Complementing our first selection of 20 buildings that you should know in New York, which generate the image of the city of skyscrapers due to its skyline raised in different layers, since the end of the 19th century, some of its less grandiose spaces are no less surprising than the skyscrapers but equally interesting for their ability to activate artistic, cultural and economic life.

From METALOCUS we bring a selection of 20 small New York places that are out of the mould of the commonly visited ones, with which you will be encouraged to discover the charms that the big city offers. Within this selection, we find works by.- Tresoldi Studio, Eero Saarinen, Diller Scofidio + Renfro Studio, West 8, Only If, David Chipperfield, David Adjaye, Jean Nouvel, Steven Holl, Louis Isadore Kahn, Handel Architects, Jonathan Olivares, StudioMDA, Philip Johnson, Snøhetta, Andrew Berman Architect PLLC, WeShouldDoItAll (WSDIA), OMA, and Rafael Guastavino.
Among skyscrapers, peculiar galleries, parks and monuments, New York City unleash its charm, which is why it is one of the most desired destinations for tourism, each year around 50 million national and international tourists visit the city, this data places it within the 10 most visited cities in the world

1. "Filmore" inside Cathédrale Restaurant by Tresoldi Studio


 

Located in the Moxy East Village hotel of Rockwell Group, on Calle 11 we find the restaurant Cathédrale, which has this spectacular mesh sculpture projected by Tresoldi Studio. The sculpture is inspired by Fillmore East, an iconic Lower East Side concert hall that closed in 1971 after years of being the scene of great musicians such as The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and many more.

The 6-meter-deep installation generates different visual games through the shapes and volumes generated with the wire mesh, a true visual spectacle in which Tresoldi Studio seeks to pay tribute to musical culture.

Located in the New York John F. Kennedy Airport we find the TWA Hotel projected by the architect Eero Saairen, which opened its doors in 2019. The complex has 512 rooms that will transport the client to 1960, as the interior design is inspired by the 1960s, in addition, the rooms will be designed to be "ultra-quiet".

This peculiar hotel projected by Eero Saairen will have a capacity to house 1,400 people, within its program we find an observation platform with a swimming pool located on the roof, where you can have magnificent views of the surroundings, it also has a peculiar lounge of cocktails housed inside a Lockheed Constellation aeroplane.    

Located at the intersection between 10th Avenue and 30th Street we find Spur, a new space on the renowned High Line projected by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the project consists of a series of balconies that extend from the lower part of the Coach Passage buildings to offer visitors magnificent views of the sky.

Once through the Coach Passage, visitors come to a large square that offers visitors magnificent panoramic views of 10th avenue and 30th street, a space surrounded by greenery and seating areas around the sculpture made by Simone Leigh the which refers to black beauty. The vegetation in the area has been made by the landscaper Piet Oudolf and offers us an excellent visual spectacle.

870-898 Gresham Rd, New York

Located on Governors Island, a 70,000m² island located a few meters from New York, we find these hills projected by the West 8 studio that complements the park's program, where you can also enjoy excellent panoramic views of the port of New York, the Statue of Liberty, Jersey City, Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The project made by West 8 is composed of four hills Grassy Hill, Slide Hill, Discovery Hill and Outlook Hill, their height ranges between 7 and 21 meters, the last being the highest of the 4. Each hill offers a unique show, Slide Hill has the longest slide in New York City, at Discovery Hill we can find a work by renowned artist Rachel Whiteread and Outlook Hill has a path to the Scramble.

Located at 3 Bryant Park, is this peculiar cafeteria projected by the Only If  studio for the City Of Saints Coffe chain. Inside the small premises, there are 3 differentiated spaces, the area of the bar where the coffee is made, a living room with a large armchair that surrounds the entire wall, and the toilet area.

The establishment projected by the Only If studio has the main glass door that allows you to see what happens inside the premises from the outside, a series of steps separate the entrance area from the interior in which the green colour that characterizes the brand predominates, this tonality brings freshness to space, which could be defined as a modern and quiet space.

Located on Fifth Avenue, one of the main streets in downtown Manhattan where the Takashimaya Store projected by John Burgee and Philip Johnson was located, we find the new Italian designer Valentino store projected by the architect David Chipperfield, inaugurated in 2014.

With an area of 1,400sqm on the premises, the Concept Store designed specifically for the brand by David Chipperfield is applied, however, on the ground floor, a new Accessories Concept was chosen. The exterior defines an 8-storey facade of black steel and aluminium, inspired by iconic works of the Modern Movement such as the Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe, as regards the interior, it has a monolithic Palladian staircase that connects all the floors of the store, a neutral colour palette predominates in which the colour of the brand's garments stands out.

Located at the intersection between 8th Avenue and 55th Street we find this peculiar interactive museum dedicated to espionage projected by the architect David Adjaye, inaugurated in 2018. With an area of just over 5,500sqm, the interior of Spyscape transports us to a space of mystery and intrigue.

The museum projected by David Adjaye is divided into different zones dedicated to various topics related to espionage, from surveillance operations, deception, hacking and intelligence operations, all this was possible thanks to the architect's work with hackers or directors of intelligence agencies. The museum offers the visitor a unique experience, in addition, each space of the museum exhibits relevant figures from the world of espionage such as Robert Hanson or Virginia Hall.

Located in Brooklyn Bridge Park we find Jane's carousel, built-in 1922 this attraction has spent most of its life in Ohio until it was included in the National Register of Historic Places and moved to its current home, where the studio The architect Jean Nouvel was commissioned to project a new refuge for the relic.

