Join LTL and TEN Arquitectos at their offices for drinks, conversation, and a behind-the-scenes look at ongoing work.

LTL

LTL Architects (Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis) was founded in 1997 by David J. Lewis, Paul Lewis, and Marc Tsurumaki. Its work includes academic projects and cultural buildings as well as interiors and speculative research projects. According to the firm, LTL “turn[s] the very constraints of each project into the design trajectory, exploring opportunistic overlaps between space, program, form, budget, and material.”

In 2016, the firm published Manual of Section, a history and taxonomy of the section in architecture.

Recent projects include:

• Cornell Upson Hall, a renovation project which transformed a 1950s modernist building into energy-efficient, flexible, and open research laboratories for Cornell’s engineering school.
• The ContemporAry, an adaptive reuse project for a new contemporary art space that in Austin, Texas. The redesign created a new public space through the addition of an aluminum canopy that rises 23 feet over the roof deck, framing a 7-foot-tall text-based art installation that runs along the roof’s perimeter.

Projects in development include:

• Poster House, a museum in the Flatiron district dedicated to poster art. The design seeks to extend the public space of the street outside, paying homage to the poster’s natural habitat, the city.
• Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center + Early Childhood Initiatives Center, a new model school for 240 students in Bentonville, AR. The architecture seeks to blend outdoor and indoor spaces in order to nurture an appreciation for both design and nature early in life.

TEN Arquitectos

Founded by Enrique Norten, TEN Arquitectos is based in Mexico City and New York. The firm works in different scales and typologies, from residential, cultural, and institutional buildings to landscape design and urban planning, always guided by the belief that architects have a responsibility to enhance the communities they work in. It identifies three lines of investigation for the impact of each project: architecture as public space, as infrastructure, and as territory/landscape.

Recent projects include:

• New York Public Library 53rd Street, whose design used ample daylight and natural materials to transform a dark subterranean space at the base of a new Manhattan hotel into an inviting public amenity.
• BAM South, a mixed-use tower and public plaza that uses landscaped terraces to connect cultural and retail spaces with the city beyond.
• Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico, a renovation project that expanded and modernized the museum’s complex of colonial buildings, transforming the connection with its surroundings.

Projects in development include:

• Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center, whose metal and glass panels evoke the industrial character of existing buildings on its research campus.
• Train stations for Tren Interurbano Mexico–Toluca, the first electrical transportation system of its kind in Latin America. TEN’s kit-of-parts station designs aimed to optimize construction and maintenance while respecting each site’s unique conditions.