practice profile - 2013.11 - future expansion · 2013. 11. 1. · 1 future expansion architects...

F U T U R E E X P A N S I O N A R C H I T E C T S

P R A C T I C E P R O F I L E - 2 0 1 3 . 1 1 . 0 1

F U T U R E E X P A N S I O N A R C H I T E C T S 2013.11.011

Future Expansion provides design and consulting services for architectural and urban projects, including housing, public space, commercial, and master planning efforts. The office works both independently and collaboratively, with partnership in and outside of the profession, and always with the goal of broadening our project’s value and positive impact.

Founded at the beginning of 2012, Future Expansion has an enthusiastic attitude for the creation of new architectural and urban possibilities. It was established on its two partners more than fifteen years of combined experience practicing architecture in New York and their desire to generate a new body of work for, and from, a changing city. Within the first few months of independent practice the office won an open RFP from the Brooklyn Academy of Music to develop an empty lot in the BAM Cultural District with a large-scale public art installation. The project, which involved collaborations with structural consultants, a contractor, an upstate sustainable materials start-up, a Brooklyn based painter, and a team of first year architecture students from Pratt, opened in June 2012.

The office was also a finalist for adAPT NYC, an open RFP issued by HPD to develop a high quality and affordable housing model for New York’s growing population of single-person households. Future Expansion instigated and helped organize what became a collaboration between a development team made up of Hamlin Ventures and Forsyth Street Advisors, Rogers Marvel Architects, and consultants from Community Solutions, Buro Happold, and KSK Construction Group.

We think that success happens when projects are viewed as design problems first. Creativity and innovation are most powerful when many possibilities exist and few solutions are strictly determined. Complex projects require clear ideas and effective teams; our design method, and expertise, is focused on generating both.

A B O U T F E


Deirdre and Nicholas McDermott cofounded and lead Future Expansion Architects.

Deirdre received her B.Arch from the Cornell University School of Architecture and has worked in the offices of SOM, CCS and, most recently as a senior associate at Moed de Armas & Shannon. She has been the design leader and run project management on restaurants in Las Vegas, Arizona and Atlanta (with CCS Architecture) and commercial development projects in New York (with MdeAS). Among the projects she led at MdeAS are the public

space design for a series of high-profile buildings in Manhattan,

including Tower 56 (126 E 56th Street, NY), 650 Madison (650

Madison Ave, NY), and 1290 Avenue of the Americas.

Nicholas received his BA in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.Arch from the Yale University School of Architecture. He has worked for SOM in New York and San Francisco, the Yale Urban Design Workshop in New Haven, and for Rogers Marvel Architects (RMA) in New York. While at RMA he worked on key projects including buildings and landscapes for SandRidge Energy’s campus in downtown Oklahoma City and a series of successful national competitions, among them the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington DC (finalist) and a new community school for Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (first place). His design for a low-cost, sustainable, and flood resistant house in New Orleans won a national competition hosted by the Salvation Army and the USGBC in 2010.

P A R T N E R S


S E L E C T E D P R O J E C T S


T A N D E M M I C R O - U N I T S PROJECT FOR THE ADAPT NYC RFP

Future Expansion’s design for a residential building on the east side of Manhattan was a finalist for an RFP released by the mayor’s office and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). It is composed of 80 micro-unit apartments with an area of approximately 300 SF each. The design is based on the idea that shared resources represent a sustainable and efficient housing solution for small households. At Tandem, an individual micro-unit and the building’s common space together form a tenant’s habitat.

Micro-units, each with a private terrace, are paired along a wall of shared resources, adding over a foot and a half of floor width to each unit, and simplifying building construction. An extensive common space program, almost double the size found in more conventional residential buildings, is distributed throughout the building and on the roof. These shared spaces include a yoga studio and gym, a kitchen and dining room for group dinners, a double-height screening room and music spaces.