The pavilion projected by Jean Nouvel is located between the pier of the Brooklyn Bridge and that of the Manhattan Bridge, has dimensions of 22 x 22 square meters with a height of 8 meters and a structure of circular steel pillars, while the carousel has a diameter of just over 15 meters. The outer shell is made of acrylic panels, the North and South facades open completely to allow the public to pass through, while the East and West facades are fixed and completely transparent, thus offering splendid views of the surroundings.

Storefront for Art and Architecture is a non-profit organization created in 1982, located on a corner where the intersection between three neighbourhoods Chinatown, Little Italy and Soho takes place, this gallery is one of the most committed to the work of young artists from New York. In 1992, the architect Steven Holl in collaboration with Vito Acconci renovated the gallery.

With almost 30 meters in length, the peculiar facade of the Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery projected by Steven Holl is composed of a series of hinged panels that are arranged as if they were a puzzle, in this way the panels can be arranged towards the outside connecting the gallery interior with the street, which gives a lot of play when making the exhibitions, these pieces are made with a hybrid material that mixes concrete and recycled fibres.   

Located on Roosevelt Island formerly called Welfare Island, this park has a history behind it, because in 1960 Mayor John Lindsay had the idea of turning the island into a new residential area, however in 1973 Governor Nelson Rockefeller and John Lindsay arrived In an agreement to build a monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt on the island, the architect chosen to make the work was Louis Kahn, thus the Four Freedoms Park project was born.

However, the architect Louis Kahn passed away in 1974, and New York was nearing bankruptcy, therefore, it was not until 38 years later that the construction of the Four Freedoms Park could not begin, which was finally inaugurated in 2012. The park was It is defined as a large platform with a central corridor of trees that narrows until it reaches the river, where there are excellent views of the city.

355 West 16th St, New York

Located in the Chelsea neighbourhood, west of Manhattan, what was once the main annexe of the National Maritime Union of America today is the Dream Downtown Hotel projected by Handel Architects. In its 17000sqm, we find 12 floors in which the 316 rooms, restaurants, lounges, roof terrace, swimming pool, bar and gym that the complex offers are distributed.

The complex projected by Handel Architects is finished with stainless steel pieces on the façade that faces 17th street, in which the circular-shaped windows stand out, while on the façade that faces 16th street the finish is done in pieces made of perforated stainless steel. Both the facilities and the furniture were designed specifically for the project, in this way we seek to offer a better customer experience.

Located in the renowned Rockefeller Center shopping complex is the Camper store projected by Jonathan Olivares, the designer is inspired by the stores that surround the complex. It has mobile filing cabinets to eliminate warehouses in a nod to the work of Raymond M. Hood, who placed the first escalator in a commercial space when he designed Rockefeller Center.

It uses Indiana limestone for the design of the exhibitors and benches, inside the store is painted with aluminium paints with a palette of neutral colours that make space look submerged in the neon lights of the Camper logo.    

Located on 24 Street, next to the renowned High Line is the Lisson Gallery projected by Studio MDA and Studio Christian Wassmann, this new gallery will complete the two London headquarters and the Milan headquarters. With an area of just over 2,500sqm, most of the building with almost 1,400sqm is dedicated to the gallery, while the remaining area is divided between offices, display space and storage.

Although on the outside it seems a rather small space, the interior of the Lisson Gallery is quite spacious, large multipurpose spaces are defined in which the colour white predominates, and they are flooded by natural light that enters from the large windows located in the extremes.   
 

Located near the intersection between Third Avenue and East 52nd Street is the Guest House projected by the renowned architect Philip Johnson built between 1949 and 1950, the house was commissioned by Blanchette Ferry Hooker Rockefeller, despite being one of the Lesser known works of the architect, inside it holds many surprises.

The Guest House projected by Philip Johnson stands on a rectangular plot of approximately 8x30m, on the facade, there are two areas, in the first half a large brick wall interrupted by the access door and in the second half 3 large windows that illuminate both the floor low, like the first. Inside, its 30m deep are illuminated thanks to a central patio, which has a slab of water that can be crossed by a flagstone path.     

Located in Gowanus, in the Brooklyn district, we find the new studio of the artist José Parlá, which at the time was an old warehouse, today has become an incredible studio thanks to the Snøhetta architecture firm. The artist and the architecture studio had previously collaborated on other works such as the facade of the Far Rockaway Public Library in Queens or the mural of the James B. Hunt Jr Library at North Carolina State University.

The creation of the studio has also been the product of the collaboration between José Parlá and Snøhetta, the space is divided into two parts "the sand and the nest" in the first of them is the main work area with a space for exhibitions, While in the part of the nest space is created for the artist to disconnect from work, inside a palette of neutral colours predominates, in this way the vivid colours of the artist's works stand out more.

Located in Stapleton, Staten Island, the Stapleton Branch Public Library, which is one of the branches of the New York Public Library, underwent rehabilitation and expansion a couple of years ago by the study led by architect Andrew Berman, The complex was designed in 1909 by Carrere and Hastings, the initial surface of the building was about 650sqm, and it was enlarged to 1,115sqm.

One of the challenges faced by Andrew Berman was that the requirements for the expansion were that the new volume is developed on a single level and had to be attached to the previous building, as a result, the old library was restored true to its appearance, and the children's room was placed in it, while the adolescent and adult areas are located in the new volume, separated by a common room.

Located in an esplanade of the subway of the Fulton Street station, in Manhattan, is this new specialized cafeteria projected by the Only If studio, through the materials and the neutral colour palette, the studio seeks to create a similarity to the homonymous spaceship Inside the Voyager Espresso, the walls are finished with OSB fibre panels, while the work area is defined by a black marble countertop with a texture similar to that of the wall finish.

