Fred A. Bernstein


Fred Bernstein has degrees in architecture (from Princeton University) and law (from NYU) and writes about both subjects. He lives in New York City and has two sons.

Articles


Article Categories


Publications

Architecture Reporting

Diller Scofidio + Renfro's feature-filled Zaryadye Park opens in Moscow

Architecturally ambitous, it's also a model of international cooperation

Published in Architectural Record, September 12, 2017

An Arch Installation in Miami's Design District

For Daniel Toole, a major commission while still in architecture school

Published in Architectural Digest, January 8, 2018

Frank Gehry Turns a Former Bank Building Into a Home for the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles

The project marks the nonagenarian architect's latest pro bono gig 

Published in Architectural Digest, August 11, 2021

The Side of North Korea That Isn't Making Headlines

A country of candy-colored architecture. Who knew? (Oliver Wainwright did.)

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), July 28, 2018

The Innovative Brooklyn Architects Paving the Way for a New Generation

Fourteen years after founding their experimental practice, the architects of SO–IL hit their stride

Published in Architectural Digest, February 14, 2022

How Diller Scofidio + Renfro Have Reshaped Manhattan's Contemporary Cultural Landscape

And What's Next for These Hometown Heroes?

Published in Architectural Digest, December 10, 2019

MASS Design Group's Lynching Memorial Is Powerful and Tragic

The saddest of American crimes evokes the best in American architetcture

Published in Architectural Digest, April 22, 2018

A Planned Expansion of the New Museum

OMA's design seems to hit all its marks

Published in Architectural Digest, June 27, 2019

Concrete Makes a Comeback

Following the lead of Tadao Ando, architects raise pouring concrete to an art form

Published in Interior Design, November 7, 2014

Apple versus Bloomberg

Only one of them can be "the greenest office building in the world"

Published in Architectural Digest, November 27, 2017

In Zurich, a Building That Dances

Architect Manuel Herz taps into a long history of kinetic architecture

Published in T Magazine (The New York Times), August 14, 2018

Letting the High Line Be the High Line

The gentle architecture of Phase Three

Published in Architectural Record, September 10, 2014

Architecture Firm Succession Plans

Can Frank Gehry's firm outlive its founder? Norman Foster's? Zaha Hadid's?

Published in Architectural Record, December 28, 2014

The Disruptors

Technologies that are changing how architects practice

Published in Architectural Record, May 31, 2018

How Giant Architecture Firms Encourage Design Excellence

Internal competition is one of several successul methods

Published in Interior Design, January 29, 2014

Saving L.A.'s Modernist Houses, One by One

This one's a gallery; that one's a publicly accessible private home

Published in Interior Design, May 1, 2014

The End of Sixties Architecture

Some buildings just couldn't be saved

Published in The New York Times, October 31, 2004

If I can make it there . . .

The importance of New York to architects' careers

Published in Interior Design, October 5, 2016

Building on Sacred Ground

Toshiko Mori's architectural dialogues with the masters

Published in The New York Times, May 8, 2005

Pecha Kucha

Around the world in 20 slides

Published in Culture + Travel, September 5, 2008

How Green Is My Renovation?

A roundtable of experts on making existing houses greener

Published in Metropolitan Home, April 7, 2008

Are McMansions (Finally) Going Out of Style?

There's evidence that the size of new homes in America has peaked

Published in The New York Times, October 1, 2005

Legacies Passed from Father to Son

Gustavo Bonevardi in the West Village

Published in The New York Times, December 3, 2006

A Loft in Boston's Chinatown

Sam Davol, the cellist for the Magnetic Fields, and his wife, Leslie, move north

Published in The New York Times, November 22, 2007

Shining Moment

A Paul Rudolph apartment, untouched for nearly 40 years

Published in The New York Times, October 10, 2007

In Costa Rica, Built for Books and Breezes

A son designs a Costa Rica retreat for a literary dad

Published in The New York Times, October 4, 2007

A Firehouse Becomes a Home for Art and Music

Living with century-old bricks and massive wooden trusses 

Published in The New York Times, September 9, 2007

From Modest to Modernist

Jennifer Luce's triumph in La Jolla

Published in The New York Times, August 23, 2007

An Airy Retreat from a Jam-Packed Store

At home with the Ricky of Ricky's

Published in The New York Times, October 18, 2007

Betting the Ranch in South Florida

Syd Kitson's big deal

Published in The New York Times, July 29, 2006

A Road Trip Back to the Future

Visiting Paul Rudolph's Buildings in New England

Published in The New York Times, March 25, 2007

Up in the Attic, Millennium Style

Gorgeous interiors, up (under) the roof

Published in The New York Times, March 29, 2007

Not in My Front Yard

Controversy on West 15th Street

Published in The New York Times, June 22, 2007

Will the U.S. Be at the Shanghai Fair?

Published in Architectural Record, December 5, 2006

Art Above and Below, With Life in the Middle

At home with Ann Brashares and Jacob Collins

Published in The New York Times, January 4, 2007

Letting the Architecture Speak for Itself

Tom Killian and Francoise Bollack keep their interventions subtle

Published in The New York Times, April 24, 2007

In Michigan, A Green Museum

Kulapat Yantrasast's Grand Rapids Art Museum has a light footprint

Published in The New York Times, March 29, 2007

Good Things in Small Packages

West Village resident Marianne Cusato designs Katrina Cottages

Published in The New York Times, November 5, 2006

With a Diocese as a Developer, Emotions Run High in Santa Fe

Especially if the church has already borrowed against the planned buildings

Published in The New York Times, October 29, 2006

In Marfa, a New Interior With an Old Soul

Why Barbara Hill is one of my favorite designers, ever

Published in The New York Times, October 12, 2006

Modernism Comes to Frump's Island

A new house breaks with tradition

Published in The New York Times, July 9, 2006

A Paparazzi-Proof Condo

The apartment every celebrity needs

Published in The New York Times, January 23, 2007

Getting the Glass House Ready for Its Close-Up

Marty Skrelunas polishes Philip Johnson's masterpiece

Published in The New York Times, August 13, 2006

A Battle Over Modernism Goes Casa a Casa in Santa Fe

Modernism arouses ire in the city's historic district

Published in The New York Times, July 13, 2006

For an Artist, a Glass Box by Mies

And it's in Newark!

