formerly CTE; glass installation, David Shildiner, Inc., Innovation Glass; booth fabrication, Merrifield Roberts; mechanical subcontractor, Trystate Mechanical Inc.; electrical subcontractor, ASR Electrical Contractors; and pylon fabrication, Lettera Signs.

Henry Stolzman, principal of PKSB Architects and Leni Schwendinger, principal designer of Leni Schwendinger Light Projects will present Triple Bridge Gateway, 42nd Street Port Authority Bus Terminal. The project, commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, transformed a system of vehicular ramps over Ninth Avenue into a “vibrant, glowing infrastructural public art installation.” The project includes a new titanium façade, entry canopy, and commercial space for the Port Authority and a new fritted glass façade for Project Find. New metals, lighting, and color patterns were crafted to “emphasize the vehicular ramps’ I-beam engineered structure.” A chain-link containment system wraps the sides and undersides of each ramp to create a “theatrical scrim – reflecting and defusing light.” A computer-sequenced illumination scheme completes the project, enlivening and transforming the once decaying and grim infrastructure into a year-round public space. The project’s general contractor was Defoe Construction; MEP, Flack + Kurtz (now called WSP Flack+ Kurtz); structural engineer – architectural, Ysrael Seinuk, P.C.; and structural engineer – permanent platform, Hardesty & Hanover LLP.

WXY Architecture and the public space and museum media design firm Local Projects transformed a storefront off of Times Square into the NYC Information Center, a multimedia visitor information center commissioned by NYC and Company, which allows tourists and locals alike to digitally survey and plan customized explorations of New York City. The centerpiece of the “digital portal” in a “public room” is a bank of three large interactive map tables. Visitors create custom guidebooks, which can be emailed, sent via SMS, or printed. Visitors can also see their saved places on a large-scale, Google Earth flythrough. The center also features FAQ screens in ten languages. As Claire Weisz, founding partner of WXY Architecture and Jake Barton, principal of Local Projects will discuss, the NYC Information Center was “envisaged to support a networked but atomized public—from local to international—to connect sociably with what they want: the infinitely customizable local experience [and] the shared reality of walking around town.” The project’s technical collaborators included 3D Laboratory, Videosonic, Gesturetek, and Technical Artistry.
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Inspired by early 20th century floating bathhouses, The Neptune Foundation commissioned the design and adaptive re-use of a former cargo barge into a floating pool complex. Floating Pool, “a mobile recreation pier” designed by Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects and to be presented by principal Jonathan Kirschenfeld, provides both a public swimming pool within the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation public pool system and an instant waterfront, creating a public space along New York’s frequently unused waterfront. The facility contains changing rooms, a snack bar and dining area, and children’s spray fountain in addition to the 50-meter seven-lane pool. Shading pavilions flank a raised seating area and frame views to the harbor. The facility is fully lit for evening events. Inaugurally docked off of Brooklyn Heights and now located off Hunts Point in the Bronx, the pool has served over 50,000 visitors in past seasons. The project team included Johann Mordhorst, Nicola Bormann, Andrew Woodrum, Stefan Danicich, Adrian Vasile; the naval architect/MEP engineer, Charles R. Cushing & Co., Inc.; structural engineer, Robert Sillman Associates, P.C.; marine engineer, Mal McLaren Engineering Group; pool consultant, Joel Trace; fire and life safety, Paragon Building Consultants; lighting consultant, Tillett Lighting Design, Inc.; construction manager, Steve Siva; and site construction advisor, F.J. Sciame Construction Co.

The Horticultural Society of New York’s GreenBranches Program – in public-private partnership with the Queens and Brooklyn library systems – constructs and maintains “Learning Gardens” in underutilized outdoor spaces at branch libraries. Partners Linda Pollak and Sandro Marpillero of Marpillero Pollak Architects will discuss their two designs for the Queens Library, Whitestone Branch and Brooklyn Public Library, Stone Avenue Branch. The projects not only created public outdoor programming space for the libraries, but also provided communities with “an active cultural process related to the acquisition of knowledge, including how a space is designed, constructed, and maintained.” The new plantings and gardens facilitate educational workshops, as well as relaxation. In each garden, new fencing and trellises activate the garden borders from unwelcoming barriers to an “active zone of interaction between street and library.”

