Merger: Bricks + Mortar + PixelsArchitecture should always be thoughtful and risk-taking. New York has been at the forefront of making policy in the realm of public-private partnerships, which makes different kinds of public spaces possible and gives them a creative edge. -Charles Renfro

Justin Davidson, is the author of Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York, which paints a portrait of the city through its architecture, history, literature, art, music, and urbanism. He began his journalism career there working for the Associated Press. He has been the architecture and classical music critic at New York magazine since 2007, writing about a broad range of urban, civic, and design issues. He has also written for The New Yorker, W, Travel &amp; Leisure, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, and Salon. Before that, he spent twelve years as classical music critic at Newsday, where he also wrote about architecture and other cultural issues, ranging from gun ownership to television. He won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2002. He also won an American Society of Newspaper Editors Criticism Award.&nbsp; A native of Rome, Davidson graduated from Harvard and later earned a doctoral degree in music composition at Columbia. His TED Talk has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. He has appeared frequently on WNYC and NPR and written for many publications, including The New Yorker, Smithsonian, New York Times Book Review, Slate, Los Angeles Times, Departures, Condé Nast Traveler, W, Pursuits, and Travel and Leisure. Davidson has taught at Columbia University, the School of Visual Arts, and the Goldring Arts Journalism Program of Syracuse University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Justin Davidson

Charles Renfro is a Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He received the Texas Medal of the Arts Award (2015). He was named a National Academy Academician (2014). He was honored as a Rice University Distinguished Alumnus (2012). He is President of the Board at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York.He joined Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in 1997 and became a partner in 2004. He has led the design for a number of projects including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and Zaryadye Park, a 35-acre park adjacent to the Kremlin in Moscow. He has also led a number of academic projects at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and Brown University, and is currently designing new facilities for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Toronto. He is also currently leading the renovation of Dallas's Kalita Humphreys Theater - Frank Lloyd Wright's only built free-standing theater. Abroad, Charles is leading the design of the Museum of Image and Sound in Rio de Janeiro, and the Tianjin Juilliard School in China. He is a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts.

Charles Renfro

AIA New York | Center for Architecture

Cocktails & Conversations: Charles Renfro and Justin Davidson

Charles Renfro, partner in Diller Scofidio +Renfro, talks about Columbia's new Medical Center and the concept of a vertical campus that guided the design of the building. The architects sought to create a hub that demonstrated the variety of communication and collaboration present in today's medical eduction. "On the front side- it's all business" says Renfro,  "on the back side- it's all party". 

 Charles Renfro, partner in DS+R, talks about the design for the Brasserie restaurant in the MetLife Building, the firm's first project in NYC. 

Charles Renfro, partner in Diller Scofidio+Renfro, talks about the firm's commision to renovate one of the most important performing arts hubs in New York City. 
"It started as a street scape project" says Renfro but turned into "an expansive rethinking of the Center." The architects touched almost every part of the public space, added on to the Julliard Building,  added a new pavillion on the North Plaza and made surgical changes to the entry steps and the canopies. 

For Charles, our inaugural architect, I had to concentrate on one of Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s myriad projects. And so I chose the High Line, a turn-of the- century structure lightened and repurposed for a modern stroll. In so doing, I took a parallel approach to an old turn-of-the-century cocktail, the Vieux Carré, and reinterpreted it accordingly.&nbsp; - Toby Cecchini, November 16, 2012

Cocktails & Conversations: Charles Renfro and Justin Davidson

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