Published in The New York Times, June 16, 2006

Sprawl Outruns Arizona's Biosphere

Designed for isolation, it's now surrounded

Published in The New York Times, May 28, 2006

A studio that refuses to think small

Extraordinary ingenuity makes a tiny apartment seem spacious 

Published in The New York Times, March 30, 2006

In Princeton, Architects Get Lucky

Ron Witte and Sarah Whiting live in a modest, modernist masterpiece.

Published in The New York Times, February 26, 2006

Tall Order

Nationally, ceiling heights rise

Published in The New York Times, January 22, 2006

That Tear-Down Could Become a Haul-Away

Saving modernist houses

Published in The New York Times, January 5, 2006

A Poor County, Rich in Modern Architecture

Visting the Rural Studio's buildings in Alabama is one of the world's great architecture pilgrimages

Published in The New York Times, December 25, 2005

Frank Lloyd Wright on Staten Island

The Cretellas renovate

Published in The New York Times, December 18, 2005

Private Lives

The difficulties of saving New Canaan's modernist architecture

Published in Metropolis, August 6, 2005

Sleek in the Heart of Texas

Small houses buck the McMansion trend

Published in The New York Times, May 22, 2005

Take That, Grandpa!

Smashing Mies

Published in The New York Times, April 3, 2005

Washington's forgotten river

Reviving the shores of the Anacostia

Published in The New York Times, March 27, 2005

What next, the Grill Room?

The state of Philip Johnson's buildings

Published in The New York Times, March 27, 2005

In My Backyard, Please!

Infrastrucutre gets a new look

Published in The New York Times, February 27, 2005

Granny Flats for Cool Grannies

In Santa Cruz, accessory dwelling units are encouraged

Published in The New York Times, February 8, 2005

Get Ready for the High Line

How Robert Hammond and Joshua David Saved the Elevated Railway

Published in Surface, December 25, 2004

Danger Signs

Vornado's billboard boondoggle at 34th and 7th

Published in Metropolis, December 24, 2004

Noguchi's Unknown Home

An apartment the world deserves to see

Published in Interior Design, December 1, 2004

Restoring Louis Kahn's "Undergraduate Project" at Yale

The Yale University Art Gallery gets an extensive, but faithful, renovation

Published in The New York Times, November 7, 2004

Design Diplomacy: U.S. Rejoins World's Fairs

With a little help from its sponsors . . .

Published in The New York Times, November 5, 2004

Frank Lloyd Wright Stays Busy in Buffalo

45 years after his death, three buildings by Wright are in the works

Published in The New York Times, September 6, 2004

The Death of Nest

A quirky magazine's farewell

Published in The New York Times, August 17, 2004

Will the U.S. Be at the Fair?

A world's fair pavilion costs less than an Apache helicopter -- and Shanghai 2010 is approaching

Published in Architecture, August 6, 2004

Whither the Tent of Tomorrow?

Finally, someone's paying attention the New York State Pavilion at the 1964-65 World's Fair

Published in The New York Times, July 17, 2004

Who Should Pay for Presidential Posterity?

Endowments for the presidential libraries are coming up short

Published in The New York Times, June 10, 2004

Clinton's Legacy: Just a Little Library from Little Rock

The Clinton library rises on the Arkansas River

Published in The New York Times, June 10, 2004

eBay and Taliesin

The fight for photos of a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece

Published in The New York Times, February 14, 2004

Greece's Colossal New Guilt Trip

Bernard Tschumi's New Acropolis Museum was designed to settle a score

Published in The New York Times, January 18, 2004

Not Your Daddy's SOM

Roger Duffy remakes the mega-firm

Published in Metropolis, December 24, 2003

Architecture's Quiet Soul

A profile of artist and memorial designer MAYA LIN

Published in Blueprint, November 4, 2003

Santiago Calatrava, from the Canary Islands to Manhattan Island

Santiago Calatrava's opera house at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands is dominated by a winglike canopy nearly 200 feet tall.

Published in The New York Times, October 26, 2003

An Elite Contest for a Growing U.N.

Pritzker Prize-winners compete.

Published in The New York Times, August 5, 2003

Post Prada, A Design Star Slims Down

Rem Koolhaas's relationship with New York is on the rocks

Published in The New York Times, April 24, 2003

Washington Irving Didn't Sleep Here

A developer recreates Sunnyside (or tries to)

Published in The New York Times, March 16, 2003

The Man With the List at Architecture's Party

Profile of Reed Kroloff, an advisor to architecture competitions.

