October 7, 2016
Reflections on BKSK’s Inaugural Research Fellowship
Of several applicants, Katherine Serrano was selected to join our team and further investigate a topic of interest that was framed with two requirements; that it include environmentally responsible design at the urban scale. Included below is a portion of her submission outlining her research framework: Read More
October 6, 2016
Battery PlayScape receives AAP Honorable Mention
Designed together with Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, Battery PlayScape is an intentionally flexible framework that supports open-ended play informed by the local ecology. Learn more about this playful, innovative, and resilient project here .
Congratulations to our entire team of designers and consultants!
September 19, 2016
2 Lafayette honored for Active Design Excellence
We are excited to announce that 2 Lafayette Street was selected as one of 12 projects worldwide to receive a 2016 Excellence Award from the Center for Active Design . The awards program recognizes research and design projects that promote healthy living through physical activity, mental health, and civic engagement.
The offices at 2 Lafayette Street house the formerly remote divisions of New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and Department for the Aging (DFTA). BKSK’s design breathes fresh air into 110,000 square feet across 7 floors of the historic city-owned Court Square Building, which now features dynamic connecting stairs, commanding city views in both individual and common spaces, bold graphics that celebrate each agency’s mission, and increased thermal, visual, and ergonomic comfort. Congratulations to our team and consultants for the great work, and to all of the other award winners.
For details the Center for Active Design Excellence awards, click here .
For more information and images of 2 Lafayette, click here .
September 8, 2016
Making the Grade
Each year, ARCHITECT magazine ranks the top 50 firms in business, sustainability, and design, and this year BKSK is proud to announce that we have been ranked in the 2016 Top 50 Firms in Sustainability . This recognition exemplifies our professional commitment to design buildings that incorporate sustainable design strategies and aim to consume less energy. Congratulations to our team, and especially to the BKSK LAB for continually furthering our research and initiatives in sustainability.
Earlier this summer, BKSK was named to the Building Design + Construction Top 100 Firms , and ranked among the top firms for multi-family residential and green building design .
August 16, 2016
Olana Summerhouse…drawn out
The Follies, Function & Form: Imagining Olana’s Summer House exhibit opened this past weekend at Olana, Frederic Church’s historic home in the Hudson Valley, featuring inventive, imaginative designs by 21 invited architects and landscape architects, including a scheme by BKSK partners Joan Krevlin and Harry Kendall.
The design challenge presented was intriguing. Though there is no documentary evidence or surviving remains of Church’s fabled “Summer House,” it is clearly labeled on the 1886 “Plan of Olana.” The Olana Partnership, in collaboration with the New York chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIANY) and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-NY) asked each invited designer to conceptualize the mysterious structure in a single sheet of sketches. Left to their own imagination for the structure’s function and form, Joan and Harry worked with BKSK’s Wei Lee to create a deconstructed vision inspired both by the site’s history and its current use, manifested in an ink-and-watercolor multimedia collage. Read More
July 26, 2016
The beginning of the Ende era
BKSK is entering into a new era of interior design, through the practiced eye of recently promoted Director of Interior Design, Gerry Ende.
Gerry [gair-ee] joined the BKSK team in 2011, bringing with him nearly 20 years of experience from other top NYC design firms. His portfolio features a wide breadth of inspired design across project types, scales, and styles, including institutional, high-end residential, multi-family, corporate, retail and healthcare. Gerry is known for creating sophisticated interiors that reflect the individuality of our clients’ needs. His vision for space and ability to craft aesthetically unique environments that speak to beauty, form and function will be the guiding principles through which we approach future work. Read More