AMENITIES

LOUNGE & YOGA

DINING

LOBBY

& GYM

LIVING ROOM

UNIT STORAGE

READING

READING

READING

READING



The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) commissioned Future Expansion to build a year-long public installation on a lot adjacent to the BAM Harvey Theater in Downtown Brooklyn. Future Expansion used the opportunity to bring the client’s mission of progressive arts programming out of its

buildings and onto the street. The project engages pedestrians with a monumental structure that biodegrades over the course of the year. Built from an environmentally safe material made of agricultural waste and mycelium (mushroom fiber) the installation is in a slow but constant state of change.


T H E A C C E L E R A T E D R U I N PROJECT FOR THE BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (BAM)


W O N T O N S PROJECT FOR THE NEW MUSEUM AND THE STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE

This proposal for the New Museum and the Storefront for Art and Architecture reworks the typical New York street fair by using filtered compressor exhaust from food trucks to inflate modular shelters that replace the standard street tent with a more flexible, and fun, alternative. Depending on how

they are arranged the Wontons can be used as a bandshell, a covered market, or outdoor classroom space. At night embedded LEDs create a glow across the colorful underside of the forms.


W O N T O N S PROJECT FOR THE NEW MUSEUM AND THE STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE


P U B L I C C U L T U R E S P A C E PROJECT FOR NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

Future Expansion is working on a public project in downtown Newark that addresses the basic needs of cultural institutions (generating an audience, broadcasting a clear and relevant institutional mission) by direct engagement with the general public. Building on strategies that emerged from the

work at BAM, but adding active program elements to the mix, the concept is to create an object with inherent visual interest that can also function in a couple of simple ways and host a variety of cultural events and activities.


P U B L I C C U L T U R E S P A C E PROJECT FOR NEWARK, NEW JERSEY


F O R S Y T H O F F I C E RENOVAT ION AND EXPANSION IN MANHATTAN


N A R C I S O R O D R I G U E Z DISPLAY WALL FOR A FASHION STUDIO IN MANHATTAN


R E D H A W K BAR IN BROOKLYN, NY


R A P I D E L E C T R O T Y P E L IVE / WORK DEVELOPMENT IN C INCINNAT I , OH


E C H O B A Y ADAPT IVE REUSE AND DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL FOR NEW ROCHELLE , NY


A D A P T I V E E D G E RES IDENT IAL & OFF ICE PROJECT FOR FAR ROCKAWAY, NY

Tandem Micro-Units, 2012-2013; Client, NYC Mayors Office & Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD); Collaborators, Rogers Marvel Architects, Hamlin Ventures, Buro Happold, Forsyth Street Advisors; Renderings, RSpline, Mengyi Fan. Status: Finalist.

The Accelerated Ruin, 2012-2013; Client, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); Collaborator, Timothy Hull; Material Fabrication, Ecovative; Assembly Team, First Year Pratt B.Arch Volunteers; Final Photographs, Kevin Kunstadt; Status: Complete.

Wontons, 2013; Competition Sponsor,

Storefront for Art & Architecture; Collaborators, IAI (Peterson Rich Office, Ben Smoot), Coolhaus; Engineer, Adams Rackes; Status, Proposal.

Newark Public Culture Space, 2012-2014; Client, undisclosed. Status: Design.

Forsyth Office Expansion, 2013-2014; Client, Forsyth Street Advisors; Status: Construction.

Narciso Rodriguez Display System, 2012; Client, Narciso Rodriguez; Photographs, Kevin Kunstadt; Status: Complete.

Red Hawk, 2013-2014; Client,

Red Hawk LLC; Contractor, Jabus Building Corp. Status: Plan Approval, Construction Spring 2014.

Rapid Electrotype, 2012; Competition Sponsor, Over-the-Rhine Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation; Status: Proposal.

Echo Bay, 2013; Project for New Rochelle, NY; Status: Proposal.

City / Nature Adaptive Edge, 2013; Project for Far Rockaway, Queens; Status: Proposal.


C R E D I T S

F U T U R E E X P A N S I O N A R C H I T E C T S

P R A C T I C E P R O F I L E - 2 0 1 3 . 1 1 . 0 1

practice profile - 2013.11 - future expansion · 2013. 11. 1. · 1 future expansion architects...

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