Firm Description
We create architecture that shapes the public realm; this has been central to our practice since 1963. Our 180-person firm, based in New York City, works primarily with educational, cultural and scientific clients, including some of the most venerable institutions in North America: from Stanford to Yale Universities, from the American Museum of Natural History to the Clinton Presidential Library, from Carnegie Hall to the Standard Hotel on the High Line. Our diverse portfolio—including new construction, renovation and expansion, historic preservation, interior design and master planning—ranges from museums and performing arts centers to complex laboratory, research and teaching facilities for higher education to a wastewater treatment plant. Through form, light and materiality, Ennead creates expressive architecture that embodies each client’s mission and engages the user while shaping our place and time.Our approach to design is rooted in program and context, resulting in powerful formmaking. This process is supported by our unique team structure: a design partner and a management partner collaborate on every project to ensure that our design-driven process is supported by advanced technical skills and superior project management. Our projects are therefore singular solutions to specific design problems, and consistently delivered on time and on budget. In close collaboration with clients, our project teams undertake a rigorous analysis of the history, context and program of each project, which is executed with meticulous attention to the details of the building as well as the public spaces around them. This approach optimizes our broad-based experience while allowing new and elegant design solutions to emerge. We believe the power of this process unleashes the potential of architecture to advance the human condition, inspire innovation, catalyze neighborhoods and enrich our experiences.
Having evolved from Polshek Partnership, Ennead Architects was launched in June 2010, culminating a transition in organizational structure and design leadership begun more than thirty years before. The new name recognizes the collaborative and innovative culture of our studio, fueled by the intelligence, energy, resourcefulness and creativity of our 180-person staff. Eleven partners share responsibility for the vision and operation of the studio: Timothy Hartung, Duncan Hazard, Guy Maxwell, Kevin McClurkan, Molly McGowan, Richard Olcott, Susan Rodriguez, Tomas Rossant, Todd Schliemann, Don Weinreich and Thomas Wong.
We make buildings whose designs authentically express the progressive missions of their cultural, educational, scientific and governmental institutions and are responsive to their specific environmental conditions. They demonstrate technical and artistic excellence and significantly contribute both to the cultural life of their communities and to the enhancement of their precincts. Our collaborative process is rooted in extensive research involving the analysis of context, program, public image, emerging technologies and a commitment to sustainable solutions.