Published in The New York Times, January 11, 2003

White on White

Big Architecture in a Small Town

Published in Metropolitan Home, April 1, 2002

Prada Placement

A Review of Rem Koolhaas' new store in SoHo

Published in World Architecture, March 15, 2002

Architect Returns To a County He Helped Define

Edwad Larrabee Barnes Visits Westchester

Published in The New York Times, May 20, 2001

Architects' View: Nice Furniture, Not-So-Nice Buildings

Ikea's plans for Westchester draw ire

Published in The New York Times, January 21, 2001

Mission 66

An endangered species at the National Parks: modernist architecture

Published in Architecture, December 15, 2000

The House That Harry Potter Built

A magical new building in SoHo

Published in The Independent on Sunday (London), July 10, 2000

Maya Lin in mid-career

A portrait of the memorial designer as architect and artist

Published in The New York Times, March 1, 1999

A Facade Like No Other: Once Temporary, Now a Treasure

The badly damaged 1993 exterior of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in Lower Manhattan, by Steve Holl and Vito Acconci, will be restored

Published in The New York Times, June 19, 2008

For the New Barnes, Everything Old Is Old Again

Moving fabled galleries to a new building, while changing almost nothing

Published in The New York Times, March 14, 2012

Architect Alison Killing Uses the Latest Technology to Pinpoint Forced Labor Camps in China

The architect was awarded a Pulitzer Prize last month for her investigative work

Published in Architectural Record, June 28, 2021

Hi, Gorgeous. Haven't I Seen You Somewhere?

Published in The New York Times, August 28, 2005

Architects Get Physical At the Venice Biennale

Published in The New York Times, August 12, 2004

A Towering Landmark for Formula One Track

Published in The New York Times, November 15, 2012

Sand Box

Published in The New York Times, April 1, 2007

ART/ARCHITECTURE; The Conceptual Prep School: Library as Light Show

Published in The New York Times, July 13, 2003

Audition for Architects: Please, No Red Brick

Published in The New York Times, May 4, 2003

Transparency Is Only the Beginning

Published in The New York Times, July 28, 2010

Sisters Acts

Published in T Magazine (The New York Times), September 13, 2010

A Rare John Marsh Davis House in California

The Oklahoma-born architect built some of the great California houses of the 20th Century

Published in The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2023

An Insider's Look at Stanford White's Houses

His descendant, architect Samuel White, leads the tour

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), October 1, 2021

Kulapat Yantrasast isn't opposed to ornament -- as long as it's someone else's

Not every gallery he designs is a plain white box

Published in Artforum, July 2014

An Austin Architect Turns Builder to Get a House Done

When the recession dried up a Texas couple’s credit sources, their architect realized that he had to build their modernist house himself.

Published in The New York Times, October 14, 2010

Green Houses Grow on the National Mall

Next week, 19 groups of architecture students will serve meals at houses they built in Washington, part of the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon.

Published in The New York Times, September 21, 2011

An Architect's Ingenious Sukkah

A booth for a Jewish festival

Published in The New York Times, October 4, 2001

A 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon

184 Markers for the Missing

Published in The New York Times, December 22, 2002

Getting the Amazing

A wild ride that isn't over yet

Published in The New York Times, January 6, 2000

Uninspired? A Blue-Chip Firm Looks Inward

With its new Journal, SOM critiques itself

Published in The New York Times, September 29, 2002

Ai WeiWei Designs a House for Art Collectors

The house is part of their collection

Published in The New York Times, April 1, 2007

Rethinking the Chinese factory village

Diller Scofidio + Renfro takes a crack at elevating Chinese workers

Published in Architectural Record, January 1, 2000

An Architectural Tour of Switzerland

Zumthor, Nouvel and much more

Published in The New York Times, June 13, 2002

Modern and Sustainable, on the Mississippi

A house in Memphis cuts it carbon footprint (albeit with offsets)

Published in Dwell, October 2000

Pierre Jeanneret's Chandigarh furniture is exceedingly popuar right now. Many of the pieces are fakes.

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), October 6, 2021

Litchfield Looks Back at Its Past, And Its Architecture of the Future

Article on In Our Own Time: Modern Architecture in Litchfield, 1949-1970, show at Litchfield History Museum in Connecticut featuring more than dozen early modernist houses designed by Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, Edward Durrell Stone and others

Published in The New York Times, June 29, 2003

Developers’ Effort to Warm a Lobby Leaves Some Cold

The developers of a condo in Chelsea designed by Jean Nouvel are altering the building’s lobby after real estate agents attributed slow sales to the lobby’s design

Published in The New York Times, October 26, 2010

New Gehry Tower Prepares for Renters

Undulating walls of stainless steel will ensure that few units at 8 Spruce Street, designed by Frank Gehry, will be identical

Published in The New York Times, October 5, 2010

Trump’s Adventures in the Land of Golf

Donald Trump’s project for a golf resort on the northeast coast of Scotland, near Aberdeen, hangs in the balance as environmentalists say the rugged coastline should be left undisturbed

Published in The New York Times, July 6, 2008

Global Summit

An East-West collaboration upstate from Manhattan sheds light on a houseful of Chinese art

Published in T Magazine (The New York Times), November 7, 2008

Paul Rudolph’s Legacy Lives on Through His Outstanding Buildings

The famed architect, who would have turned 100 this year, designed intricate brutalist structures that were all about performance

Published in Galerie Magazine , October 15, 2018

Inside Tadao Ando’s Latest Art Space in Chicago

Wrightwood 659’s ambitious program includes a reinstallation of the U.S. exhibition at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

Published in Galerie Magazine , December 21, 2018

Double Time

The last time Blake Trabulsi and Allison Orr had a party at their house in Austin, Texas, it lasted until 5 a.m. Observes Trabulsi: “People are so comfortable here, they never want to leave.”

