June 2009
Castillo contributes to AIA's Preservation Architect Newsletter
An article in Preservation Architect, the newsletter of the AIA national Historic Building Committee, cements Margaret Castillo’s reputation as a well-connected architect in historic preservation. Margaret was asked to contribute to June’s diversity-themed newsletter. [more]
May 2009
Margaret Castillo
Introduces Sustainability and Historic Preservation Panel
On April 15th, Margaret Castillo, AIA, principal at Helpern Architects in her role as Vice President for Public Outreach for the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, introduced a panel of sustainability leaders and historic preservation advocates to discuss how the two forces are similar and different. [more]
February 2009
David Helpern Encourages Civic Engagement among Architects
 March 2009 Update: Listen to David Helpern’s “Citizen Architect on the Move” interview in The Angle, the AIA’s newsletter on legislative affairs.
“Citizen Architect” – The phrase has a certain resonance, a call to arms. It bespeaks vigilance even beyond professionalism. Late January, Helpern Architects welcomed 35 potential citizen architects to a breakfast briefing in its offices, to introduce them to New York City’s unique community board structure and the requirements for nomination to serve either in the district where they live or work. [more]
January 2009
Progress on 57 Irving Place
57 Irving Place – an 11-story, luxury residential building near Gramercy Park is well under way for completion in 2009. Madison Equities’ latest development features nine units, of which six are full-floor residences. Helpern Architects is serving as the Executive Architect, and Audrey Matlock Architect is the design architect. [more]
December 2008
Margaret Castillo Becomes AIA NY Chapter Spokesperson and Board Member
The applause swelled Thursday evening, December 11th as Senior Principal Margaret Castillo, AIA, was introduced with her new title: 2009 Vice President of Public Outreach for the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter. The Inaugural occurred at The Center for Architecture. [more]
November 2008
Ivy Liu Joins Helpern Architects as Marketing Director
Ivy Liu has joined Helpern Architects as Marketing Director. “Ivy’s rich background in marketing and business development, her undergraduate and graduate MBA training at the Stern School of Business at NYU [studying in buildings that Helpern Architects designed, a tidy coincidence], and her direct knowledge of New York real estate fit our profile to a T,” David Helpern comments. [more]
October 2008
David Helpern on the Role of the “Executive Architect”
In “Whom Does it Take to Make a Good Building Happen?” – a by-lined essay in the October 1st issue of Real Estate Weekly – David Helpern explored the shifting role of the Executive Architect in today’s building development process. [more]
July 2008
Margaret Castillo Joins AIA New York Chapter Board
Margaret Castillo, AIA, Principal at Helpern Architects, was elected Vice President for Public Outreach for the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The announcement was made at the 141st annual meeting, held in June, but her term begins in January 2009. [more]
July 2008
New York Sun Praises Helpern's Master Plan for NYU
Francis Morrone, architectural historian and critic who writes for the New York Sun and New York University lecturer, lauds Helpern Architects’ master plan for NYU as “one of the cleverest bits of urban design of its time in New York.” [more]
June 2008
LaGuardia Community College Faculty Gets New Offices
Construction has started on a renovation Helpern Architects designed for Center 3, at LaGuardia Community College (LaGCC) in Queens, NY. The plan is to convert approximately one third of the vacant, 31,500-sf fourth floor into faculty offices in the mammoth, two-square-block structure formerly known as the Sunshine Biscuit Building. The project is part of the master plan Helpern developed for LaGuardia in 2006. [more]
June 2008
At Columbia University,
conversion of a Seminary building
Helpern Architects has begun to convert Union Theological Seminary’s Knox Hall, an early 20th-century Collegiate Gothic-style building, from a faculty residence into 50,000 sf of new faculty office space and classrooms. Columbia University now has a 50-year lease on the building, which it is renovating. [more]
June 2008
Fordham University Dormitories Published
Oculus, the quarterly magazine of the American Institute of Architects’ New York Chapter, devoted its Spring 2008 issue to what’s important today in New York residential design. Helpern Architects’ dormitory renovation for Fordham University was featured. [more]
May 2008
David Helpern appointed to
Community Board 8
New York’s Upper East Side doesn’t need too much introduction. That’s why this item is especially meaningful.