Inside, space projected by Only If is organized in two areas, on the one hand, we have the space for the service, and on the other the space for the seat. From the outside, the large windows of the premises allow the visualization of everything that happens inside. Upon entering, the large circular marble countertop allows workers a panoramic view of the establishment. 

In 2017 the renowned brand Nike opened its new offices in New York City, the project was made by the WeShouldDoItAll studio, in its 13,935sqm of surface, the complex has an indoor basketball court, work areas, a food truck, training areas and a garden.

WeShouldDoItAll seeks for the project to express the union between the brand and New York City, which is why Nike's creative director, Michael Spoljaric also collaborated with the studio, all the typography of the signage has been made specifically for the project, inside of the complex we can find different unique decoration elements that refer to the roots of the brand.  

Located at the intersection between York Avenue and East 72nd Street is Sotheby's, one of the best-known commercial art spaces in the world, in 2019 the architecture firm OMA made an expansion of the galleries, so currently the complex has 40 galleries of 20 different types distributed in the 4 heights of the building.

The architecture studio OMA seeks that the project has a rapprochement with the public, therefore all the activities and programs dedicated to the public are located at the lowest levels. Instead of creating adaptable multipurpose spaces, OMA projects spaces that are multipurpose through diversity, in this way spaces are not created that ultimately do not adapt to any program. The interior is dominated by a neutral colour palette such as white, the large columns on the ground floor stand out, creating a sensation of being embedded in the ceiling.    

Rafael Guastavino was a Spanish architect and builder, who developed much of his work in the United States, with an architecture in which vaults and tiles of various shapes and colours predominated. Guastavino built several works in New York that today are considered true gems of architecture.

Within Guastavino's work in New York, we can highlight the City Hall(1) subway station, the renowned Oyster Bar and the vaulted gallery of Queensboro. The first one is defined as a set of glazed vaults with tiles in greenish tones, the complex transports the visitor to another dimension as if it were a station in some magical Harry Potter universe.

The Oyster Bar is part of the Grand Central Station project and was built to highlight the high economic level of the station, for its part, the market under the Queensboro(2) Bridge was originally conceived as an open space to the However, due to various problems, steel enclosures had to be added to the complex, something that disrupted its image, finally the complex fell into disuse and closed its doors in 1930.

1. New York, NY 10013, USA.
2. 409 E 59th St, New York, NY 10022, USA.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro Studio. Founded in 1981, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) is a design studio whose practice spans the fields of architecture, urban design, installation art, multi-media performance, digital media, and print. With a focus on cultural and civic projects, DS+R’s work addresses the changing role of institutions and the future of cities. The studio is based in New York and is comprised of over 100 architects, designers, artists and researchers, led by four partners--Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro and Benjamin Gilmartin.

DS+R completed two of the largest architecture and planning initiatives in New York City’s recent history: the adaptive reuse of an obsolete, industrial rail infrastructure into the High Line, a 1.5 mile-long public park, and the transformation of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ half-century-old campus. The studio is currently engaged in two more projects significant to New York, scheduled to open in 2019: The Shed, the first multi-arts center designed to commission, produce, and present all types of performing arts, visual arts, and popular culture, and the renovation and expansion of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Most recently, the studio was also selected to design: Adelaide Contemporary, a new gallery and public sculpture park in South Australia; the Centre for Music, which will be a permanent home for the London Symphony Orchestra; and a new collection and research centre for the V&A in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Recent projects include the 35-acre Zaryadye Park adjacent to the Kremlin in Moscow; the Museum of Image & Sound on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro; The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles; the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley; the Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center at Columbia University in New York; and The Juilliard School in Tianjin, China.

DS+R’s independent work includes the Blur Building, a pavilion made of fog on Lake Neuchâtel for the Swiss Expo; Exit, an immersive data-driven installation about human migration at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; Charles James: Beyond Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Arbores Laetae, an animated micro-park for the Liverpool Biennial; Musings on a Glass Box at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris; and Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design at the Jewish Museum in New York. A major retrospective of DS+R’s work was mounted at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Most recently, the studio designed two site-specific installations at the 2018 Venice Biennale and the Costume Institute’s Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. DS+R also directed and produced The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock, a free, choral performance featuring 1,000 singers atop the High Line, co-created with David Lang.

DS+R has authored several books: The High Line (Phaidon Press, 2015), Lincoln Center Inside Out: An Architectural Account (Damiani, 2013), Flesh: Architectural Probes (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), Blur: The Making of Nothing (Harry N. Abrams, 2002), and Back to the Front: Tourisms of War (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996).

DS+R has been distinguished with the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture, Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential" list, the Smithsonian Institution's 2005 National Design Award, the Medal of Honor and the President's Award from AIA New York, and Wall Street Journal Magazine's 2017 Architecture Innovator of the Year Award. Ricardo Scofidio and Elizabeth Diller are fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and are International Fellows at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
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West 8 is an award-winning international office for urban design and landscape architecture founded in 1987. Over the last 31 years West 8 has established itself as a leading practice with an international team of 70 architects, urban designers, landscape architects and industrial engineers. West 8 developed projects all over the world in places such as Copenhagen, London, Moscow, New York, Madrid, Toronto and Amsterdam.

