MBB Architects

We’re happy to announce that The New York Landmarks Conservancy has awarded our comprehensive 5-year rejuvenation project at Trinity Church Wall Street the 2022 Lucy G. Moses Award for Preservation. We have loved working on this project and are proud to have contributed to such an essential New York landmark. Thank you to the jury and all our consultants. Warm congratulations to all the winners! (Photos 1 & 3: Colin Winterbottom. Photo 2: © Christopher Payne/Esto.)

MBB is honored to be one of 20 architectural firms selected by NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) for their Project Excellence Program. The program delivers high-quality infrastructure and public buildings that contribute to a thriving, equitable, sustainable, and resilient city. We're looking forward to working with the DDC to design and deliver NYC’s Next Generation of Public Buildings! Congratulations to all the other firms!

Studio Gang, SHop Architects, and Snøhetta Among 20 Firms Designing NYC’s Next Generation of Public Buildings DDC selects 20 firms that will design NYC’s next generation of public buildings.

We're honored and excited to share that MBB has won the Architecture Firm of the Year Award! Thank you to AIA New York State, the honors award task force and jury, and Center for Architecture (AIANY) who nominated us. As a women-owned firm committed to advancing a diverse profession, this award is particularly special because it recognizes our contributions in areas of culture, community, clarity of purpose, and commitment to mission. It also recognizes the contributions of our entire team collectively, including alum, collaborators, consultants, and clients. There is much work to be done in advancing equity and justice in the practice of architecture and in the environments we design, so we see this award as not just recognition of what we’ve done to date but also as an opportunity to continue to clarify and advance our contributions to architecture. We look forward to continuing this work with AIA New York State and the other award recipients we share the stage with. Congratulations to them all.

Congratulations to the 2021 Honor Award recipients. The Firm Award, recognizing notable achievements in design, community service, education and service to the profession and to the AIA by an architectural firm within New York State, was presented to MBB Architects.

Recently asked us to restore and transform the Bainbridge House into a gallery and public art center called Art@Bainbridge. Because the building had single glazed windows and no insulation, creating a stable and controlled environment for the art was paramount. Using Passive House principles, we strategically incorporated a v***r barrier and insulation in the 18th century building’s envelope and installed high performance windows with UV filtered glass.
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We also reimagined the entry with an accessible plinth and a low bluestone wall that wraps the front and side of the building, providing outdoor gathering spaces and seating for visitors.
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We highly recommend the current exhibition by Adama Delphine Fawundu called “Gathering Together.” Her work "explores the passage of knowledge, artistic expression, and historical events through generations and throughout the African diaspora." It was curated by Beth Gollnick, curatorial associate, and Mitra Abbaspour, Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. This is its last week in the gallery.
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Congratulations to partner, Sara Grant, who was just named a Notable Women in Business by Crain's New York Business! We know her as an astute and sensitive architect and planner passionately committed to working toward building a just profession and society. To see her recognized for this brings us joy.

In her architecture, research, and leadership, Sara focuses on work that promotes the design of flexible, age-appropriate learning spaces that facilitate and inspire the freedom to move, explore, learn, and collaborate. Here are some of her recent projects: the first 3 photos are from Rodeph Sholom Lower and Upper Schools; the second 2 from the Eli M. Black Learning Center; and the last from Grace Church Athletic Center.

Thanks to Crain's New York Business and warm congratulations to all the other women included on the list, too, which can be seen here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/notable-women-business-owners-2021.

Celebrating a Neighborhood Icon

The Billie Holiday Theatre, fondly referred to as “The Billie,” has been a nexus of cultural expression for over 40 years in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Since it opened in 1972, the theater has been a multi-disciplinary hub used as a platform to source local talent, enhance local pride, and improve the quality of life for the nation’s second-largest Black community. Black luminaries, Samuel L. Jackson, Debbie Allen, Dick Gregory, and William "Smokey" Robinson, either began or furthered their careers at The Billie. Through New York City’s Design Excellence Program, MBB was selected to design the renovation of the theater, included reconfiguring the house entry and seating, the stage geometry, and support spaces. State-of-the-art theatrical systems were also incorporated into the design. As a community theater, The Billie was made fully accessible and transformed to be more welcoming to the public.

Trinity Lower School Library, used by kindergarten to 8th grade, was transformed from a dark, cramped space with detrimental acoustics into a dynamic, flexible, and child-centered environment that allows students to use the library for a broad range of academic pursuits.

Please visit the link below to learn more about the project.

Trinity School Library and Great Hall - MBB Architects EducationTrinity School Library and Great Hall Trinity School engaged MBB to undertake a major renovation and restoration of their Lower School Library and Great Hall. The MBB team was tasked with fully renovating the Library in a way that restored some of the historic characteristics of the space,....

In this week’s MBBlog our Director of Interior Design, Fiyel Levent illustrates the extent to which architects and designers can work on various platforms and meaningfully contribute to social equity, personal dignity, and an enhanced educational experience in places where the needs are tremendous.
You can read the full article here:

301 Moved Permanently

MBB Architects recently partnered with Dattner ArchitectsArchitects and University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP) to participate in , a collaboration between the and that connects leading design firms with neighborhoods drastically effected by . UNHP is a non-profit organization working to create, preserve, and finance affordable housing in the Northwest Bronx. UNHP’s main priorities included updating their main office to allow core employees to safely return to work and exploring ways seniors housed in their facilities could safely use common spaces. Utilizing a phased approach and a menu of implementation strategies, MBB, Dattner, and UNHP are reconfiguring UNHP’s main office to accommodate for safe distancing. Programming elements include reducing the number of workstations in each room, implementing a COVID-19 check-in station, and installing plexiglass partitions and air purifiers. The team also designed a cost-effective outdoor module planter system and shelter for the Rose Hill Community Center to allow tenants to gather safely outside their apartments.

Julia Gamolina, Assoc. AIA interviews Mary Burnham, FAIA, a native New Yorker and Partner at MBB Architects for Madame Architect. Mary Burnham has practiced architecture for over twenty-five years. Her design sensibility and mastery of color and light are influenced, in part, by her experience as an accomplished painter. Mary'’s conviction is that design is an integrated endeavor where the lines of architecture, interior design, and landscape design blur and overlap.

You can read the full artcle here: https://www.madamearchitect.org/interviews/2020/9/22/mary-burnham

Design That Matters: MBB's Mary Burnham on Embracing Opportunities and Taking the Long View — Madame Architect By Julia Gamolina Mary Burnham, a native New Yorker and Partner at MBB Architects , has practiced architecture for over twenty-five years. Her design sensibility and mastery of color and light are influenced, in part, by her experience as an accomplished painter. Mary'’s conviction is that de

In this week’s MBBlog titled "The Right Tool for the Job", Designer Ayman Rouhani describes how each analog or digital tool is precisely designed for a specific purpose, so having a wide range of tools at one's disposal allows designers to better communicate with their clients at each phase of the design process.

You can read the full article here:

MBBlog - MBB Architects The Right Tool for the Job by Ayman Rouhani

The Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civic and Political Rights at Columbia University will house scholars, practitioners, artists, staff, students, and the wider community within a collaborative environment designed to support deep thinking, shared action, and activism. Housed in a historic building adjacent to Columbia’s main campus, the Initiative comprises ground floor events and exhibit spaces, seminar rooms, offices, informal meeting spaces, and a contemplative library.

MBB created a concept design that is intended to convey a sense of welcoming and civic obligation. The building is designed to bring the community together and be an amenity for students, student groups, and organizations. The humanistic environment will be fully accessible and inclusive, supportive of reflective thinking, and projecting a sense of possibility.