Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects
Encyclopedia
Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EE&K) is an international architecture
firm with offices in New York
, Washington DC, Los Angeles
, and Shanghai
. EE&K’s expertise spans large-scale urban development and infrastructure projects, mixed-use urban development and waterfronts, school and campus design, historic preservation and adaptive re-use.
. In the early 1960s, Ehrenkrantz developed the School Construction Systems Development (SCSD) project, an influential systems building approach for the construction of public schools which resulted in the design of dozens of schools in California.
In 1972, Ehrenkrantz established an office in New York and renamed the firm The Ehrenkrantz Group and became founding director of the Center for Architecture & Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
. In addition to developing building systems, the Ehrenkrantz Group designed housing, educational, health, laboratory and commercial buildings. The Ehrenkrantz Group’s work included master plans for New York City Technical College in Brooklyn and Stevens Institute of Technology
in Hoboken, NJ, and facilities renewal at Columbia
. From 1966 to 1968 Ezra Ehrenkrantz served on the White House Task Force on the City. In 1990, he received the President's Award of the National Institute of Building Sciences. In 1991 he won the Presidential Design Award for a Department of Veterans Affairs' hospital unit, and in 1993 he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the American Institute of Architects
' New York chapter.
In 1986, Stanton Eckstut joined the firm and the Ehrenkrantz Group became known as The Ehrenkrantz Group and Eckstut Architects. Eckstut was previously director of the Urban Design program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Together with former partner Alex Cooper
, he was responsible for the Master Plan for Battery Park City, winner of the Urban Land Institute's 2010 Heritage Award, which cited the Plan for having "facilitated the private development of 9.3 million square feet of commercial space, 7.2 million square feet of residential space, and nearly 36 acres of open space in lower Manhattan, becoming a model for successful large-scale planning efforts and marking a positive shift away from the urban renewal mindset of the time." In 1997 Denis Kuhn, a noted preservationist, became a partner in the firm, which then became Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn (EE&K) Architects. In 2010, EE&K Architects and Perkins Eastman
announced that they would merge.
In the early 1990s, the firm opened an office in Los Angeles where they took on several major projects: Patsaouras Transit Plaza, the city’s first intermodal transit station (adjacent to Union Station (Los Angeles)
, and Hollywood and Highland
, a commercial and entertainment complex. Large-scale projects followed at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach http://www.longbeach.gov/park/marine/rainbow.asp and Paseo Colorado
in Pasadena, an early example of the transformation of a traditional shopping mall into a mixed-use development. Other major retail projects include Circle Centre
in downtown Indianapolis, IA (1995), a mixed-use shopping, restaurant and entertainment complex that includes the Indianapolis Artsgarden
, a public pavilion for the arts.
The firm’s master planning and urban design work includes MetroTech Center
(1992), a 4700000 square feet (436,644.3 m²) redevelopment in downtown Brooklyn which combines a campus combining educational and corporate office buildings with MetroTech Commons, New York’s largest privately-owned public space.
EE&K’s campus buildings include the Binghamton University Appalachian Collegiate Center, a dining hall and student center for Binghampton’s Mountainview College; it won an AIA New York Design Award in 2005.
In 2005, EE&K opened an office in Shanghai when they began work on their first significant project in China: the Huishan North Bund, a mixed-use waterfront revitalization development. The firm is currently working in over a half dozen cities with primarily domestic Chinese clients.
Thirty years after authoring the original Master Plan for Battery Park City, EE&K are the design architects for the last two building sites in Battery Park City. When the two buildings, Liberty Green and Liberty Luxe, are finished in 2011, Battery Park City will officially be complete.