The office gained international recognition with projects such as Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam (NL), Borneo-Sporenburg in Amsterdam (NL), Jubilee Gardens in London (UK), Expo \'02 in Yverdon-les-Bains (CH) and Miami Beach SoundScape Park (US). Many of the projects are the result of groundbreaking entries in important international competitions. Recently won competitions include Toronto Waterfront in Toronto (CA), Governors Island in New York (USA) and Yongsan Park in Seoul (KR).

Amongst the numerous awards received by West 8 are the Honor Award of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Lifetime Achievement Award for Architecture 2011, Mondriaan Fund (formerly BKVB),  the International Urban Landscape Gold Award (IULA), the Prix de Rome, the Dutch Maaskant Award, the Bijhouwer Award, the Rosa Barba First European Landscape Prize, the Green Pin and the Veronica Rudge Green Prize for Urban Design.

Adriaan Geuze is one of the founders of West 8 urban design & landscape architecture b.v., a leading urban design practice in Europe. Geuze attended the Agricultural University of Wageningen where he received a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture. After winning the prestigious Prix-de-Rome award in 1990, Geuze, with his office West 8 founded in 1987, established an enormous reputation on an international level with his unique approach to planning and design of the public environment. By founding the SLA Foundation (Surrealistic Landscape Architecture) in 1992, Geuze increased public awareness of his profession.
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Only If is a New York City-based design practice for architecture and urbanism founded in 2013. The practice currently consists of 5 architects and designers engaged in a range of design work from a single-family housing prototype to larger-scale urban design, research, and speculation. Approaching any project, Only If seeks to focus on the fundamental questions and potentials. The ambition of this process is to create clarity and distill simplicity within often-complex circumstances and constraints.
 
In 2015 and 2016, Only If completed two projects in New York City: an espresso bar in the Fulton Street subway and an 18,000SF office interior and fashion showroom. These projects have been featured in Dezeen, ArchDaily, The New Yorker, Architectural Digest, FRAME, Azure, PIN-UP and the Architect’s Newspaper. Only If is currently designing two residential projects in Brooklyn set for completion in 2018 and 2019; a narrow single family house and an 84-unit affordable senior housing project.

Adam Snow Frampton is an architect and the Principal of Only If. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. He previously worked as an Associate at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and Hong Kong from 2006-2013. During almost seven years there, he was involved in over 20 projects, responsible for leading teams producing architectural and urban designs in China, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Bahrain, and India. Most significantly, he worked on OMA’s competition-winning design of the Taipei Performing Arts Center from 2008-2013 and led several phases of its design and construction. His independent research on Hong Kong urbanism has been published as the co-authored Cities Without Ground, which maps the city’s three-dimensional networks of pedestrian circulation and public space. His work has been exhibited in the 12th and 14th Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Center for Architecture, and the Van Alen Institute, New York. He holds a Masters in Architecture from Princeton University School of Architecture and a Bachelors of Environmental Design Summa cum Laude from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a registered architect in the Netherlands and the United States, and a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Karolina Czeczek is an architect who has been practicing at Only If since 2015. Karolina is also a Visiting Professor at College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) at University of Cincinnati. She previously worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and Hong Kong from 2010-2013, where she was involved in architectural and urban projects in the Netherlands, Australia, China, Morocco, and Egypt. Her independent research on Warsaw’s public pools, was selected as finalist for 2015 Praktyka scholarship program for young architects. Karolina holds two Masters degrees in architecture and urban design, from Yale University and the Cracow University of Technology. She is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of Wirt Winchester Travel Fellowship from Yale School of Architecture. Karolina is a registered architect in the Netherlands.

Past & Current Team

Ryan Peeters, Jon Siani, Joseph Kennedy, Aurelia Adams, Matthew Davis, James Schrader, Antariksh Tandon, Francesca Pagliaro, Midori Hasuike, Yue Zhang, Min Keun Park, Jedy Lau, Joey Liang, Aleeya Khan, Pierre de Brun, Kutay Biberoglu, Angelina Andriani Putri, Kig Veerasunthorn, Stephanie Hamilton, Joseph Parrella
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David Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London before working at the practices of Douglas Stephen, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster.

In 1985 he founded David Chipperfield Architects, which today has over 300 staff at its offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai.

David Chipperfield has taught and held conferences in Europe and the United States and has received honorary degrees from the universities of Kingston and Kent.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and an honorary fellow of both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). In 2009 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2010 he received a knighthood for services to architecture in the UK and Germany. In 2011 he received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture and in 2013 the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association, while in 2021 he was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in recognition of a lifetime’s work.

In 2012 he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

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David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1966. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen, and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated. He earned his BA at London South Bank University, before graduating with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art. In 1993, the same year of graduation, Adjaye won the RIBA Bronze Medal, a prize offered for RIBA Part 1 projects, normally won by students who have only completed a bachelor's degree.

Previously a unit tutor at the Architectural Association, he was also a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. After very short terms of work with the architectural studios of David Chipperfield (London) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (Porto), Adjaye established a practice with William Russell in 1994 called Adjaye & Russell, based in North London. This office was disbanded in 2000 and Adjaye established his own eponymous studio at this point.

Recent works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, and the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management completed in 2010. On April 15, 2009, he was selected in a competition to design the $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., planned to open in 2015. His design features a crown motif from Yoruba sculpture.

Alongside his international commissions, Adjayes work spans exhibitions, private homes, and artist collaborations. He built homes for the designer Alexander McQueen, artist Jake Chapman, photographer Juergen Teller, actor Ewan McGregor, and artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. For artist Chris Ofili, he designed a new studio and a beach house in Port of Spain. He worked with Ofili to create an environment for the Upper Room, which was later acquired by Tate Britain and caused a nationwide media debate. He also collaborated with artist Olafur Eliasson to create a light installation, Your black horizon, at the 2005 Venice Biennale. He has also worked on the art project Sankalpa with director Shekhar Kapur. Adjaye coauthored two seasons of BBC's Dreamspaces television series and hosts a BBC radio program. In June 2005, he presented the documentary, Building Africa: Architecture of a Continent. In 2008, he participated in Manifesta 7.

