Current Work is a lecture series featuring leading figures in the worlds of architecture, urbanism, design, and art.

Annabelle Selldorf is the founding principal of New York-based Selldorf Architects, a 65-person architectural design practice founded in 1988. The firm has worked on public and private projects that range from museums and libraries to a recycling facility, and at scales encompassing large new construction, historic renovation, and exhibition design. The practice aims to “integrate its buildings in the cities and institutions they serve” with designs generated around “precision and restraint.” For Selldorf, “projects evolve in response to their specific context and program, drawing influence from local materials and building traditions.”

The firm’s clients include cultural institutions and universities such as the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Clark Art Institute, Neue Galerie New York, New York University, and Brown University. In addition, the firm has created numerous galleries for David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, and Gladstone Gallery, among others, and designed exhibitions for Frieze Masters, Gagosian Gallery, and the Venice Art Biennale.

Recent projects include the Sims Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, the largest recycling facility in the United States, located in Brooklyn, New York, and a 30,000 square-foot LEED Gold gallery building for David Zwirner in West Chelsea. The firm’s renovation of The Clark Art Institute’s Museum Building opened in 2014 along with a renovation of Brown University’s John Hay Library that reestablished the historic library as a central campus building for a contemporary University community.

Selldorf Architects is currently designing a major expansion for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; converting former rail sheds into LUMA Arles, a new center for contemporary art in Arles, France; and designing a new primary school in Mwabwindo, Zambia for the 14+ Foundation.

Born and raised in Germany, Selldorf received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute and a Master of Architecture degree from Syracuse University in Florence, Italy. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a Board Member of The Architectural League of New York and the Chinati Foundation. In 2014, she was the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Award in Architecture.

The lecture will be followed by a discussion with Billie Tsien, co-founding principal architect of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and President of The Architectural League of New York.

This lecture is co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. It is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.