Alexander Gorlin, FAIA, has wanted to be an architect since the age of seven, when he would fill the floor of his parents’ living room, in Queens, New York, with model cities—complete down to the toy cars and miniature people that populated them. Now aged 52, Gorlin notes that his career has marked a “seamless” progression in scale. As the principal of his own atelier, he designs everything from individual residences to community master plans.

In all cases, Gorlin builds three-dimensional models. They occupy bookshelves, window sills, and nearly every surface in his SoHo studio—successive iterations of buildings punctuated by King Kong and other toy figurines. “I use models almost like sculpture to explore a space,” he explains, “but at a very deep level I consider this play and a continuation of childhood activities.”