Three Finalists Announced for Van Alen Institute's Ground/Work Competition

Finalists have been announced today for Ground/Work: A Design Competition for Van Alen Institute’s New Street-Level Space. The challenge invited emerging designers, up to ten years out of school, to design Van Alen’s new street-level work space and public venue at 30 West 22nd Street in Manhattan. Three finalist teams were selected from a pool of over 120 teams answering the recent Call for Portfolios.

Submissions were evaluated by a jury composed of Stephen Cassell (Architecture Research Office, and Board of Trustees, Van Alen Institute), Winka Dubbeldam (Archi-tectonics, and University of Pennsylvania), Mark Gardner (Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects), Mark Robbins (International Center of Photography, and Board of Trustees, Van Alen Institute), Ada Tolla (LOT-EK), Marc Tsurumaki (LTL Architects), and David van der Leer (Van Alen Institute).

Finalists will present their proposals to the jury in September 2013, and following the jury's final selection, the winning team will have four months to complete design work and develop construction documents. Construction is expected to begin in winter 2013.

The selected finalists are:

• Collective-LOK (Jon Lott, William O’Brien Jr., and Michael Kubo);
• EFGH (Hayley Eber, Frank Gesualdi, Spencer Lapp, Pat Ruggiero, and Ani Ivanova);
• Of Possible Architectures (Vincent Appel, Ethan Lay-Sleeper, Jaime Magaliff, Paul Miller, Heather Murtagh, Franklin Romero Jr., and Emily Ruopp, in collaboration with Jay Atherton)

Collective-LOK

"Collective–LOK is a team formed by Jon Lott (PARA-Project), William O'Brien Jr. (WOJR), and Michael Kubo (over,under). Our approach is shaped by an architectural mindset, but draws on a broad range of interests — historical, conceptual, curatorial, and cross-disciplinary — in order to shape discourse on design in the public realm." – read more

EFGH

"EFGH is a New York-based architectural design practice founded in 2007 by principals Hayley Eber and Frank Gesualdi. The studio actively engages projects across scales: from the projective design of large urban sites to innovation at the scale of custom furniture, and everything in between. We explore design as an extensive network of interrelated and often competing issues, interrogating them along the way." – read more

Of Possible Architectures

"Of Possible Architectures (OPA) is a creative practice working across spheres of architecture, social sculpture, large scale public art, and urbanism. OPA is committed to architecture as an act of cultural production and focuses on radically innovative, often self-initiated, cultural projects. What we do is based on optimistic speculations for how people and the built environment affect one another." – read more

“We are thrilled by the jury’s selections, and look forward to the finalists’ imaginative visions for Van Alen as a center for innovative projects and public programs,” said David van der Leer, Executive Director of Van Alen Institute. “Ground/Work is an opportunity to recognize emerging talents in architecture while bringing fresh creativity to the Institute during an exciting period of change.”

Stephen Cassell, Chair of Van Alen Institute’s Board of Trustees, said, “We are all pleased to see the enthusiasm that this competition has garnered from a community of young architects who are passionate about the role of architecture and design in civic life. I congratulate the finalists on their exceptional work and expect to see inspiring proposals from the teams in the fall.”