Published in Dwell, January 15, 2009

Light Box

For Tad Beck, making a home out of a stolid, windowless warehouse meant opening it up from the inside out

Published in Dwell, January 15, 2009

Universal Appeal

When David Carmel decided to propose to Kirsten Axelsen, he was at home in Manhattan and she was in Ethiopia, working to eliminate trachoma (the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness). No problem: David flew 7,000 miles to pop the question at a restaurant in Addis Ababa. A year and a trip to the altar later, the Carmels now live in a Chelsea apartment that’s designed in part to make it easy for David to get around in a wheelchair; a diving accident eight years ago left him paralyzed from the waist down

Published in Dwell, January 16, 2009

Stripped Ease

All of the money Barbara Hill poured into remodeling her 1960s condo in Houston was spent taking things out—and she couldn’t be happier
 

 

Published in Dwell, January 17, 2009

The Hill Bathroom

When designer Barbara Hill decided to renovate her 1960s condo in Houston, Texas, she stripped the bathroom down to its bare bones and saw beauty in the blemishes

Published in Dwell, October 10, 2009

Color 101: Hueless

Most modernists find color as attractive as traditional Tudors. Fred Bernstein, a resolute lover of neutrals, attempts to expand his horizon of hues

Published in Dwell, February 2, 2009

How Patrik Schumacher Will Keep Zaha Hadid’s Name On Top

The right hand of the late starchitect, who has an iconoclastic streak all his own, now faces the daunting task of leading the firm she built

 
Published in W Magazine, November 3, 2016

Anda Andrei, Ian Schrager’s Design Guru, Is Making Her Own Mark

Anda Andrei has a slew of new hotel projects–and a chic New York City apartment. Take a tour here

 
Published in W Magazine, July 8, 2016

Design Doyenne

At 27, she commissioned the Seagram Building. Now, a half-century later, Phyllis Lambert deconstructs its legacy in a new book

 
Published in W Magazine, May 1, 2013

Bates Masi + Architects and David Kleinberg Design Associates Create a Contemporary East Hampton Estate

Bates Masi + Architects and David Kleinberg Design Associates create a contemporary family estate to be passed down to future generations

Published in Interior Design, May 12, 2022

SelgasCano Pair Preservation With Innovation for Their Weekend Home in Spain

For their weekend home in Spain’s western countryside, the founders of SelgasCano pair preservation with innovation

Published in Interior Design, November 4, 2021

Parrish Art Museum Explores Architecture’s Relationship With Photography

Garry Winogrand, the renowned photographer of American life, once observed: “Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.”

Published in Interior Design, April 26, 2018

Lessons from the Playa

Burning Man is many things -- including a model of smart city planning.

 

Published Architect, January 17, 2009

The Ongoing Battle to Preserve Midcentury Modernism

Published ARCHDAILY, December 22, 2013

A First Glimpse of Frank Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial

It took a lot of years to get it built. But Gehry stayed the course, compromised when necessary, and rose above his critics

 

Published Architect, August 20, 2020

Shanghai Surprise

Hundreds of thousands of daily visitors, about 200 buildings, $4.2 billion spent: Shanghai’s lavish world expo, which opened on May 1 and runs through the end of October, is a chance for China’s largest city to announce itself as a cultural and economic powerhouse. It’s also a stage where the nations of the world can show off—to visitors and each other—through architecture. Fred A. Bernstein tours the Expo, surveys its architectural hits and misses, and even gets inside the much-maligned U.S. pavilion

Published Architect, July 8, 2010

Playing to Win

Architect Bernard Tschumi shares his strategies for success in the world of competitions

Published Architect, October 4, 2007

How Green Is My Office?

Saving the environment begins at work

Published Architect, October 20, 2008

Doing It All (And Raking It In)

Architect Jonathan Segal prospers by serving as his own client, general contractor, and property manager

Published Architect, September 4, 2007

City on the Strip

The new Las Vegas CityCenter was designed by a Rat pack of star architects. Can their high-modern megaproject move sin city’s design standards beyond the ersatz?

Published Architect, March 12, 2010

Sandy Hook Memorial Opens Ten Years After Shooting

The memorial design by landscape architects Dan Affleck and Ben Waldo offers a contemplative space in nature

Published in Architectural Record, November 17, 2022

Oslo’s New Central Library, Opened During the Pandemic, Does a Subtle Dance with Snøhetta’s Opera House

In a post-occupancy visit, Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem’s public library, which stayed open during Covid, is clearly a popular amenity

Published in Architectural Record, October 21, 2022

Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center by nARCHITECTS

A new beachside building on Long Island embraces environmental stewardship

Published in Architectural Record, March 1, 2022

How the Translucent Stone Façade Was Created on the Perelman Performing Arts Center

Architect Joshua Ramus discusses the recently-completed exterior of the theater in Lower Manhattan that opens in 2023

Published in Architectural Record, January 20, 2022

Taipei Music Center by Reiser+Umemoto

Reiser+Umemoto's Taipei Music Center is a brawny complex of cubic and crystalline forms

Published in Architectural Record, January 4, 2022

Mingei International Museum, by LUCE et Studio

In redesigning San Diego’s Mingei Museum, LUCE et Studio engages artists to further the institution’s mission

Published in Architectural Record, December 1, 2021

Babyn Yar Synagogue by Manuel Herz Architects

A wood temple on a sacred site opens and closes like a book

Published in Architectural Record, November 9, 2021

Exclusive Interview with Billionaire Charlie Munger on Controversial UCSB Dorm

The man behind the mega-dorm at the University of California, Santa Barbara, responds to criticism that it will create an unhealthy environment for students in rooms without windows

Published in Architectural Record, November 1, 2021

Santa Maria Goretti Church by Mario Cucinella Architects

Baroque influences shape this sinuous contemporary church in Southern Italy by Mario Cucinella Architects

Published in Architectural Record, October 7, 2021

Dubai’s World Expo, Lavish but Late

Still labeled Dubai 2020, the World Expo will open on October 1, complete with a centerpiece dome by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill

Published in Architectural Record, September 24, 2011

Innovative Housing Portfolio

Projects from around the country reflect an array of inventive affordable approaches

Published in Architectural Record, September 1, 2021

Commentary: No Man Is an Island

What if New York City treated Barry Diller's $120 million fantasy park as an experiment, but not a monument?

