This project for the Scenic Hudson Land Trust turns an 1860s barn into the River Center, an arts and environmental education center in a renovated historic barn. The renovation preserves its simple, elemental form and transforms the interior into a loft-like art studio with a multipurpose space for lectures and exhibitions, two classrooms, and support spaces. The barn`s existing post and beam structure is exposed alongside durable new materials like plywood wall panels, recycled fiberboard tack surfaces and large sliding room dividers. The building achieved LEED Gold certification. 

Scenic Hudson's River Center

The Flea Theater is an off-off Broadway incubator that supports emerging talent and the broader New York performing arts community. An ambitious adaptive reuse, the three-theater complex celebrates the friction between old and new. The new building intertwines three theaters &ndash; the Sam, the Pete, and the Siggy &ndash; with offices, costume shop, dressing rooms and a green room, providing infrastructure to support active performing arts throughout the building. Each theater is defined by a simple and neutral palette for scenic flexibility, and fitted with pipe grids, equipment, and lighting. The building is certified LEED Silver. Founded in 1996 by three of New York`s most acclaimed downtown theater artists&mdash;director Jim Simpson, designer Kyle Chepulis and playwright Mac Wellman&mdash;the award-winning Flea Theater was originally formed out of the purely artistic impulse to create &ldquo;a joyful hell in a small space&rdquo;. Brash, energetic and dedicated, we quickly became a downtown beacon for creative artists of every discipline, and for audiences seeking bold and inventive work.

The Flea Theater Complex

The comprehensive renovation of Tate Library at Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS) transformed the signature 1970 building into a learning commons that is a hub for the entire campus. In support of ECFS`s mission of ethical learning, academic excellence, and progressive education, the building`s new open, spacious interior provides greater access to books, information, and technology to enable multiple modes of teaching and learning. Maintaining the integrity of the original stone and concrete building, the exterior renovation includes new windows with &ldquo;bird-friendly&rdquo; glazing and a new main entrance facing the campus quadrangle.  

Tate Library

Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Tate Library

Within a landmark Cass Gilbert designed warehouse in New York City is a new home for Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), the world`s largest LGBTQ Jewish congregation and a progressive voice in Judaism. The new synagogue embodies the community`s core values through an architecture of accessibility, transparency, and warmth. The renovation created spaces for worship, community life, and social justice activism. The first floor includes a multipurpose lobby, offices, and a sanctuary defined by a ribbed concrete wall that is canted to admit daylight. 

The Cass Gilbert

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

The Gateway Building at Brooklyn Botanic Garden welcomes guests and reactivates the Flatbush Avenue entrance. An ambitious renovation to the south end of the 52-acre landscape led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates includes a series of buildings and spaces we designed. The building features a handcrafted brick fa&ccedil;ade and a distinctive zinc sculpted roof. With admissions and comfort station facilities, the building`s long parallelogram form holds the street corner alongside the McKim, Mead, and White-designed arch at the former entrance at Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard. 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Gateway Building

Kim is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia University&rsquo;s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and has also taught at the School of Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School for Design, and Barnard College (2001-2011). She has lectured widely throughout the United States and abroad. She is on the Board for AIA New York and the Center for Architecture as the Immediate Past President of AIA New York. 

This special program will have three Principals from&nbsp;Architecture Research Office share their favorite, home-crafted cocktails with Mark Lamster of the Dallas Morning News.&nbsp;

Center for Architecture

Cocktails & Conversations: Architecture Research Office and Mark Lamster

 Stephen Cassell is Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University, has twice served as the Shure Professor at the University of Virginia and as the Friedman Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and has also taught at Harvard University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Stephen is the former Chair of the Board of the Van Alen Institute. He was also a member of the New York City Green Codes Task Force and was on the Leadership Committee of the Lower Mississippi River Delta Design Initiative. 

He has served as the Eliel Saarinen Professor at the University of Michigan, the Thomas Jefferson Professor at the University of Virginia, and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University. He has also taught at Harvard University, Princeton University, Syracuse University, Parsons the New School for Design, and Washington University in St. Louis. Adam has lectured widely throughout the United States and abroad. His writing has appeared in A+U, The Architect&rsquo;s Newspaper, 306090, Dimensions, Places Journal, and elsewhere. Adam served on the board of Places Journal from 2012-2018, and he is on the University of Virginia School of Architecture Advisory Board. 

Mark Lamster is an architecture critic and academic. He serves as the architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News and has been recognized for his contributions to the field of architectural journalism. Lamster is also a lecturer and Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His work in journalism extends into the realm of biography, with his book on the late architect Philip Johnson, “The Man in the Glass House,” being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. In 2021, he was awarded the $50,000 Rabkin Prize for arts journalism, further cementing his status as a leading voice in architectural criticism. Lamster’s writing often appears in national publications, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The Architect talks about the design process.

Architect Adam Yarinsky talks about the restoration of 101 Spring Street, the nineteenth century cast-iron warehouse in which the artist Donald Judd lived and worked from 1974 until his death in 1994. The building is notable for both its elegant, extensively glazed exterior and for the significant transformations that Judd implemented to the interior. The project includes the repair and preservation of the historic exterior fabric, together with extensive life safety, fire suppression and climate control improvements to enable the building to function as a museum and offices of the Judd Foundation.

Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, explains how ARO, in partnership with Della Valle Bernheimer, designed and built an energy efficient, sustainable house for a low-income neighborhood in Syracuse, NY. 

Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, discusses ARO's ongoing renovation of the north section of Union Square. Renovations include rehabilitating a former music pavilion and adding a much needed public bathroom. 

 Barry Bergdoll, former Phillip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA talks about the issue of rising current in Palisade Bay and its impact on the architecture and the urban environment. 

 Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, discusses his firm's proposal to reshape the New York City harbor in response to global warming and rising water lines. 

Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on the US Armed Services Recruiting Station located in Times Square.

Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, discusses ARO's renovation of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Times Square.

Kim Yao

SITES

PLAYLISTS CURATED by Kim Yao