Media Contact: Shea Communications LLC
George Shea, Teresa Brady (212) 627-5766
New York, March XX, 2014—Van Alen Institute, an organization dedicated to advancing innovation in architecture and urban design, has announced that Andre Kikoski and Robert Richardson have joined its Board of Trustees at the start of its 120th anniversary year.
“Andre and Robert have deep expertise in the fields of design and technology that will elevate our ability to guide Van Alen Institute in innovative directions as it expands on its 120-year history,” said David van der Leer, Van Alen Institute Executive Director. “The Institute’s Board of Trustees is critical to the direction of the organization’s design competitions, research, and public programs, helping to provide solutions to the ever-shifting challenges faced by cities.”
“We are honored to welcome Robert and Andre to our team, and we look forward to the benefit of their insight and creativity,” said Stephen Cassell, Chair of Van Alen’s Board of Trustees and Principal of Architecture Research Office. “It is an exciting time to be engaged in the dialogue between design and other disciplines, and Van Alen Institute has never had a deeper pool of talent to guide our efforts.”
Andre Kikoski is the founder of Andre Kikoski Architect, a Manhattan-based multi-disciplinary design firm that is committed to artistic innovation regardless of budget, genre or client. Andre received his Masters degree in Architecture at Harvard University, earning Distinctions for Innovation in Design and Technology. Prior to founding the firm, Andre worked for I.M. Pei, Richard Meier and Peter Eisenman, among others. Andre served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Alumni Council. He is a frequent speaker, design critic and juror for organizations including the American Institute of Architects, the Architectural League of New York, Architectural Record, the Center for Architecture, New York School of Interior Design and New York University, Parsons the New School for Design and the Pratt Institute.
Robert Richardson is the Senior Director of Strategy at Control Group, an innovation and technology firm in New York City. He works with stakeholders in commercial real estate, public infrastructure, and cultural institutions to develop strategies for digitally integrating internal—and external—facing processes to create greater customer engagement, enrich data intelligence, and enable business transformation. Prior to joining Control Group, he worked for the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications as the Director of Strategic Technology Development in the NYC Office of the Mayor as a Special Assistant for constituent communications and civic innovation. In addition to his work for Control Group, he is also a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Pratt Institute in New York City, where his teaching and research have recently explored the intersection of information, practice, and organization.
The announcement on Kikoski and Richardson follows the recent additions to the Board including Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Partner at international architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG); Jessica Healy, real-estate developer; and Hunter Tura, President and CEO of Bruce Mau Design (BMD). With these five new members, the Institute expands its Trustees to a group of 16 leaders with diverse expertise in the built environment, including practicing architects, artists, academics, developers, and representatives of the business community.
The new Trustees join the Board as Van Alen Institute develops key projects including Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape, a multi-year initiative of competitions, public programs, and research to explore the experience of escape in the urban environment. Elsewhere continues with the Institute’s spring season of public programs in May 2014. Van Alen is also a collaborator in Rebuild by Design, a multi-stage, regional design initiative by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and HUD, in collaboration with the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, Municipal Art Society of New York, Regional Plan Association, and Van Alen Institute, to promote resilience, public health, and prosperity in the Sandy-affected region through innovative planning and design. Among other current projects, Van Alen is working with Environmental Defense Fund and Happold Consulting to support Changing Course, a design competition led by Louisiana and national leaders to reimagine a more sustainable Lower Mississippi River Delta.
Van Alen Institute recently collaborated with Times Square Arts on the 2014 Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, celebrating five years since the opening of the revitalized Father Duffy Square and iconic Red Steps. This year’s winning design, “Match-Maker” by Young Projects, is on view in Times Square through March 11. This spring, the Institute will begin construction on its new street-level space, a highly flexible work space and public venue to host the Institute’s projects and public events. Selected through Van Alen’s 2013 Ground/Work international design competition for young architects, the designers of the new space are Collective-LOK, a collaborative team composed of Jon Lott (PARA-Project), William O’Brien Jr. (WOJR), and Michael Kubo (over,under). Throughout 2014, Van Alen will mark its 120th anniversary as a catalyst for design innovation, hosting a series of events and projects to explore the organization’s more than century-long legacy.
About Van Alen Institute
Since its founding in 1894, Van Alen Institute has promoted innovative thinking about the role of architecture and design in civic life. Today the Institute’s competitions, research, and public programs shape the public conversation and bring design excellence to the built environment of cities and sites around the world. Van Alen’s widely influential legacy of competitions includes Public Property: An Ideas Competition for Governors Island (1996), which kicked off an international conversation about Governors Island and its redevelopment as a public resource, and TKTS2K: A Competition to Design a New York Icon (1999), which led to the TKTS booth in Times Square and reactivated the public space at the busiest pedestrian intersection in New York City.
Learn more about Van Alen Institute at past.vanalen.org.