Published in Architectural Record, May 28, 2021

TWA Hotel at JFK Gives New Life to Saarinen’s Flight Center

Completed in 1962 and abandoned in 2001, Eero Saarinen’s bird-like building at JFK Airport in New York now serves as a spectacular lobby for the new hotel

Published in Architectural Record, May 15, 2019

Phoenix Central Library Receives AIA’s 25-Year Award

Since it opened in 1995, Bruder has been able to bring the building into the 21st century without compromising his architectural vision, of which flexibility was a key part

Published in Architectural Record, May 31, 2021

Controversial Design Unveiled for a New Supertall by SOM in New York

The 1,653-foot-high building will be part of a new Manhattan skyline that not everyone is happy about

Published in Architectural Record, February 8, 2021

Charles Renfro Discusses DS+R’s New Live/Work Campus in China

The architect talks to Record about the firm’s first, and biggest project, still incomplete, for Dissona

Published in Architectural Record, July 27, 2021

Renovated Industrial Building Gets New Life as Brant Foundation Art Study Center

Richard Gluckman reimagines a Con Edison substation for Peter M. Brant’s latest art venue in New York

Published in Architectural Record, March 28, 2019

Technologically Savvy Firms Expand the Definition of Practice

To lead the profession, firms must nimbly respond to and embrace technological changes

Published in Architectural Record, June 1, 2018

Bio Bio Regional Theater by Smiljan Radic

Smiljan Radic's beacon-like regional theater in Chile is a concrete structure wrapped as lightly as a tent

Published in Architectural Record, April 5, 2018

Columbia University’s Arts and Science Centers by Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Two buildings open on a new campus in upper Manhattan, with a promise to enhance the community

Published in Architectural Record, May 1, 2017

Treacherous Transparencies: Thoughts and Observations Triggered by a Visit to Farnsworth House

In 2014, after accepting the inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron drove from Chicago to Plano, Illinois, to visit -- and criticize -- Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House 

Published in Architectural Record, November 1, 2016

Extension of the Swiss National Museum

The longtime home of the Swiss National Museum, or Landesmuseum, in Zurich, is a stolid 19th-century pile

Published in Architectural Record, November 1, 2016

2016 Venice Architecture Biennale Dispatch: Spotlight on Africa

Three of the most eloquent voices at the Venice Architecture Biennale addressed different aspects of the same question: Can architecture improve lives in Africa? 

Published in Architectural Record, June 2, 2016

Twenty Over Eighty: Conversations on a Lifetime in Architecture and Design

If you’re prominent and reach the age of 80, The New York Times may have a writer (possibly this one) prepare your obituary for later use

Published in Architectural Record, June 1, 2016

Experimental Children’s Architectural Studio in Moscow

Two teachers have been bringing out the inner architects in Moscow children since the Soviet era

Published in Architectural Record, May 1, 2016

Spring Street Salt Shed by Dattner Architects and WXY

In Manhattan, a sleek rectilinear garage and sculptural salt shed brighten the city

Published in Architectural Record, March 1, 2016

Exhibition Review: New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America

Thierry Jeannot's Green Transmutation Chandelier (2010) made from reclaimed materials, green dye, aluminum, and light bulbs. Don’t envy Lowery Stokes Sims, the curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan, her many recent trips to Latin America. As the force behind New Territories, the museum’s survey of recent design in 14 countries (through April 6), Sims maintained a punishing schedule of studio visits; her itineraries and notes are viewable on iPads in the museum’s ingenious “Curator Lab.” Sims discovered many more worthwhile items, most of them by young designers, than the museum had room for. Her other challenge

Published in Architectural Record, December 22, 2014

Australian Pavilion

A dark and mysterious pavilion—the first new arrival in two decades—shakes up the Venice Biennale

Published in Architectural Record, July 16, 2015

Cooper Hewitt Goes from Dowdy to Digital

By running their fingers across new “super-high-definition smart tables," visitors make shapes that are then displayed as hats, lamps, tables, vases, chairs, or buildings

Published in Architectural Record, December 22, 2014

Expo 2015 Milan

Open since May 1, this tightly packed world's fair of architectural hits and misses runs through October 31. UK Pavilion by Tristan Simmonds in collaboration with BDP and Stage One. The first world exposition, held in London in 1851, occupied Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace. But during the last century, expos (also called world's fairs) evolved into collections of national pavilions that competed for attention with novel and grandiose building designs. The Shanghai Expo in 2010 kicked off the “Asian century” with a show of architectural pyrotechnics that reportedly attracted 73 million visitors

Published in Architectural Record, June 16, 2015

Prada Foundation by OMA

At an old distillery complex, Rem Koolhaas's Prada Foundation mixes one part creative preservation with one part bold new architecture

Published in Architectural Record, July 16, 2015

First Look: Rick Joy's Princeton Train Station

Joy's 1,000-square-foot station is part of the redevelopment of the southwest corner of the Princeton University campus

Published in Architectural Record, February 11, 2015

Newsmaker: Barry Diller

The billionaire chats with RECORD about his Thomas Heatherwick-designed island, disagreeing with Frank Gehry, and why he hates Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue

Published in Architectural Record, May 26, 2015

Making it work

Joshua Prince-Ramus discusses the challenges and opportunities of working abroad

 

Published in Architectural Record, November 15, 2010

National Center for the Performing Arts

Paul Andreu's mammoth 'Egg' shelters three theaters under one domed roof

 

Published in Architectural Record, July 19, 2008

Museum of Arts and Design (Jerome and Simona Chazen Building) by Allied Works

Allied Works's Brad Cloepfil bravely tackles the redo for New York City's Museum of Arts and Design

Published in Architectural Record, February 1, 2009

First Look: Moshe Safdie's Crystal Bridges Museum

Weeks before its grand opening, Safdie gives a behind-the-scenes tour of Alice Walton’s museum of American art

Published in Architectural Record, October 17, 2011

They Unpaved Paradise and Took Out a Parking Lot

In the Bronx, new parks are opening and old parks are being revitalized at a pace not seen since Robert Moses’s heyday. 