Commissioned by the New York City Housing Authority, the Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym by Stephen Yablon Architect connects two existing adjacent structures—the lower floor of a housing tower and a one-story basketball gymnasium—into a unified 27,000 square foot community center in a South Bronx NYCHA housing project. Transformed from a tired, brick bunker, the new center is organized around a light-filled interior courtyard, connected “visually and spatially to the street through a wide glass entry.” The design to be presented by Stephen Yablon not only opens itself to the community it serves, but through its illumination and outward orientation provides a welcoming public space along the streetscape. The new 3-story glass-enclosed boxing arena, home of a famed youth boxing program, additionally serves as a symbol of “community pride.” Facilities include adult and child classrooms, a dance studio, art room, computer lab, game room, and a warming kitchen and 200-seat cafeteria. The existing gym was stripped to its structure and re-clad with vandalism-resistant materials that simultaneously evoke a sense of “aggression” – appropriate for a dramatic boxing arena – and in the facility’s newly fresh interior, “welcome.”

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Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Click on thumbnails for image credits.

Participants in the program are chosen through a portfolio competition that is juried by distinguished architects, artists and critics, and the Young Architects Committee. The committee, a group selected each year from past participants in the Young Architects Forum, is responsible for developing the program’s theme and selecting competition jurors. Open to designers ten years or less out of school, the competition draws entrants from around North America. The lecture series and exhibition by winners of the competition provide a lively public forum for the discussion of their work and ideas. Winners’ designs will also be illustrated in a catalogue to be published by Princeton Architectural Press.
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LECTURE SCHEDULE

Thursday, May 14, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Aziza Chaouni and Takako Tajima, Bureau E.A.S.T., Fez, Toronto and Los Angeles
Frida Escobedo Lopez, Mexico City
Ivan Juarez and Patricia Meneses, ex.studio, Mexico City and Barcelona

Thursday, May 21, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Cristina Goberna and Urtzi Grau, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, Brooklyn
Phu Hoang, Phu Hoang Office, New York City
Sung Goo Yang, Ether Ship, Boston

All lectures will be held at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue, New York City. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

EXHIBITION
The Young Architects Forum exhibition will open to the public on the first evening of the lectures on May 14th at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue, New York City, and will remain on display through July 17th EXTENDED through July 29th. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday (closed Thursdays) from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Admission is free. The exhibition will also be open on the evenings of the lectures.

THEME
The competition theme, “Foresight,” created a basis for entrants to compose their portfolios and critically evaluate their work. This year’s committee posited that architecture is a profession of ideas—giving architects the means both to respond to problems and to project solutions. Entrants were asked to consider how architectural ideas might resonate beyond professional boundaries—particularly for younger practices who are more apt to consider cross-fertilizations from other disciplines and to incorporate new tactics and techniques into their work. Further, entrants were encouraged to address how to align the ambitions and capacities of architecture with the needs and desires of a diverse and changing world.

JURY
Paola Antonelli
Teddy Cruz
Nader Tehrani
Calvin Tsao

and the Young Architects Committee
Mark Gage
Ana Miljacki
Julio Salcedo
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YOUNG ARCHITECTS 2009

Aziza Chaouni and Takako Tajima are principals of Bureau E.A.S.T., with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Fez, Morocco. The firm’s primary focus, exemplified in their ongoing “Out of Water” research, an investigation of where high-risk urban arid zones will be located in the next 50 years, is to sustainably integrate design into the environment. Their Fez river rehabilitation project won the 2008 Holcim Gold Award in Sustainable Construction and the 2009 EDRA best places award. Chaouni is also the director of the research board of DOCO.MO.MO Morocco, and winner of the Progressive Architecture research award in 2007 for her research project, “Hybrid Urban Sutures: Filling the Gaps” in the Medina of Fez.

Chaouni received her B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Columbia University and her M.Arch. from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is currently an assistant professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. Tajima received her B.Arch. from Carnegie Mellon University and an MLA and an MUP from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Frida Escobedo Lopez founded her Mexico City firm in 2006, after acting as co-director at perro rojo from 2003-2006. She describes the work of the office as focusing on “the residual and the forgotten: from decadent suburbs that are being subdivided, to rundown tourist spots, to unused roofs and basements” focusing on identifying “forces that change the configuration of cities…central and powerful or marginal, formal or informal.” Her built and current work includes Casa 24, Casa 662, Casa Negra, and Villa 49, part of the ORDOS 100 project. Her renovation (with Jose Rojas) of the Bocachica Hotel in Acapulco is currently under construction. In 2006 the firm received first place in an affordable housing competition, and in 2005 a Young Creator’s Grant from the National System of Arts, Mexico for the Caja Gris.

