The earliest known public announcement regarding The Architectural League of New York was a letter to the editor in the January 29, 1881 issue of The Critic, under the heading “A Society of Junior Architects:”

The popular feeling among the body of architectural workmen, especially the younger members of the profession, has recently been inclining strongly toward the opinion that an opportunity to reach a higher standard of work is necessary, and an association has been formed having in view the attainment of this end. The present condition of the young men rising in the profession might easily be improved. Among other needs is that of an organized method of collecting sketches, technical works, photographs, casts, etc., and of placing such collections where they could be consulted to the best advantage….

No branch of art covers a wider field than architecture; no branch ministers more to the comfort, luxury, and convenience of the people, yet none receives less attention and encouragement from public sources in America….

The Association met at the room of the Salmagundi Club, on Tuesday, January 18th, and took steps toward holding a public exhibition.

The letter was signed by Cass Gilbert, William A. Bates, D.W. Willard, Edward H. Clark, C.H. Johnston, and Charles Howard Walker.

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A spirit of mutual education floated freely in the 1881 New York City air.¹1 As did a sense that the arts had edifying public potential that remained untapped. By 1981, that air was less filled with masculine smoke, but the collective drive to enhance public appreciation regarding the collaborative potentials of art and architecture persisted. Thankfully by then the century-old but still-upstart Architectural League of New York was on the case.

Please join us on November 13 as we celebrate the League’s history, and contemplate what this interdisciplinary, institutional, collective call might look like—what its impact has been and could be—150 years later, in the space where it all began.

The evening will include an overview of New York City’s late 19th and early 20th Century architectural scene by critic and historian Suzanne Stephens. This will be followed by a panel discussion exploring the city’s and League’s always changing artistic and institutional context.

Before breaking for cocktails and conversation, The Architectural League’s executive director, Jacob R. Moore, will share information about the 150th Anniversary initiative underway to protect the League’s archive and tell its story for years to come.

Speakers

Suzanne Stephens is the former deputy editor of Architectural Record, and has been a writer, editor, and critic in the field of architecture for several decades. Stephens has a PhD in architectural history from Cornell University, and teaches a seminar in the history of architectural criticism in the architecture program of Barnard and Columbia colleges.

Gregory Wessner is the executive director of the National Academy of Design. Previously, Wessner served as the executive director of Open House New York. He has held various positions at The Architectural League throughout his career, including exhibitions director. Wessner received the Award of Merit from the American Institute of Architects New York in 2020 in recognition of his contributions to architecture culture in New York City.

Gabrielle Esperdy is the dean of the Hillier College of Architecture & Design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. An architectural and urban historian and critic, she received her PhD from the CUNY Graduate School and University Center in art and architectural history. Esperdy has authored two books: Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal and American Autopia: An Intellectual History of the American Roadside at Midcentury. She is editor of SAH Archipedia and the Buildings of the United States book series, and has published widely on topics related to modernism and consumerism in metropolitan landscapes, and to architectural practice. 

Bryony Roberts is the founder of Bryony Roberts Studio, an interdisciplinary design and research practice based in New York. Roberts has been awarded the Architectural League Prize in 2018, Miller Prize of 2018, the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for 2015­-2016, the MacDowell Colony Fellowship in Architecture for Summer 2018, and was a finalist for the Wheelwright Prize from Harvard GSD in 2020. She recently edited the volume Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice and has published her research in the Harvard Design Magazine, Future Anterior, and Architectural Record.

The discussion will be moderated by Cassim Shepard. Shepard is a distinguished lecturer at The Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. In 2020, he was named a MacDowell Fellow in Architecture and received the 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship for his research project Self-Help Housing: Incremental Approaches to Shelter Since 1965. Shepherd is the founding editor-in-chief of Urban Omnibus. His first book, Citymakers: The Culture and Craft of Practical Urbanism, was published by Monacelli Press in 2017.

[1] Plenty of pollution filled the air as well, prompting the first laws banning smoke as a “public nuisance” that same year.

This event is co-organized by The Architectural League of New York and the Salmagundi Club.