“I’m honored to have this opportunity to serve the community in which I have lived for the past 40 years,” says David Helpern, when Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announced his appointment to Community Board 8, effective April 1st. [more]
April 2008
New York Magazine praises Helpern's Congo Gorilla Forest for "major impact" on New York
New York Magazine is 40. So it decided to publish the most essential and influential works that have defined New York in these four decades.
Justin Davidson called the line-up for Architecture, “Where the mightiest towers meet the most delicate details”: 19 buildings that “had a major impact, upheld [their] ideals, and became part of our lives.” He included most of the icons: The Lipstick Building, Ford Foundation Building, and Hearst Tower, among them. [more]
March 2008
Architecture Can Differentiate a Hotel's Brand
“Investors interested in building hotels – and New York City is still a good market for them – need to differentiate their hotels with architecture,” David Helpern, FAIA, LEED™, said while serving as the only architect to participate in a panel of hospitality industry experts at the 2008 Real Estate Round Table at Columbia University on March 4. [more]
October 2007
Chronister, Guillen Teach at City Tech
Lisa Chronister, AIA, and Amauri Guillen are two recent additions to the adjunct faculty at New York College of Technology. “City Tech”, a CUNY school located in Brooklyn with over 13,000 students, is the only college in New York City to offer evening classes in architecture, allowing students to pursue a degree while working. [more]
October 2007
David Helpern Addresses AIA on Preservation
Is it appropriate to place a vertical addition atop a landmarked building?
A packed room of architects at the AIA New York State convention gathered to hear about the topic and question noteworthy panelists in a program David Helpern set up and moderated. [more]
August 2007
LaGuardia Community College
Master Plan Crosses the Finish Line
After two years of intense work and consensus-building, the Helpern Architects master plan for Queens-based LaGuardia Community College, one of New York City’s six community colleges, will have final presentation at the late-summer meeting of the CUNY Board of Trustees’ facilities committee. [more]
Ongoing
Helpern Awarded Major Contract for Restoration of UN Library
When the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at the United Nations was commissioned, its goal was: “To assure the United Nations of a building of the highest quality, aesthetically designed, furnished, and equipped in conformity with the most modern library standards.” Designed by Harrison & Abramovitz and built with a Ford Foundation Grant in 1961, it carries the name of the esteemed late Secretary-General. [more]
Ongoing
The Berkeley-Carroll School Grows in Brooklyn
Helpern Architects has developed two master plans for The Berkeley-Carroll School, which teaches preK-12 and is one of the oldest independent schools in the city [1886]. The first, a rehabilitation plan, helped Berkeley-Carroll to identify major needs, including deferred maintenance and handicapped access.
The second plan that Helpern provided, which was for space utilization, considered the 800-student school’s growth needs. [more]
July 2007
Best of Chicago College/University Buildings Showcased at SCUP
Ever go to a conference and wonder in what city you are? Days at the hotel book-ended by hours at airports could leave you in limbo.