Escobedo received her B.Arch. from the Universidad Iberoamericana, where she currently is a faculty member.

ex.studio, with offices in Barcelona and Mexico City, was founded by principals Ivan Juarez and Patricia Meneses. Their firm has developed projects at different scales, from buildings and objects to city and landscape interventions. With work in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Mexico, ex.studio conceives each project in relation to its physical context, and its potential to be enriched by diverse views and disciplines. Their work has garnered awards including: an AR award for emerging architects, the Young Architects Prize given by the College of Architects of Barcelona, and the National Grant for Mexican Young Architects, granted by the National Fund for Culture and Arts.

Juarez graduated from the Architectural School, San Luis Potosi University, Mexico and specialized in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture of Barcelona, where Meneses received her architecture degree. They have been guest lecturers and professors at several institutions including the University of Westminster, UK; the University Alcalá, Madrid; the College of Architects in Barcelona; and the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico.

Cristina Goberna and Urtzi Grau are principals (with collaborators Ariel Boles, Cornelia Herlz, and Cristian Zanoni) of Brooklyn-based Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, “a conglomerate that explores the potentials of architectural agonism and false constructions.” Their work, both speculative and built, examines alternative forms of domesticity and the urban landscape. Their individual and joint work and writings have been published internationally. In 2008 they were winners of Europan 9. Among their projects are a campaign for free New York City apartments; a “House for Cesar,” which is a renovation of an office for a client evicted from his home; “The Illegal Hotel,” examining the role of unpaid architecture office interns; and “Golf! Urbanism Manifesto.”

Goberna graduated from the School of Architecture of Sevilla, where she co-founded the multidisciplinary group La Casita. Grau graduated from the School of Architecture of Barcelona Both Goberna and Grau received M.S. degrees in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University.

Phu Hoang founded his New York City firm Phu Hoang Office in 2004. Current research projects, including “Enclaves and Floods,” situated on the border between India and Bangladesh and “Foodopolis,” an Urban Food Network in New York City, are expressive of his interest in using “current political conflicts and ecological disasters as a way to formulate architectural questions…relating to the possibility of designing for radical change.” Other projects include a prototype for a responsive building envelope made of water, and a 4,500 square foot loft in Manhattan. The firm’s design for “Every Man’s Land” in the Yucatan Peninsula received an honorable mention in the 2007 Sudaplan competition, and their “No Man’s Land” design for a tourist resort city in the Dead Sea was short listed in the 2007 Environmental Tectonics competition.

Hoang received a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a M.Arch. from Columbia University. He is currently teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, and previously taught at Columbia University.

Sung Goo Yang established his Boston-based firm Ether Ship in 2008. His work spans scales from urban design to fashion runways and abstract digital animations and designs—all expressing his interest in the interplay between image and form. Recent work includes his prize-winning competition for the Gwangbook Street Renovation in Busan City, Korea; “Vogue Fashion House” and a fashion show runway for Wooyoungmi, both commissioned by Vogue Korea; the “Seoul Change Project,” commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar; and competition entries for a gallery in Porto and the Incheon Changla Tower.

Yang studied architectural engineering at Korea University, where he was a founding member of “A-GENE-DA” Design Group, and received his M.Arch. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He was recently a guest critic and lecturer at Seoul National University.
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PODCASTS
The Architectural League will produce podcast excerpts from each of the participant’s lectures in this year’s Young Architects Forum. Podcast interviews from previous year’s Young Architects, along with podcasts of many other League programs, are available on the podcast page of the League’s website, or on the League’s page on iTunes. All podcasts are free.

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The Young Architects Forum is made possible with support from Dornbracht, LEF Foundation, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn. Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Images courtesy of the architects.

This program was part of the 2008-09 program calendar. For information about our current season click here.

LECTURE SCHEDULE
All Emerging Voices lectures are being held at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue, New York City, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Shane Coen, Coen + Partners, Minneapolis and New York City
Derek Dellekamp, Dellekamp Arquitectos, Mexico City

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Darren Petrucci, A-I-R, Scottsdale
Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi, Gray Organschi Architecture, New Haven

Thursday, March 19, 2009
Julio Amezcua and Francisco Pardo, at103, Mexico City
Robert Hutchison and Tom Maul, Hutchison & Maul Architecture, Seattle

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Andrew Berman, Andrew Berman Architect, New York City
Stella Betts and David Leven, Leven Betts Architects, New York City
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THURSDAY, MARCH 5

Shane Coen is a principal and the founder of Coen + Partners, a Minneapolis and New York City-based landscape architecture practice. For 16 years in collaboration with leading architects, the firm’s landscape and site designs have integrated “programmatic, architectural, and ecological goals.” Coen + Partners’ interventions “emphasize the materials, textures, and rhythms of our contemporary era and the regions where we work.” Recent and current projects include: “Mayo Plan #1,” Rochester, MN, which rethought and reformed traditional cul-de-sac development; “Jackson Meadow,” a community master plan and residential landscape design in Marine on St. Croix, MN; streetscape design around the “Minneapolis Central Library,”; “Albrecht,” a residential landscape design in Red Wing, MN; and “Lavin Bernick Center,” a campus landscape design at Tulane University, New Orleans.