Published in Architectural Record, September 16, 2011

At New York's Museum of Modern Art, Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream proposes five solutions to the disconnect between the housing Americans need and the housing America offers

Published in Architectural Record, February 13, 2012

Old Debates for a New Era at Postmodernism Conference

An aesthetic that mined the past gets a historical consideration of its own at a New York City symposium

Published in Architectural Record, November 14, 2011

Ever the Visionary, Lebbeus Woods Gets Real

A pavilion designed by Woods with Christoph A. Kumpusch is under construction in Chengdu, China. “I was never in love with drawing,” Woods says “I drew because I wanted to express ideas.”

Published in Architectural Record, March 26, 2012

Sink or Swim

Funding shortfalls could hinder ambitious waterfront schemes planned for several U.S. cities

Published in Architectural Record, May 25, 2012

Straying from Convention

Despite declining attendance and revenue, many cities are expanding convention centers or building new ones

Published in Architectural Record, May 2, 2012

Architecture Firm Websites: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Websites are a vital marketing tool. Unless you’re a superstar design firm, steer clear of archi-speak and tricky graphics. Users want a site that is clean and simple.

Published in Architectural Record, June 25, 2012

Rogers and Marvel Hitting Their Stride

The New York architects recently won the bid to design a condo-hotel building on the Brooklyn waterfront. Image courtesy Rogers Marvel Rogers Marvel has designed a 550,000-square-foot building that steps back from the Michael Van Valkenburgh-designed Brooklyn Bridge Park. Twenty years ago, when Jonathan Marvel and Rob Rogers founded Rogers Marvel Architects, they decided to forego the route taken by many young Manhattan firms—designing residential and commercial interiors—preferring, Marvel says, “to cut our teeth on New York City’s’ bricks and mortar.” 

Published in Architectural Record, July 10, 2012

First Look: Herzog & de Meuron's Parrish Art Museum

Early this afternoon, during a preview of his firm’s new building for the Perez Art Museum Miami, Jacques Herzog sat in a window seat in a second floor gallery and discussed what the building lacked. “It doesn’t really have a form,” he said, looking out at Biscayne Bay past rows of thin concrete columns supporting a trellis overhead. “It’s more about its permeability. There is so much form in Miami. We wanted to do something that shows the potential in this city to let in sun and vegetation.”

Published in Architectural Record, December 3, 2013

Corruption Inquiries Curb Miami Projects

Two architecturally ambitious developments have stalled following accusations of municipal malfeasance. Photo via Wikipedia Following a corruption investigation, bidding has stalled on a $1-billion project to redevelop the Miami Beach Convention Center site. Architects, no matter how successful, are dependent on clients; even the indomitable Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas can see their best efforts dashed when clients get in trouble. That’s the situation in Florida, where the two starchitects were in the running to design a billion-dollar development on the site of the Miami Beach Convention Center

Published in Architectural Record, September 27, 2012

A Tale of Two Stations

Why is a Washington, D.C., rail revamp moving forward while another in New York can’t seem to pull away from the platform? Image courtesy Amtrak A rendering for an improved West End Concourse extending from New York's Penn Station under the Farley Post Office. Riding Amtrak from Washington’s Union Station to New York’s Penn Station is a trip, architecturally speaking, from heaven to hell. So it came as a surprise this summer when Amtrak announced plans to transform one of those stations into “a world class transportation hub,” at an estimated cost of nearly $7 billion

Published in Architectural Record, September 12, 2012

Universidade Agostinho Neto

Under African Skies: The first phase of an ambitious national university creates a community of buildings and outdoor spaces adapted to a hot, dry climate

 

Published in Architectural Record, August 16, 2012

Newsmaker: Santiago Calatrava

The renowned Spanish engineer and designer is the subject of an exhibition opening today at Russia's Hermitage Museum—the institution's first retrospective devoted to a contemporary architect. Calatrava speaks candidly with Architectural Record about the show, his work, and the criticism he often faces

Published in Architectural Record, June 27, 2012

First Look: SANAA's Louvre Lens

The new branch of the Louvre couldn't be more different from the museum's iconic Paris home

Published in Architectural Record, November 28, 2012

New York Public Library Unveils Foster + Partners' Renovation Designs

A new circulating library will be housed within the New York Public Library's main building on 42nd Street in Manhattan

Published in Architectural Record, December 19, 2012

Exhibition Review: 110 Years of Mexican Architecture

It’s hard to imagine a country with more varied architecture than Mexico, and a show at the Palacio de Iturbide is devoted to the last century of that diversity. Mario Pani and Luis Ramos Cunningham. Nonoalco Tlatelolco Housing Complex, 1964. Mexico City. One of the challenges facing the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), as it gathers material for its planned 2015 show of Latin American architecture from 1954 to 1980, is that Mexico alone warrants as much space as MoMA is likely to allot to the entire region

Published in Architectural Record, January 29, 2014

MoMA Defends Decision to Raze Folk Art Museum Building at Public Forum

Eight hundred people turned out for what was, in effect, a town hall meeting on the demolition of the Tod Williams Billie Tsien building

Published in Architectural Record, January 29, 2014

Parking and Recreation

A competition challenged four architecture firms to come up with new ideas for Long Island downtowns. Utile, Inc.'s scheme for Rockville Centre, where a train station on columns already exists, would add monumental arcades to shelter a garage during the week and a pedestrian plaza on weekends. Proponents of smart growth, which generally involves reliance on mass transit, should find a lot to admire on Long Island, where the nation’s largest commuter railroad carries upwards of 300,000 passengers a day. The trouble is that many of those commuters arrive at local train stations by car