In February 2009, the cancellation or postponement of four projects in Europe and Asia forced the firm to enter into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a deal to stave off insolvency proceedings which prevents financial collapse by rescheduling debts – estimated at about £1m – to creditors.

Adjaye currently holds a Visiting Professor post at Princeton University School of Architecture. He was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In addition, he is a RIBA Chartered Member, an AIA Honorary Fellow, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. He also serves as member of the Advisory Boards of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and the London School of Economics Cities programme.

The studio's first solo exhibition: "David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings" was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in January 2006, with Thames and Hudson publishing the catalogue of the same name. This followed their 2005 publication of Adjaye's first book entitled "David Adjaye Houses".

http://www.adjaye.com

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Jean Nouvel, (born August 12, 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (technically, the prize was awarded for the Institut du Monde Arabe which Nouvel designed), the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 2008.

Nouvel was awarded the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour, in 2008, for his work on more than 200 projects, among them, in the words of The New York Times, the "exotically louvered" Arab World Institute, the bullet-shaped and "candy-colored" Torre Agbar in Barcelona, the "muscular" Guthrie Theater with its cantilevered bridge in Minneapolis, and in Paris, the "defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric" Musée du quai Branly (2006) and the Philharmonie de Paris (a "trip into the unknown" c. 2012).

Pritzker points to several more major works: in Europe, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art (1994), the Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne (2000), the Opéra Nouvel in Lyon (1993) , Expo 2002 in Switzerland and, under construction, the Copenhagen Concert Hall and the courthouse in Nantes (2000); as well as two tall towers in planning in North America, Tour Verre in New York City and a cancelled condominium tower in Los Angeles. International cultural projects such as the Abu Dhabi Louvre, the Philharmonic Hall in Paris, the Qatar National Museum in Doha, or the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 in London.

In its citation, the jury of the Pritzker prize noted:

Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field. [...] The jury acknowledged the ‘persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation’ as qualities abundant in Nouvel’s work.

Among his principal completed projects, we find the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Cartier Foundation and the Quai Branly museum in Paris, the Culture and Congress Center KKL in Lucerne, the extension of the Queen Sofia Arts Center in Madrid, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Philharmonic of Paris…
 
Among the projects currently under studies or under construction: the “53W53, Tour de Verre” integrating the extension of the MoMA galleries in New York, the residential towers “Le Nouvel” in Kuala Lumpur, “Anderson 18” and “Ardmore” in Singapore and “Rosewood” in São Paulo, the office towers “Hekla” and “Duo” in Paris, the cultural complex “The Artists’ Garden” in Qingdao or the National Art Museum of China NAMOC in Beijing… The design of the Louvre Abu Dhabi began in 2006 with Jean Nouvel’s Partner Architect Hala Wardé.
 

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Steven Holl was born in 1947 in Bremerton, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976 he attended the Architectural Association in London and established STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS in New York City. Considered one of America's most important architects.He has realized cultural, civic, academic and residential projects both in the United States and internationally. Most recently completed are the Cité de l'Océan et du Surf in Biarritz, France (2011).

Steven Holl is a tenured Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning. He has lectured and exhibited widely and has published numerous texts.

Recently the office has won a number of international design competitions including the new design for the Contemporary Art Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, USA) and he has been recognized with architecture's most prestigious awards and prizes. Recently, he received the RIBA 2010 Jencks Award, and the first ever Arts Award of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2009). In 2006 Steven Holl received honorary degrees from Seattle University and Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest. In 2003 he was named Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Steven Holl is a member of the American National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the American Institute of Architects, the American Association of Museums, the Honorary Whitney Circle, the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the International Honorary Committee, Vilpuri Library, of the Alvar Aalto Foundation.

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Louis Isadore Kahn is born in Pernow – formerly in Russia, but now Pärnu in Estonia – on February 20, 1901 by the name of Leiser-itze Schmulowsky. In 1906, the family immigrates to Philadelphia. His father changes the family name to Kahn in 1915, when the family is awarded US citizenship. Kahn develops his artistic talents early on, and is able to draw beautifully from a young age.

In his early years, Kahn earns money playing the piano at neighbourhood theatres. He keeps this up during his university years, until he graduates in 1924 with a bronze medal for ‘superior excellence’ and starts working as an architect.

In 1928, he leaves on a trip to Europe. In the Netherlands, he learns about modern architecture, such as the functionalist design of Johannes Duiker's Sanatorium Zonnestraal in Hilversum. He also gets to see the architecture of Hendrik Berlage, Michel de Klerk and Willem Dudok.

Family life and work 1930 - 1955
Back in the US, Louis Kahn marries Esther Virginia Israeli, a research assistant in the field of neurology. Five years later, Kahn is awarded the title of architect and starts working from home on his own projects. In 1940, Esther gives birth to their first daughter, Sue Ann. In 1945, Kahn has an office with a few employees. Kahn develops a tough work ethic: he often only rests for a few hours, sometimes sleeping at the office to be able to continue working straight away.