Coen + Partners work has received numerous awards from the AIA, ASLA, and Committee on Urban Environment, and has been published in The New York Times, Metropolis, and Dwell. Coen+Partners received a Progressive Architecture citation in 2003 for Mayo Plan #1. The firm’s work is currently featured in “Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes,” a traveling exhibition in collaboration with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Shane Coen received his B.S. in Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Dellekamp Arquitectos was founded by Derek Dellekamp in 1999. The Mexico City firm frequently partners with artists, designers, environmental experts, engineers, and builders to shape each project. The firm states: “We try to begin each project without a preconceived idea of its outcome; we deliberately allow for outside influences to shape the design. Our goal is for the work to achieve a wider relevance by adapting and synthesizing these externalities.” In 2003, together with Rojkind arquitectos and mxa/Tatiana Bilbao, Dellekamp Arquitectos founded MXDF Urban Research Center to develop integrated approaches and investigations for current project sites, as well as the intricate urban reality of Mexico City. Recent and current projects include: the apartment buildings “Alfonso Reyes 58,” “CB 30,” and “CB 29” all in Mexico City; Villa 14, Ordos, China; “Living in Here,” a social housing proposal at the 11th International Exhibition Venice Biennale 2008; “House on a Slope,” Mexico City; and “La Capital,” a restaurant in Mexico City.

Dellekamp Arquitectos is the recipient of a 2008 International Architecture Award and was cited by Wallpaper as one of the world’s 101 most exciting new architects in the magazine’s 2007 article “Wallpaper’s Architects Directory 2007.” The firm’s work has been widely exhibited, including at the Venice Biennale; Guangzhou Second Triennale; and the Center for Architecture, NY, and has been published in Dwell, Space Magazine, Arquine, and The New York Times. Derek Dellekamp received his B.Arch from Iberoamericana University, where he now teaches in the Department of Architecture.

THURSDAY, MARCH 12

Darren Petrucci is the founder and principal of A-I-R [Architecture-Infrastructure-Research] Inc. based in Scottsdale. His design and research focuses on what he calls “Amenity Infrastructure, which develops new public/private urban infrastructures that facilitate multiple scales of public use within the contemporary city.” Projects include “Stripscape,” pedestrian amenities on a commercial avenue in Phoenix; “Comfort Zone,” shading and cooling canopies for transit and courtesy vehicles at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; “Garden Rooms,” streetscape and transit stop improvements in Scottsdale; “vh r-10 ghouse,” a guest house prototype on Martha’s Vineyard; and “Cool Ground,” digitally designed and fabricated furniture/landscape at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts.

Petrucci is the winner of a Progressive Architecture award for his project “GLUE: Generic Landscapes Urban Environments” (a commercial corridor revitalization strategy along Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale), and the NCARB Prize for excellence in teaching and practice for his project “Stripscape.” His work has been published in Metropolis, Places Journal, Architecture Magazine, Sprawl and Public Space published by the National Endowment for the Arts with Princeton Architectural Press, and Re-Envisioning Landscape/Architecture published by Actar Press. His work has been exhibited in Phoenix, New York, and at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Petrucci is the Director of the School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture at Arizona State University where he also runs his applied research lab: SCAPE (Systems Components Architectural Products + Environments). He received both M.Arch and MAUD degrees with distinction from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi are the founding principals at Gray Organschi Architecture, an architecture studio and fabrication facility in New Haven. The firm’s work explores the intersection of design and building production, recognizing “building as a medium through which architectural ideas are most forcefully explored and unforgivingly expressed; as an undertaking that consumes physical and environmental resources as it irrevocably alters the character and culture of a place.” Projects include “Tennis House,” Washington, CT; “Cottage,” Guilford, CT; “Storage Barn,” Washington, CT; “Prefabricated Footbridge at Green Hill Brook,” Madison, CT; and “Music Studio at Firehouse 12,” New Haven, CT.