• Battery Park City
• Alexander Hamilton US Custom House, New York, NY
• Swarthmore College Master Plan, Trotter Hall & Kohlberg Hall, Swarthmore, PA
• Gateway Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Science City at Union Station, Kansas City, MO
• Circle Centre, Indianapolis, IN
• Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles, CA
• Paseo Colorado, Pasadena, CA
• School Without Walls, Washington, DC
• George Washington University, Foggy Bottom Campus Plan, Washington, DC
• George Mason University Southwest & North Sector Plans, Fairfax, VA
• Philadelphia Market Street East Plan, Philadelphia, PA
• Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
• Houston Intermodal Transit Center, Houston, TX
• Beekman Hill International School, PS 59, New York, NY
• Binghamton University Appalachian Collegiate Center, Binghamton, NY
• Huishan Waterfront, Shanghai, China
• Hangzhou-Mews Neighborhood, Hangzhou, China
• Central Park Boathouse, New York, NY
• Arverne-by-the-Sea, Arverne, NY
• CityCenter Master Plan, Las Vegas, NV
• Cleveland Waterfront Development Plan, Cleveland, OH
• Changshou Lu, Guangzhou, China
• Southwest Waterfront, Washington DC
• Matthew J. Bell, AIA
• Peter David Cavaluzzi, FAIA
• William C. Donohoe, APA
• James Greenberg, AIA
• Sean O’Donnell, AIA, LEED AP
• R. Douglas Smith, AIA
• Chao-Ming Wu, AIA
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
firm with offices in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Washington DC, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. EE&K’s expertise spans large-scale urban development and infrastructure projects, mixed-use urban development and waterfronts, school and campus design, historic preservation and adaptive re-use.
History
The firm was founded as Building Systems Development by Ezra Ehrenkrantz in 1959 in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. In the early 1960s, Ehrenkrantz developed the School Construction Systems Development (SCSD) project, an influential systems building approach for the construction of public schools which resulted in the design of dozens of schools in California.
In 1972, Ehrenkrantz established an office in New York and renamed the firm The Ehrenkrantz Group and became founding director of the Center for Architecture & Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology is a public research university in Newark, New Jersey. It is often also referred to as Newark College of Engineering ....
. In addition to developing building systems, the Ehrenkrantz Group designed housing, educational, health, laboratory and commercial buildings. The Ehrenkrantz Group’s work included master plans for New York City Technical College in Brooklyn and Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
in Hoboken, NJ, and facilities renewal at Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. From 1966 to 1968 Ezra Ehrenkrantz served on the White House Task Force on the City. In 1990, he received the President's Award of the National Institute of Building Sciences. In 1991 he won the Presidential Design Award for a Department of Veterans Affairs' hospital unit, and in 1993 he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
' New York chapter.
In 1986, Stanton Eckstut joined the firm and the Ehrenkrantz Group became known as The Ehrenkrantz Group and Eckstut Architects. Eckstut was previously director of the Urban Design program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Together with former partner Alex Cooper
Alex Cooper
Alexander Cooper, FAIA often credited as Alex Cooper, is an American architect and urban designer.In his piece on Cooper in The New York Times, Paul Goldberger wrote that Cooper "just might be the most influential architect in New York right now...
, he was responsible for the Master Plan for Battery Park City, winner of the Urban Land Institute's 2010 Heritage Award, which cited the Plan for having "facilitated the private development of 9.3 million square feet of commercial space, 7.2 million square feet of residential space, and nearly 36 acres of open space in lower Manhattan, becoming a model for successful large-scale planning efforts and marking a positive shift away from the urban renewal mindset of the time." In 1997 Denis Kuhn, a noted preservationist, became a partner in the firm, which then became Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn (EE&K) Architects. In 2010, EE&K Architects and Perkins Eastman
Perkins Eastman
Perkins Eastman is an international architecture, interior design, urban design, planning, landscape architecture, graphic design, and project management firm. Headquartered in New York, New York, the firm is led by founding Principals Bradford Perkins and Mary-Jean Eastman, along with the firm's...
announced that they would merge.
Significant Projects
In the late 1980s, EE&K developed the Prototype Schools Program for the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA), a standardized prototype design for primary schools consisting of five different building blocks that can be configured in various ways to respond to different contexts and site conditions. The first school constructed under the system was the 1,200-seat P.S. 7 in Queens.In the early 1990s, the firm opened an office in Los Angeles where they took on several major projects: Patsaouras Transit Plaza, the city’s first intermodal transit station (adjacent to Union Station (Los Angeles)
Union Station (Los Angeles)
Los Angeles Union Station is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California. The station has rail services by Amtrak and Amtrak California and Metrolink; light rail/subways are the Metro Rail Red Line, Purple Line, Gold Line. Bus rapid transport runs on the Silver Line...
, and Hollywood and Highland
Hollywood and Highland
The Hollywood & Highland Center is a shopping mall and entertainment complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district in Los Angeles. The center also includes Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards. The historic site was once the...