In the office, Louis Kahn and architect Anne Tyng, who is nearly 20 years younger, become entangled in an affair. Because of his attitude towards work, Louis Kahn is often away from home, keeping the two worlds of family life and work strictly separate. In 1950, Kahn leaves on another extended trip to southern Europe and Egypt, where he draws ancient Roman and Egyptian treasures. Kahn describes the beauty of these structures in letters to Anne Tyng. In 1954, Anne Tyng gives birth to Kahn's second child: Alexandra.

International fame: 1955 - 1974
In 1958, Kahn is introduced to landscape-architect Harriet Pattison (born in 1928) at a party. A relationship develops between the architect and Pattison, resulting in the birth of Kahn's third child and only son, Nathaniel. One year later, Kahn attends the conference of a prominent group of international architects, who have come together in Otterloo, the Netherlands, under the name of Team X (Team Ten). This group includes Dutch architects Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema.

In the 1960s and 70s, Kahn finally takes his place on the international stage with designs for government buildings, museums, laboratories, libraries, private homes and religious buildings. One high point is the government building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is only completed in 1983, years after his death. In the last decade of his life, Kahn visits the Indian subcontinent no fewer than 40 times. On 17 March 1974, returning from one of these trips, Louis Kahn dies in a toilet at Penn Station in New York. For uncertain reasons, he had crossed out his name in his passport, as a result of which he can only be identified a few days later.

21st century: Kahn's legacy lives on
Years after Louis Kahn dies, his son Nathaniel sets out to investigate his father's legacy. His film ‘My Architect’ (2003) earns him an Oscar nomination.

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Handel Architects LLP is an architecture, interior design, and planning firm that began in New York City in 1994. Founded by Gary Handel, the firm has grown to include more than a hundred architects, interior designers, planners and support staff in New York City, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi. The firm has gained national and international recognition for work such as the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC, and the World Trade Center Memorial in Lower Manhattan.

Handel Architects has won numerous Design Awards and is regularly featured in architectural journals and design publications. The firm’s clients range from private developers to publicly funded organizations to institutional and not-for-profit groups.

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Jonathan Olivares was born in Boston in 1981 and graduated from the Pratt Institute. In 2006, he opened his industrial design studio in Los Angeles. His designs capture a legacy of form and technology, and ask to be used instead of observed. Among the projects recent installations include the Bruges Training Facility, for Performance Space New York (2018) and Room for a Daybed, for Kortrijk Biennale Interieur (2016); the Aluminum Bench, for Zahner (2015); the Vitra Workspace, a showroom of office furniture and learning environments, for Vitra (2015); the exhibition Source Material, curated by Jasper Morrison and Marco Velardi (2014); and Olivares Aluminum Chair, for Knoll (2012).

Olivares's work has also been published internationally, has received several awards for its design, including the Compasso d'Oro of Italy, and is part of the permanent design collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victory and Alberto Museum in England and the Vitra Design Museum.
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Markus Dochantschi was trained in Germany, where he graduated in 1995 with a Masters of Architecture from Technische Universität Darmstadt.

Before starting studioMDA, Dochantschi ran the office of Zaha Hadid Architects for seven years and was Head Project Architect on the Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center in Cinncinati. He has taught an Advanced Studio at Yale University with Zaha Hadid, Stefan Behnisch and Gerald Hines (2003), and an Advanced Studio at Columbia University’s Graduate School for Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) from 2008 until now.

Markus Dochantschi has also served as the director of the Global Cities Architecture Program (GCAP) at GSAPP. He has been a Guest Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and a guest critic at the AA London; Columbia University, NY; The Cooper Union, NY; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Princeton University, Princeton; the ETH Zurich, Switzerland; the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst Vienna, Austria.
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Philip Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam, and included among his ancestors the Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou, who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvesant. He attended the Hackley School, in Tarrytown, New York, and then studied at Harvard University as an undergraduate, where he focused on history and philosophy, particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Johnson interrupted his education with several extended trips to Europe. These trips became the pivotal moment of his education; he visited Chartres, the Parthenon, and many other ancient monuments, becoming increasingly fascinated with architecture.

In 1928 Johnson met with architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. The meeting was a revelation for Johnson and formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition.

Johnson returned from Germany as a proselytizer for the new architecture. Touring Europe more comprehensively with his friends Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Henry-Russell Hitchcock to examine firsthand recent trends in architecture, the three assembled their discoveries as the landmark show "Modern Architecure: International Exhibition" in the Heckscher Building for the Museum of Modern Art, in 1932. The show and their simultaneously published book "International Style: Modern Architecture Since 1922" was profoundly influential and is seen as the introduction of modern architecture to the American public. It celebrated such pivotal architects as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe. The exhibition was also notable for a controversy: architect Frank Lloyd Wright withdrew his entries in pique that he was not more prominently featured.

As critic Peter Blake has stated, the importance of this show in shaping American architecture in the century "cannot be overstated."[citation needed] In the book accompanying the show, coauthored with Hitchcock, Johnson argued that the new modern style maintained three formal principles: 1. an emphasis on architectural volume over mass (planes rather than solidity) 2. a rejection of symmetry and 3. rejection of applied decoration.[citation needed] The definition of the movement as a "style" with distinct formal characteristics has been seen by some critics as downplaying the social and political bent that many of the European practitioners shared.

Johnson continued to work as a proponent of modern architecture, using the Museum of Modern Art as a bully pulpit. He arranged for Le Corbusier's first visit to the United States in 1935, then worked to bring Mies and Marcel Breuer to the US as emigres.