Published in Architectural Record, January 29, 2014

Farnsworth House Could Soon Get a Lift

Plans to protect Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House by placing it on a hydraulic lift to be deployed in case of flooding are proceeding at a rate that has surprised even the plans’ supporters

Published in Architectural Record, May 16, 2014

Le Corbusier and New York City: A Love-Hate Relationship

The relationship between Le Corbusier and New York City involved love and hatred, passion and resentment, and ultimately a quest by the architect for “revenge, recognition, and money, money, money,” according to Jean-Louis Cohen

Published in Architectural Record, June 12, 2013

Lessons from Modernism: Environmental Design Strategies in Architecture 1925-1970

When Less is More Earth-friendly

Published in Architectural Record, May 16, 2014

A Masterpiece, With Flaws

When Frank Lloyd Wright’s SC Johnson Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin, opens for tours for the first time in 60 years, visitors will see firsthand its functional shortcomings along with its spectacular innovations. 

Published in Architectural Record, April 21, 2014

Brooklyn's Architectural Moment

Modular housing has already obscured most of the east facade of Barclays Center, long before the building has reached its full height. Until five years ago, the stretch of Flatbush Avenue between the Manhattan Bridge and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn was an architectural wasteland. The strip started coming to life with a small project (WXY’s skillful security booths for the MetroTech center), then with a very big one—the Toren, an SOM-designed condo tower with an unusual, dimpled-metal façade

Published in Architectural Record, June 20, 2014

Goodbye, Prentice

It's still early in 2014, but already several important modernist buildings have fallen​​, inclduing Bertrand Goldberg's cloverleaf-shaped Prentice Women's Hospital

Published in Architectural Record, April 24, 2014

Modernism's Jewish Connection

The role of Jews in creating and popularizing post-war modernism is the subject of a new exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco. Think Eichler, Levitt, Guggenheim, and Fallingwater.

Published in Architectural Record, July 2, 2014

First Look: Governors Island

The Rotterdam-based firm West 8 has transformed 30 acres on Governors Island into parkland. Buildings have been leveled and parking spaces have been eliminated on the 172-acre island, leaving plenty of open space. When superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc around New York Harbor, Governors Island was largely spared, in large part because construction of a new park had involved both adding elevation and installing proper drainage. “I’m glad my landscape architect is Dutch,” says Leslie Koch, president of the Trust for Governors Island, referring to Adriaan Geuze, the principal of Rotterdam-based West 8

Published in Architectural Record, May 22, 2014

Exhibition Review: Toward an Architectural Archive at Japan's National Archives of Modern Architecture

The exhibition materials are displayed in a series of curved vitrines that form a circle within the main room of the Archives building. Japan is one of the many countries—both Eastern and Western—that hasn’t been sufficiently respectful of its modernist architectural heritage. Still, preservationists in most countries would envy Japan its National Archives of Modern Architecture, conceived by the late architectural historian Hiroyuki Suzuki and created by the government in 2012. The Archives benefits from public funding, its own building (within the Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Garden in Tokyo’s Yushima neighborhood), and, if that weren’t enough, Tadao Ando as its honorary director

Published in Architectural Record, August 18, 2014

Newsmaker: Scott Rothkopf

Museum curators tend to stay behind the scenes, especially when high-profile artists are involved. But the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Jeff Koons: A Retrospective, which runs through October 19, has been so lavishly praised that its curator, Scott Rothkopf, couldn’t stay out of the spotlight if he tried

Published in Architectural Record, July 18, 2014

Lawsuit Suggests New Liability for Architects

Architects have something new to worry about

Published in Architectural Record, August 20, 2014

Taliesin Troubles

The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture can be as unconventional as its founder

Published in Architectural Record, August 21, 2014

The Van Alen's New Look

David van der Leer, the institute’s new director, arranged to swap its longtime quarters on the sixth floor of a Flatiron district building for a storefront space in the same building

Published in Architectural Record, December 22, 2014

Letter from London: Peter Wynne Rees's Skyscraper Legacy

When Peter Wynne Rees became the chief planner of the City of London in 1985, the famous “square mile” had only one hotel. Now two of the City’s most important Edwardian buildings are becoming luxury hotels.

Published in Architectural Record, June 22, 2013

Horace Gifford's Modernist Legacy

The great Fire Island architect gets the recognition he deserves

Published in Wallpaper*, July 2013

The Legacy of Mayor Mike

After 12 years of astonishing change in New York, Bloomberg earns mixed marks

Published in Architectural Record, October 16, 2013

Moving Madison Square Garden

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, H3 Hardy Collaboration, SHoP Architects, and SOM present plans to relocate the arena so Penn Station can be rebuilt. 

 

Published in Architectural Record, May 29, 2013

I. M. Pei's Protégé Perry Chin Makes His Own Mark on the National Gallery's East Building

A confidant of I. M. Pei, Perry Chin was asked to consult on plans to give Pei’s East Building of the National Gallery in Washington new heating, cooling, security, and fire safety systems

Published in Architectural Record, May 22, 2013

Campbell Sports Center

Game Changer: Columbia University's quirky but tough field house bridges the divide between its gritty surroundings and the athletic playing fields beyond

Published in Architectural Record, May 16, 2013

Claire T. Carney Library Renovation and Addition

Renewing an important campus by Paul Rudolph poses dangers and the chance to keep his work alive

Published in Architectural Record, February 15, 2013

Will Hudson Yards Be a Neighborhood?

A conversation with Bill Pedersen, whose firm Kohn Pedersen Fox is responsible for the development's master plan. 

