December 6th
7pm
TenBerke publishes Transform with Monacelli, an argument for the regenerative reuse of old buildings.
"A manifesto and survey of contemporary practice by one of the leading offices in this domain." – Aspire Design + Home
"A new tome that outlines the New York studio's extensive experience and sustainable approach around adaptive reuse." – Wallpaper
Adaptive Reuse is how architecture helps us grow into a changing world. It combines the best of old and new—through renovation, restoration, regeneration, reimagination, and repair. A practice of sensitive stewardship and creative conservation, it is what turns the obsolete into the germane. With TenBerke’s most recent publication with Monacelli, Transform: Promising Places, Second Chances, and the Architecture of Transformational Change, the studio shows that creatively and visibly repurposed places are also where people feel especially empowered to make new beginnings in their own lives.
Transform illustrates how TenBerke, in all its transformative designs, reveals the signs and signatures of adaptation, composes a continuity in which the after doesn’t erase the before, and designs places where people are able to leave new traces—and make their mark. The adaptive reuse in Transform goes beyond the usual before and after of renovation and conversion, into the long and lively places of buildings, which are always being remade by the people who use them.
Transform includes Against Historic Preservation, an argument for the creative reuse of old buildings by Deborah Berke, founder of TenBerke and dean of the Yale School of Architecture; along with Promise, a critical narrative essay by award-winning design writer Thomas de Monchaux. It also includes The Environmental Case for Adapting Buildings at Scale, a report by urban scientist Karen C. Seto who looks to building reuse as a means to manage the untenable rate of urbanization of our natural environments. Transform includes, in the words of artist Titus Kaphar, “Time Is That Collaborator. . .” a conversation between himself and Berke inspired by TenBerke’s design for NXTHVN, a community arts center that he founded in New Haven Connecticut, bringing former industrial buildings to new life. With editorial and creative direction from TenBerke Senior Principal Arthi Krishnamoorthy, Transform presents accessible and actionable case studies of adaptive reuse projects, revealing the thinking that guides each one: from NXTHVN, where an arts incubator and community center was born out of disused factories; to the Yale School of Art, where an old swimming pool became a gallery and classroom; to the pioneering 122 Community Arts Center in downtown Manhattan, where an old public school became a new performance space and civic crossroads, to the 21c hotel in Oklahoma City, where one of the Ford Motor Company’s first assembly plants became a hotel and event space, catalyzing the revitalization of a new livable neighborhood.
In Transform, we see that the architecture of adaptation offers a new approach to old places that is at once sensitive and bold, at once conscious of histories and legacies, yet optimistically forward-looking to new possibilities. This is the architecture of second chances, of promising places, and of transformational change.
"Beautifully presented and accompanied by abundant photographs and plan diagrams, the entry masterfully explores Berke’s modernist inclinations, her minimalist style, and her firm’s savvy handling of spaces and materials. Architectural students and practitioners will find much to appreciate." – Publishers Weekly
Thomas de Monchaux is an author, designer, and adjunct assistant professor of architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He contributed to LOT-EK: OBJECTS + OPERATIONS, a recent monograph on the work of LOT-EK, with whom he is a longtime collaborator and contributor, and is the author of the forthcoming book Slow House: Fixtures, Features, Neighbors, Masters, and a Year in Pursuit of a Better American Home. His writing about design has appeared in the New York Times and the New Yorker, as well as in such journals as Log and n+1, where he is an architecture critic. Thomas has been a guest editor of the SOM Journal, a recipient of Graham Foundation and other awards, a past Bellazoug Memorial lecturer at Yale, and was the inaugural recipient of the Winterhouse Award for Design Writing and Criticism.
Arthi Krishnamoorthy is a Principal at TenBerke. Her work is often mission-driven, using design to advance the objectives of institutions in ways that reflect their core values and amplify their impact. She works with colleges and universities, cultural organizations, businesses, and non-profits who are looking to grow, expand their reach, and engage with their community in new ways. Arthi has led all the firm’s work for foundations, including for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, The Women’s Building, and the Wallace Foundation. Arthi has also led the design and construction of two residential colleges at Princeton University, designed to house 1000 students and seeding a rich and varied communal college experience. Arthi serves on the board of the Queens Museum, an institution dedicated to presenting the highest quality visual arts and educational programming for people in the New York metropolitan area, and particularly for the residents of Queens, a uniquely diverse, ethnic, cultural, and international community. Arthi received her B.S. in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.
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