Curious about why Chicago – site of the 42nd annual conference of the Society for College and University Planning – consistently builds outstanding higher-education facilities and wishing also to avoid this numbing conference-attendance sensation, David Helpern decided to survey local SCUP members about what to see and why. [more]
July 2007
Reading in New York City Becomes Easier
Under a Term Contract with the New York City Department of Design and Construction [DDC], Helpern Architects is providing comprehensive architectural design services to restore, modernize, and improve a variety of public libraries in Manhattan and The Bronx, four of which are historic Carnegie Library buildings. [more]
July 2007
A Community Church Expands
Helpern Architects is working with the growing Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Washington Heights – an old country church in the northernmost reaches of Manhattan, and part of the Reformed Church of America – to renovate and expand its existing buildings. The plan, undertaken under the aegis of the Collegiate Church Corporation, is to provide new space for expanded offices, meeting rooms, and daycare facilities. [more]
April 2007
Broadcasting Network To Go Live in New York
A three-story, 15,000-sf building will soon become the New York home for California-based Trinity Broadcasting, the “world’s largest religious broadcasting network.” The conversion represents a functional switch for the Union Square-area structure that TBN picked; built as a social club in 1854 and the site of a theater since 1996, it will now become a major TV studio that includes audience spaces. It is expected to open at year’s end. [more]
April 2007
Helpern Transforms NYU Townhouse Yet Again
In 1987, NYU asked Helpern Architects to convert the dilapidated Greek Revival structure at 58 West 10th Street for an educational foundation. Twenty years later, Helpern has again adapted the building, this time as Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, for NYU’s creative writing program.
The history of the building – once the home of the fabled Tile Club, an informal association of artists, architects, and musicians – and the quality of the restoration earned the house a feature story in Architectural Record. [more]
February 2007
Learning Comes to Life in Fordham Residence Hall
Fordham University is moving fast-forward for fall-2007 re-occupancy of a 1960s residence hall. The upgrade is the pilot project for Fordham University’s program to transform its dormitories into integrated learning environments.
The Tierney Hall renovation will enable Fordham to create multipurpose spaces and common areas for dialogue between students and faculty. [more]
December 2006
25 Years of Good Wishes and Exciting Card-Making
“Back in 1982,” reminisces David Helpern, “I had no idea how much pleasure we’d have creating each year’s card – delighting that building’s owners and enchanting our friends, many of whom, it seems, keep and display entire ‘Helpern Villages.’” 2007’s card was the 25th of the series.
2008 will be Helpern Architects’ 36th year in business. For the last 25 years, the firm has issued a card in the shape of one of that year’s most interesting buildings. The artwork is a classically-stylized rendering of the building’s façade. “It is not true that we pick our clients by the beautiful cards their projects would make,” David says, “but someone will always make the point.” [more]
December 2006
We’ve had details stolen before
but never an entire building
Maybe the perp just wanted to give the SoHo Grand Hotel – the high-profile luxury hotel in lower Manhattan that we designed – to someone special for the holidays, but his several attempts to claim ownership were foiled. Kouadio Kouassi tried repeatedly to file a phony deed with New York City, thus transferring ownership of the 1996 hotel to himself. [more]
September 2006
David Helpern named GSA Peer Professional
Public Buildings Services Commissioner David Winstead has named David Helpern to the National Register of Peer Professionals, a select, experienced group of private professionals who provide expert advice to the US General Services Administration [GSA]. A Federal agency, GSA acquires products and services for non-military purposes, including public works and buildings. [more]
June, 2006
“The Rescue of Two Treasures at Yale”
At the invitation of the New Haven Preservation Trust, Margaret Castillo and David Helpern presented Helpern Architects’ work to preserve two exceptional New Haven homes – the Skinner-Trowbridge House on Hillhouse Avenue and the Davies Mansion on Whitney Avenue – now known as the Yale School of Management’s International Center for Finance and Betts House, respectively. The talk was the feature of the Trust’s 2006 Annual Meeting held on June 1st. [more]
January 2006
St. Francis College Opens New Academic Center as Phase Two of the Master Plan Ends
St. Francis College, a Brooklyn Heights institution for 147 years, celebrated the opening of its new Academic Center. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, St. Francis President Dr. Frank J. Macchiarola, and Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas J. Volpe cut the ribbon.
The Academic Center, a 35,000-sf facility adjacent to the College’s Remsen Street campus, increases available instructional space by one-third, although the College will maintain its current enrollment of 2,300. “As we use the new addition, it is clear that your work has added immensely to the physical layout of the entire college,” wrote Dr. Macchiarola.
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