From 1932 to 1940, Johnson openly sympathized with Fascism and Nazism. He expressed antisemitic ideas and was involved in several right-wing and fascist political movements. Hoping for a fascist candidate for President, Johnson reached out to Huey Long and Father Coughlin. Following trips to Nazi Germany where he witnessed the attack on Poland and contacts with German intelligence, the Office of Naval Intelligence marked him as suspected of being a spy but he was never charged. Regarding this period in his life, he later said, "I have no excuse (for) such unbelievable stupidity... I don't know how you expiate guilt." In 1956, Johnson attempted to do just that and donated his design for a building of worship to what is now one of the country's oldest Jewish congregations, Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel in Port Chester, New York. According to one source "all critics agree that his design of the Port Chester Synagogue can be considered as his attempt to ask for forgiveness"  for his admitted "stupidity" in being a Nazi sympathizer. The building, which stands today, is a "crisp juxtaposition of geometric forms".

During the Great Depression, Johnson resigned his post at MoMA to try his hand at journalism and agrarian populist politics. His enthusiasm centered on the critique of the liberal welfare state, whose "failure" seemed to be much in evidence during the 1930s. As a correspondent, Johnson observed the Nuremberg Rallies in Germany and covered the invasion of Poland in 1939. The invasion proved the breaking point in Johnson's interest in journalism or politics and he returned to enlist in the US Army. After a couple of self-admittedly undistinguished years in uniform, Johnson returned to the Harvard Graduate School of Design to finally pursue his ultimate career of architect.

Among his works is The Glass House, where he lived until his death, the headquarters of AT & T, the National Centre for Performing Arts of India, the Crystal Cathedral in California, the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building, the Lincoln Center in NY or Puerta de Europa towers in Madrid.
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Snøhetta is an integrated architecture, landscape, and interior design company based in Oslo, Norway, and New York City, formed in 1989 and led by principals Craig Dykers and Kjetil Thorsen. The firm, which is named after one of Norway's highest mountain peaks, has approximately 100 staff members working on projects around the world. The practice pursues a collaborative, transdisciplinary approach, with people from multiple professions working together to explore diverse perspectives on each project.

Snøhetta has completed a number of critically acclaimed cultural projects, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt; the National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Norway; and the Lillehammer Art Museum in Norway. Current projects include the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center site in New York.

In 2004 Snøhetta received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and in 2009 the firm was honored with the Mies van der Rohe Award. Snøhetta is the only company to have twice won the World Architecture Award for best cultural building, in 2002 for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and in 2008 for the National Opera and Ballet in Oslo.

Snøhetta

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Andrew Berman Architect PLLC is a New York based practice focused on the realization of unique and finely executed spaces. The work of the studio capitalizes on the qualities of place and seeks creative opportunities in the desires and programmatic requirements of the client. A consistent engagement with our clients, professional consultants, contractors, engineers and fabricators throughout design and construction is a key means for the office to generate ideas and provide works of the greatest quality and expression.

Andrew Berman Architect was founded in 1995 and has gained recognition through notable projects such as the AIA Center for Architecture, the Writing Studio, FDNY Engine Company 259 Firehouse, MoMA PS1 Entrance Building and Gallery Renovations, The National Opera Center and the SculptureCenter. Current projects include a renovation of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, a two-stage theater for the MCC Theater Company, several artists' studios, as well as residential commissions.

Andrew D. Berman received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale College and a Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture in 1988 where he was awarded the Takenaka Komuten Traveling Fellowship in Osaka, Japan. In 2010, Andrew received the Emerging Voices Award given by the Architectural League of New York, and in 2014 was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Since its founding in 1995 the practice has gained recognition through notable projects such as the Center for Architecture for the American Institute of Architects (2003), Writing Studio (2008), FDNY Engine Company 259 Firehouse (2009), MoMA PS1 Entrance Building (2011), The National Opera Center (2012), Stapleton Library (2013), and SculptureCenter (2014). In 2010, Andrew received the Emerging Voices Award given by The Architectural League of New York and in 2014 became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2016 Andrew was the recipient of the Architecture Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Jonathan Jackson graduated from Kent State University with a Bachelor of Architecture. Before founding WSDIA in 2004, he worked for architects Studio Archea in Italy, Archi-Tectonics and Lindy Roy in New York. He has served for 2 years on the AIGA / NY board of directors as a visiting critic at Columbia University GSAPP, Pratt University, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Ecole Superieure in Visual Merchandising Design in Switzerland.

Sarah Nelson Jackson graduated with a BFA from Boston University, in addition to her background in Graphic Design and Art History, she also has a strong command of the visual arts.
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Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

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Edoardo Tresoldi (Cambiago, 1987) is focused on research and creative artistic sculpture. At the age of 9 years he takes the first lessons of drawing hand of the painter Mario Straforini, after studying design and visual arts at the Art Institute of Monza in Milan.

In 2009 he moved to Rome and began working as a scene painter for several film projects. The design becomes a laboratory for analysis. Since 2013 he makes sculptures and works of metal mesh.

Edoardo Tresoldi plays with both the transparency of mesh materials, as well as industrial materials, to transcend time/space and narrate a dialogue between art and its surroundings. His art is a visual synthesis that lies upon dissolving physical limitations. His works are featured worldwide in public spaces, archaeological sites, and contemporary festivals.

In 2016, he carried out the restoration of the Basilica di Siponto, a unique convergence between contemporary art and archaeology, and was awarded the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture 2018 - Special Prize to Commission. In 2017, he was honored by Forbes as one of the 30 most influential European artists under 30. In 2018, he created “Etherea” for the Coachella Festival, one of the world’s most anticipated and important music events.
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Eero Saarinen (Rantasalmi, Finland, 1910 - Bloomfield Hills, United States of America, 1961), is an architect of Finnish origin that develops all his professional activity in the United States, country he moved to in 1923, when he was thirteen years old. He studies sculpture at the Academy of the Grand Chaumiére of Paris in 1929 and architecture at Yale University between 1930 and 1934.

