Suzanne Stephens

Suzanne Stephens, a former deputy editor of Architectural Record, has been a writer, editor, and critic in the field of architecture for several decades. She has a Ph.D. in architectural history from Cornell University, and teaches a seminar in the history of architectural criticism in the architecture program of Barnard and Columbia colleges.

Meinel Optical Sciences Expansion

Rich'rd and Bauer designs an outstanding laboratory space for the Meinel optical sciences expansion at the University of Arizona in Tucson

Suzanne Stephens

May 19, 2007

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Richärd + Bauer, a young Phoenix-based firm, has demonstrated numerous times in its 11-year history that it can still advance architectural quality in inexpensive institutional buildings.

VilLA NM

Joining rectilinear forms with a twist, UNStudio’s VilLA NM, in upstate New York, captures the landscape in gold reflections

Suzanne Stephens

April 1, 2007

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The client, a New York–based developer with a young family, had a clear goal: a weekend house “as exciting as anything by Neutra and Schindler.”

Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Rafael Viñoly burrows into the earth to create the Janelia Farm Research campus for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia

Suzanne Stephens

March 19, 2007

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The more successful buildings by Rafael Viñoly, FAIA, display distinct athletic gestures—from the smoothly arcing roof of the 1994 Lehman College Physical Education Facility in New York to the exuberant, glass-barrel-vaulted roof of the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

Miyake Madison

Gordon Kipping delivers a powerful optical punch to Miyake Madison on New York’s Upper East Side

Suzanne Stephens

March 19, 2007

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The downtown boutique aesthetic that emerged in New York City’s SoHo loft district in the late 1970s caught on––and stuck around––largely because it showed off arty clothes to striking effect.

Suzanne Stephens

January 16, 2007

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Credit: a sticky wicket Credits can be a source of contention, and it is more than wise to clarify them from the beginning. But even then there are problems. When Margaret Helfand, FAIA , a New York–based architect with her own office took on the role as the design architect for the Unified Science Center at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott (EYP), a Boston-based a/e firm, had already been contracted to do the programming, and because of its expertise in lab design, had embarked on some early planning for the center. The college, for which Helfand had

Suzanne Stephens

January 16, 2007

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Embedding architects Electronic mail may help in overseas working relationships, but it isn’t everything: design architects and their collaborating architects often place their respective staffs in each other’s offices during the phases of schematic design, design development, construction documentation, and construction supervision. Gruzen Samton, which associated with Bernard Tschumi, AIA (then dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning), for Columbia’s Lerner Hall [record, November 1999, page 94], sent architects to Tschumi’s office at the beginning of the schematic-design phase. “We were all looking at various alternatives, with lots of sketches,” says Samton. “Bernard had a lot

Suzanne Stephens

January 16, 2007

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Way back when Just when did this all begin to shift around? Was it when back in 1987 when Gehry, known then for his “chain-link architecture,” and David Childs, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s New York office, went after the Madison Square Garden competition? The scheme didn’t go anywhere, but the architectural community took note of the new bedfellows. Photo John Lee Pictures Fong and Chan (collaborators with Herzog & de Meuron, not shown) Photo © 2006 Todd Eberle. For the newly expanded Morgan Library and Museum, in New York City, Renzo Piano Studio was designated the design architect, and

Suzanne Stephens

January 16, 2007

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Unless you have been living in the Truk Islands, you have noticed (or even been a part of) the varied range of collaborations occurring among architectural offices in recent years. We’re not talking about collaborations between architects and landscape architects, engineers, or artists—that’s another story. Just looking at collaborations between different architectural practices reveals not only certain trends but some particular problems that warrant attention, in order to help create better relationships––and architecture. Up until 15 or so years ago, it was common for many large architectural offices to promote themselves as “full-service” firms handling all phases of the project

Suzanne Stephens

December 16, 2006

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If you go by newspapers and monthly consumer magazines, you might think there is only one female architect designing significant buildings today—Zaha Hadid. To be sure, the London-based, Iraqi-born architect deserves acclaim for her inventive assortment of zoomy structures completed in the last few years. But what about the rest? Aren’t there other talented women architects out there, who, like Hadid, run their own design practices?

REHAB, Center for Spinal Cord and Brain Injuries by Herzog & de Meuron

Basel, Switzerland

Suzanne Stephens

June 1, 2005

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Herzog & de Meuron dematerialize the wall plane and bring nature indoors to deinstitutionalize a clinic.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU; 1 IIBEC CEH

Evaluate advanced PVC solutions that improve fire resistance, support WUI compliance, and enhance resilience in residential and commercial building design.

Credits: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 ICC CEU

Upon course completion, participants will possess a deeper understanding of glass railings to help ensure that safety, aesthetic, and performance objectives are achieved.