A fresh start at the 2016 “Tabula Rasa” Beaux Arts Ball

More than 1,200 architects, designers, and friends got to wind down and refresh at The Architectural League's 2016 Beaux Arts Ball, which took place at the new nARCHITECTS-designed A/D/O space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn last Friday. Co-chaired by architects Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown, this year's “Tabula Rasa” theme was all about celebrating creativity in progress, the act of fresh-thinking, and New York's ceaseless reinvention.

Keep scrolling to see a photo recap of the event.

Taking place at a different venue within NYC's five boroughs every year, the Ball hosts site-specific installations, performances, and other special engagements for partygoers. In tandem with the Tabula Rasa theme, guests got a good look inside the 23,000 square-foot still-in-progress A/D/O industrial space and were surrounded by natural stone slabs from ABC Worldwide Stone, a reputable provider to the design community.

Guests mingled underneath a “floating tabula rasa” called “Table's Clear”, a site-specific installation designed by Ultramoderne. “The lightweight fabric hangs in a subtle catenary shape, creating new spaces and environments without the construction of a single wall,” Ultramoderne describes.

“Monumental voids cut into the fabric lightly define rooms within the larger space, while a careful choreography allows the textile to animate between states twice during the night: from a low-lying plane that clears the space to floating overhead canopy — and back again,” Ultramoderne said.

Multi-disciplinary collective Wild Dogs International added digital splashes of color throughout the space with the projection-mapped architectural abstractions that they developed.

Guests chilled out to tunes by DJay Jung, and they enjoyed a menu of light fare curated by Chef Fredrik Berselius of the acclaimed Nordic-inspired restaurant Aska. Although there are only a few months left in 2016, the Architectural League kicked off a new cultural year on a high note at another successful Beaux Arts Ball.

All photos courtesy of The Architectural League of New York.