In his first years of professional activity, Eero Saarinen works in the practice of his father, the also well-known architect Eliel Saarinen, of which he becomes partner in 1941 along with J. Robert Swanson. At this time he was also professor of architecture at the Cranbrook Art Academy.

After the death of his father in 1950, Saarinen opens his own practice in Birmingham (Alabama) under the name of Eero Saarinen & Associates. Some of his best known works are the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan; The Gateway Arch, in St. Louis; The TWA at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and the hockey pavilion at Yale University.

The professional career of Eero Saarinen also included his activity as furniture designer, creating well-known pieces.
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Rafael Guastavino (Valencia, Spain, 1842 – Asheville, North Carolina, USA, 1908) was a Spanish architect and builder. Based on the Catalan vault he created the Guastavino tile, a "Tile Arch System" patented in the United States in 1885 used for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar. Guastavino tile is found in some of New York's most prominent Beaux-Arts landmarks and in major buildings across the United States. It is used in a huge number of architecturally important and famous buildings with vaulted spaces. Guastavino was not the principal architect for most of the projects.

In 1881 he came to New York City from Barcelona, with his youngest son, nine-year-old Rafael III. In Spain he had been an accomplished architect trained in Barcelona and was a contemporary of Antoni Gaudi. In the March 7, 1885 article entitled The Dakota Apartment House, printed in The Real Estate Record and Builders Guide, he was listed as being the contractor in charge of "fireproof construction" of the luxury apartment building that was completed in 1884. Though not specified, the work may very well have included the groined vault entry on the south side on West 72nd Street, the north side on West 73rd Street, as well as the construction of the subterranean basement, and the 3-foot thick arched floors between the basement and attic levels. Years later he was commissioned by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White's Boston Public Library (1889), which increased his reputation with every major architect on the East Coast. His published drawings of interior decoration of the Spanish Renaissance style caught the eye of an architect, who asked him to submit a design for the planned New York Progress Club building.

After forming a partnership with William Blodgett, he eventually was offered a construction position in 1890 with George W. Vanderbilt to construct arches for the new mansion, Biltmore at Asheville, North Carolina. After working on the estate, he decided to build his own retirement home in the mountains of Black Mountain, North Carolina in a 500-acre valley. His house, Rhododendron, had a vineyard, dairy, brick kiln, and more. This property currently is owned by Christmount Assembly, the conference center for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). On the property there still are artifacts that may be visited, including the kiln and chimney, a wine cellar, beautiful old stone walls, and many smaller artifacts that have been rediscovered as modern buildings have been constructed.

He and his son developed twenty-four items that were awarded patents. Their company, Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, run by the father then by his son, was incorporated in 1889 and executed its final contract in 1962.

Akoustolith was one of several trade names used by Guastavino.

Literally hundreds of major building projects incorporate the distinctive Tile Arch System. In Chicago, the central nave vaulting of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago uses 100,000 Guastavino tiles. In Boston, Guastavino tiles are found in the Boston Public Library; in New York City, in the Grand Central Terminal, Grant's Tomb, Carnegie Hall, the American Museum of Natural History, Congregation Emanu-El of New York, and St. Bartolomew's Episcopal Church; and in Washington, D.C. in the U.S. Supreme Court building and the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Guastavino tiles form the domes of Philadelphia's St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church, and in Pittsburgh's Union Station, the vaulting of the carriage turnaround is a Guastavino tile system. In Nebraska, the tiles may be seen in the Nebraska State Capitol.

In 1900, New York architects Heins & LaFarge hired Guastavino to help construct City Hall station, the underground showpiece for the IRT, the first part of the then-new New York City Subway. The station, although elegant, was never convenient or popular, and after it closed in 1945 it became a legendary abandoned Manhattan underground relic, the secret of subway buffs and urban spelunkers. Guastavino also installed the ceiling of the south arcade of the Manhattan Municipal Building, which was constructed during 1907-1914.

Having experienced Ellis Island as an incoming immigrant, in 1917 the younger Guastavino was commissioned to rebuild the ceiling of the Ellis Island Great Hall. The Guastavinos set 28,832 tiles into a self-supporting interlocking 56-foot (17 m)-high ceiling grid so durable and strong that during the restoration project of the 1980s, as many sources repeat the story, only seventeen of those tiles needed replacing.

The largest dome created by the Guastavino Company was over the central crossing for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan: it is 100 ft (30 m) in diameter and 160 feet (49 m) high. This dome was intended to be a temporary structure, to be replaced by a high central tower. In 2009 this "temporary" fix celebrated the 100th anniversary of its construction. In large part, Guastavino received this contract due to the much lower price he could quote because his system served as its own scaffolding. This was an extreme test of his system, however. The masons had to work from above, each day adding a few rows of tiles, and standing on the previous day's work to progress. At the edges, many layers of tile were laid, and the dome thins as it rises toward the center.

As architect. Few structures designed and built by Guastavino alone have been identified. He was responsible for a series of rowhouses with unusual Moresque features on West 78th Street (121-131 known as the "red and whites"), in Manhattan's Upper West Side, which survive. One of Guastavino's structures, an event space, is located under the Midtown Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge. His son Rafael's Mediterranean villa (1912) built entirely of Guastavino tiles, still stands on Awixa Avenue, in Bay Shore, Long Island.
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