Greenwich Village, the epicentre of New York’s 1960s counterculture revolution, has been home to the Center for Architecture, a cultural institution whose mission is to promote discourse, invite exchange and engage in the dissemination of knowledge, since 2003. Principally driven by an enthusiasm for outreach education, the centre – located in a building reimagined by the architect Andrew Berman – has developed an ambitious programme that continuously explores urban and architectural conversations of the day as well as being the home to AIA New York, the oldest and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

The centre’s current exhibitions, Why Design? and Built by New York are no exception. Both promote interaction between architects and the public: the former through a display of work produced by the K-12 Education programme, a staple of the organisation’s offer; and the latter through a celebration of architectural projects and ideas with a salon presentation of works by past, current, and aspiring members of the AIA.




Entering from what might be categorised as a quintessential New York street with its cast of players, viewers are quickly welcomed by a body of text marking the transition between the city and the world of white-washed walls within. The short summary not only offers the standard overview of the centre and its exhibitions, but also offers a handy ‘glossary’ of the language required to read the presented work – important for viewers from outside the sector.

The main exhibition opens with an array of images at first difficult to discern. Arranged broadly from A to Z, the display presents a breadth of architectural outcomes – not just buildings, instead demonstrating the range of what the discipline has to offer. A photograph of the book Reglazing Modernism: Intervention Strategies For 20th-Century Icons, Architecture Research Office’s recent renewal of and landscaping around the Rothko Chapel, and the restoration of beaux arts Engine Company 23 fire station by Belmont Freeman Architects all hold central positions in the arrangement, helping to hammer home a point of diversity. This works for the general visitor as an introduction to the breadth of architectural possibility, and for an architect the display is a sweetshop-like collection of references and a starting point for ideas yet to evolve.




Architectural models are peppered across the floor, reflecting the enduring fascination they engender from architects and the public alike – also adding both interest, depth, and a third dimension to an otherwise flat wall-based display. One Vanderbilt, a 73-storey skyscraper conceived by Kohn Pederson Fox – with some internal areas designed by Gensler and Snøhetta – commands principal attention with a sizeable model that is hard to avoid. Another model, 55B Madison Avenue Garden by Snøhetta, sits a few feet away, demonstrating an architecture of a different kind, a scale perhaps more understandable to the passer by.

These are both projects that would be recognised by many non-architect visitors – the former as it towers in the city with a well-marketed public viewing gallery at its summit, and the latter as a more nuanced new publicly accessible greenspace in Midtown Manhattan – both illustrating the value in connecting the design of architecture with the finished product. But, there is also a value in the real diversity in the presented, allowing for a celebration of the wide range of work carried out by architects in New York and beyond.




The Center for Architecture is spread over three floors, descending from the ground floor via a mezzanine into a basement level which while compressed is designed by Berman so natural light cuts through, though the polish of the ground floor space dissipates with the descent. The rhythm established in the main gallery continues and as the visitor navigates the presentation, buildings flash by in their chronological order on a journey towards Z. As a curation, this can feel a little clumsy, though the work on show remains strong – continuing to rebuff the mundane and favour a language of delight, ranging from the pragmatic to spectacular.

At one end of that scale is Corona 3k Center, a daycare centre repurposed from an under-construction commercial building as part of a city-wide strategy for quick-turnaround education facilities, designed by Circular, while at the other end is Riverarch, a project proposed by Stephen Scott Baker presented as buildable proposition but coming across somewhere between post-war utopianism and a satire of neoliberal existential exuberance.




Each project is presented alongside a small amount of information: a name, year, architect and collaborators. This paucity of information, however, leads to a lust for more – at least some contextual insight to get behind the image. It seems this is a curatorial approach to retain a sense of fair-mindedness or critical distance, presenting only facts not interpretation. Throughout most of the exhibition this approach is achieved with success, however the exclusion of a few brief words feels like a miss where some project explanation would enable more meaningful understandings. For example, a photograph of Alexander Gorling Architects’ Nehemiah Spring Creek presents what appears to be a ‘typical’ American mall and a string of characteristic suburban streets, but some simple contextual information would illustrate to the viewer that they are in fact looking at the largest affordable housing development in the city with 800 homes across 4 acres.




The second exhibition, Why Design?, sits adjacent to the main offering, yet is the assured star, playfully disrupting the ripened efforts of the serious adults displaying work in Built by New York. Installed in a space to the side of the main ground floor gallery, though with a window-frontage many established artists might envy, it presents projects developed on the K-12 Programme, a curriculum that engages over 800 young people across New York City each year. The work manifests a real diversity, an imagination seemingly lost or displaced by adulthood: Treehouses seize attention with their flare, while a beam bridge assuming the form of a dragon brings joy. Colour, form, and structure are confronted and disarmed by these creations.



In contrast to the main show next door, these works are given some context via the attached labels. The pithy information adds a maturity to the whimsical forms, denoting the rationale that inspires their creation. The label explaining “Historic Architecture” is exemplar, describing how celebrating those that came before us and an evolution of the built environment over time plays a supportive role in developing a sense of place coupled with an appreciation for the current time. Similarly, the description of “Design Exploration” lauds what might be possible, moving the conversation beyond the structures built here to the ideas held within.

This commentary emphasises how the K-12 exercises encourage critical thinking, marrying together space making, functionality, and aesthetics to establish relationships that extend beyond function and form. The presentation and information offers a critical dimension to the reading of architecture seemingly missing from Built by New York, focussing as it does on contextless images and alluring representation.