Published in Architectural Record, May 3, 2013

Johannesburg Exhibition Takes on the Challenges of Informal Settlements

The exhibition "Informal Studio: Marlboro South" at Johannesburg's Goethe-Institut explores the need for legal housing for armies of squatters

Published in Architectural Record, March 21, 2013

History for Sale

What happens to architecturally important private homes when families who have protected them—sometimes for four decades or more—decide to sell

Published in Architectural Record, April 30, 2013

Palm Springs Art Museum Expands

Marmol Radziner has restored and adapted E. Stewart Williams' 1961 Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan building for use by the museum.

Published in Architectural Record, November 18, 2014

Film Review: La Sapienza

“La Sapienza" is a rarity: a fictional film about real architecture

Published in Architectural Record, March 13, 2015

Radical Houses

A new book looks at more than 50 recently completed, architecturally ambitious Japanese houses, offering a profound counterpoint to the comparatively safe — in several senses of the word — 21st-century residential design frequently found in the West

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), August 2015

Sean Leffers Has Won Fans with Houses He’s Designed for His Own Young Family

The California-based interiors wunderkind creates smart, soulful homes that feel like extensions of their occupants

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), January 10, 2021

At the Somerset House, a Former Menswear Designer Offers Vintage Furniture with Wit and Edge

Alan Eckstein, cofounder of the label Timo Weiland, turns his gaze from fashionable clothing to timeless objects

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), April 22, 2022

Haute Humble

Decades into a renowned career, the Seattle architect Tom Kundig continues using humble materials to create pared-down forms that exist in harmony with their often-spectacular settings

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), March 30, 2015

Dylan Farrell Crafts Bold, Dynamic Spaces in Australia and Beyond

The American designer has built his reputation on helping clients express their personalities through their homes

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), April 3, 2022

Meet a Modernist Architect Who Really Understands What His Clients Want

Working from his studios in Chicago and New York City, Dirk Denison designs residences that are uniquely tailored to the individuals who call them home

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), October 2018

Aidlin Darling Designs for the Senses

As much sculptors of space and curators of experience as they are architects, the partners of San Francisco's Aidlin Darling Design create emotionally evocative residences that appeal to more than just the eye

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), November 30, 2015

Diane Keaton Pinned Thousands of Images to Create Her Dream Home

The Academy Award–winning actress and design maven tells us how she turned to the image-collecting site for inspiration in planning her new house

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), October 29, 2017

Appreciating Zaha Hadid

The late starchitect had a penchant — and a gift — for designing instantly iconic objects, from cars to sofas to bracelets

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), May 16, 2016

Barbara Bestor Designs Houses That Hover

The California architect has found herself in high demand, thanks to her floating foundations and walls that open to the world

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), January 1, 2000

Isay Weinfeld Is the Opposite of a Starchitect

Brazil’s leading design talent executes Bauhaus minimalism with near-magical moments of drama in a string of understated hotels and homes

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), April 25, 2016

Brooklyn Revivalist

Equal parts preservationist and renovationist, California-born Brooklyn-based architect Elizabeth Roberts has cultivated a collection of discriminating clients who come to her for sensitive and smart redesigns of historic residences in her home borough

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), August 10, 2015

‘Marfa Modern’ Looks at Minimalist Living in an Art World Mecca

If everything is bigger in Texas, Marfa is the exception. A new book examines the homes in this art-focused desert city, where less is best

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), November 21, 2016

Madeline Stuart’s Homes Have a ‘Heartbeat’

The Southern California interior designer has won the trust of her high-flying clients — Hollywood movers and shakers among them — by creating soulful spaces whose mix of materials, styles, eras and furnishings gives homes meaning and make them feel lively

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), June 26, 2017

Wood Has Become a Bold 21st-Century Material

Architects and designers are using humble timber to create awe-inspiring structures and interiors around the globe

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), May 15, 2017

Relationship Builders

Fresh off a series of successes (including the new Philadelphia home of the Barnes Foundation) and one preservationist brouhaha (the imminent destruction of their beloved 2001 American Folk Art Museum), the husband-and-wife architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien are looking to the future, with projects from Mexico City to Mumbai

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), May 28, 2014

Inside a Brooklyn Home and Shop Where Mid-Century Magic Reigns

MDFG cofounders Jeffrey Graetsch and Ashley Booth Klein, who also happen to be a married couple, have filled their apartment and their gallery with works by mid-century design icons

Published in Introspective (1stdibs), October 7, 2018

Joseph Giovannini's Deconstructivist Apartments

In several apartments in Los Angeles, the architecture critic has created murals that fool the eye into connecting distinct surfaces

Published in The New York Times, January 12, 2011

ART/ARCHITECTURE: This Old Museum

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., will open an $8-million building that artists can saw through, drill through, and generally mangle, just as they did at the museum's original home

Published in The New York Times, June 4, 2004

A Redesign Brings a Congregation Closer Together

Philip Johnson's synagogue in Port Chester, New York, is now as practical as it is beautiful

Published in The New York Times, February 18, 2007

Students See a Creek and Imagine a Bridge for VW

A group of Auburn University students are designing a bridge for Volkswagen’s planned factory in Tennessee

Published in The New York Times, January 26, 2010

Shining Moment

Paul Rudolph designed this glamorous apartment nearly four decades ago. It still dazzles today

Published in T Magazine (The New York Times), October 7, 2007

The Yale University Art Gallery gets another life

The three-year, $44 million restoration is a hit

 

Published in The New York Times, December 10, 2006

A Spare Stage for the Spectacle of Life

Carlos Brillembourg, an architect, and Karin Waisman, an artist, built a modern house in the Hamptons that is spacious, spare and stylish

Published in The New York Times, July 24, 2008
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