Gray Organschi Architecture has won numerous awards, including the Wood Design Award and regional AIA Merit and Design awards. The firm was the recipient of the 2001 Emerging Architects Award from the Connecticut AIA. Gray Organschi Architecture has been widely published, including in Architectural Record, House & Garden, The New York Times, and in numerous books. Elizabeth Gray received her B.A. from Yale College and her M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture. She is also the founder of an interior design consultancy, Gray Design. Alan Organschi received his B.A. from Brown University and a M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture. He currently teaches at Yale, where he coordinates the first year graduate housing studio.
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THURSDAY, MARCH 19

Julio Amezcua and Francisco Pardo founded the Mexico City-based practice at103 in 2001. Founded with the intention “to investigate and create new techniques for architecture in the contemporary city,” the practice pursues a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach. at103’s work explores “the relationship between…various spaces and their changeability over time rather than…the spaces themselves.” Projects include the “Ave Fenix Fire Station,” Mexico City; “Casa Romero,” Queretaro, Mexico; “Explanada,” a studio and exhibition space in Mexico City; “GM1607 Apartment Building,” Mexico City; and “at103 Villa” in Ordos, China.

at103’s Fire Station received the Silver Medal at the X Mexican Biennale and was a selection at the 2008 International Architecture Awards. The firm was also recently named by Wallpaper as one of the world’s 50 hottest young architectural practices. Julio Amezcua and Francisco Pardo both studied architecture at the Universidad Anahuac and received their M.Arch degrees at Columbia University. Amezcua is currently a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute. Pardo is a professor at Iberoamericana University in Mexico City.

Seattle-based Hutchison & Maul Architecture was founded by Robert Hutchison and Tom Maul in 2001. “Exploring space and form through the medium of envelope,” Hutchison & Maul’s designs are characterized by “site-specific solutions which encompass functionality and efficiency through the use of a limited material palette and a focus on one or two primary architectural elements.” The firm also undertakes conceptual and installation work, which typically seeks “to celebrate the history and past use of existing buildings, while highlighting their architectural qualities and potential for reuse.” Recent and current projects include the “Courtyard House on a Steep Site,” Mercer Island, WA; the “Wall + Roof Studio,” Seattle; “Lake House,” Mercer Island; the “WeiLi Office Building & Dyeing Facility,” Guangzhou, China; the “City of Bothell Public Works Facility,” WA; and “Hole Houses #1 and #2,” which explored the quality of light by drilling holes into to be demolished buildings in Seattle.

The firm’s work received a 2008 Honor Award for Washington Architecture and has been featured in Northwest Home & Garden Magazine and Arcade Journal, amongst other publications. Robert Hutchison received a B.S. in Structural Engineering and a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Drexel University, and a M.Arch from the University of Washington. Tom Maul received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University, and a M.Arch from the University of Washington. Both serve as Guest Lecturers at the University of Washington College of Architecture.

THURSDAY, MARCH 26

New York-based Andrew Berman Architect was established in 1995 by Andrew Berman. The firm characterizes its work as “about and informed by buildings, the land, people, and the city. Construction is the medium through which we explore the complexities and qualities of space and place. It is a process that starts with the familiar and leads, in an effort to create meaningful and deliberate relationships, toward its edges.” Recent and current projects include “Writing Studio and Library,” Long Island; “Whitespace Studios,” New York City; “Rooftop Residence and Gardens,” New York City; “PS1 Visitor Kiosk,” Long Island City; and “The Center for Architecture,” New York City.

Andrew Berman Architect has received AIA Design Excellence Awards for numerous projects and is currently participating in the NYC Department of Design and Construction Design Excellence Program. His work has been published in New York, Wallpaper, Architectural Record, Metropolis, Quaderns, and The New York Times. Berman received his B.A. from Yale College and his M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture.

Leven Betts Architects is a New York City-based architecture practice begun in 1997 by David Leven and Stella Betts. Leven Betts designs and produces buildings, exhibitions, interiors, furniture and urban spaces. The firm produces “an architecture with an innovative approach toward materials, technologies and the environment in projects at all scales.” Current and recent projects include “Mixed Greens Gallery,” New York; “CC01 House,” Columbia County, NY; “Catskills House,” Stone Ridge, NY; “Chicago Filter Parking,” which won first prize in the 2003 Chicago Prize competition for a thousand-car parking facility; and “Princeton House,” NJ.

Leven Betts is the recipient of numerous AIA Merit and Honor awards, was featured in Architectural Record’s 2007 Design Vanguard, and was runner-up for the Metropolis: Next Generation Prize. In 2003, Betts was a participant in the League’s Young Architects Forum. In 2009, Princeton Architectural Press published a monograph on the firm, Pattern Recognition: Leven Betts. David Leven studied at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York and received his M.Arch from Yale University School of Architecture. He is currently the Director of the Graduate Architecture Department at Parsons The New School for Design. Stella Betts received her M.Arch from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is on the adjunct faculty at Parsons The New School for Design.
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This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.