, a commercial and entertainment complex. Large-scale projects followed at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach http://www.longbeach.gov/park/marine/rainbow.asp and Paseo Colorado
Paseo Colorado
Paseo Colorado, also called Paseo, is an upscale outdoor mall in Pasadena, California, covering three city blocks with office space, shops, restaurants, an upscale grocery store, a movie theater, and 400 loft-style condominiums above.It is located in downtown Pasadena between Colorado Boulevard to...
in Pasadena, an early example of the transformation of a traditional shopping mall into a mixed-use development. Other major retail projects include Circle Centre
Circle Centre
Circle Centre is a large indoor shopping mall located in downtown Indianapolis. Plans for a downtown Indianapolis mall had been in development by the Simon Property Group since 1979. Circle Centre was opened to the public on September 8, 1995, adjoining Simon corporate headquarters, and...
in downtown Indianapolis, IA (1995), a mixed-use shopping, restaurant and entertainment complex that includes the Indianapolis Artsgarden
Indianapolis Artsgarden
The Indianapolis Artsgarden is a glassed dome spanning the intersection of Washington and Illinois streets in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. It serves not only as a pedestrian connector between the Circle Centre Mall and nearby buildings, but also as a venue for the display and performance of...
, a public pavilion for the arts.
The firm’s master planning and urban design work includes MetroTech Center
MetroTech Center
MetroTech Center is a business and educational center in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. Original occupants of this area include JPMorgan Chase, New York City Fire Department Headquarters, Bear Stearns, Keyspan Energy, now National Grid, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Polytechnic University,...
(1992), a 4700000 square feet (436,644.3 m²) redevelopment in downtown Brooklyn which combines a campus combining educational and corporate office buildings with MetroTech Commons, New York’s largest privately-owned public space.
EE&K’s campus buildings include the Binghamton University Appalachian Collegiate Center, a dining hall and student center for Binghampton’s Mountainview College; it won an AIA New York Design Award in 2005.
Recent work
In 2004, following a six-month long invited design competition, MGM Mirage selected EE&K’s conceptual master plan for CityCenter in Las Vegas, the largest privately-funded construction project in the U.S. A 66 acres (267,092.8 m²), mixed-use urban development with buildings designed by a range of architects, CityCenter opened in December 2009.In 2005, EE&K opened an office in Shanghai when they began work on their first significant project in China: the Huishan North Bund, a mixed-use waterfront revitalization development. The firm is currently working in over a half dozen cities with primarily domestic Chinese clients.
Thirty years after authoring the original Master Plan for Battery Park City, EE&K are the design architects for the last two building sites in Battery Park City. When the two buildings, Liberty Green and Liberty Luxe, are finished in 2011, Battery Park City will officially be complete.
Selected Projects
• Battery Park City Master Plan, New York, NY• Battery Park City
• Alexander Hamilton US Custom House, New York, NY
• Swarthmore College Master Plan, Trotter Hall & Kohlberg Hall, Swarthmore, PA
• Gateway Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Science City at Union Station, Kansas City, MO
• Circle Centre, Indianapolis, IN
• Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles, CA
• Paseo Colorado, Pasadena, CA
• School Without Walls, Washington, DC
• George Washington University, Foggy Bottom Campus Plan, Washington, DC
• George Mason University Southwest & North Sector Plans, Fairfax, VA
• Philadelphia Market Street East Plan, Philadelphia, PA
• Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
• Houston Intermodal Transit Center, Houston, TX
• Beekman Hill International School, PS 59, New York, NY
• Binghamton University Appalachian Collegiate Center, Binghamton, NY
• Huishan Waterfront, Shanghai, China
• Hangzhou-Mews Neighborhood, Hangzhou, China
• Central Park Boathouse, New York, NY
• Arverne-by-the-Sea, Arverne, NY
• CityCenter Master Plan, Las Vegas, NV
Current projects
• Buffalo Inner Harbor, Buffalo, NY• Cleveland Waterfront Development Plan, Cleveland, OH
• Changshou Lu, Guangzhou, China
• Southwest Waterfront, Washington DC
Principals
• Stanton Eckstut, FAIA• Matthew J. Bell, AIA
• Peter David Cavaluzzi, FAIA
• William C. Donohoe, APA
• James Greenberg, AIA
• Sean O’Donnell, AIA, LEED AP
• R. Douglas Smith, AIA
• Chao-Ming Wu, AIA