SoHo, New York | 2004

The Vaccaro family of four approached LEESER Architecture with the request to re-imagine their living space as a series of compact and rigorously engineered open zones within a typical New York industrial loft building. One apartment wall is thickened to contain the bathrooms. Within the resulting volume, a sleeping loft, kitchen, and storage areas are integrated into one piece of domestic furniture by taut, lacquered surfaces which stretch over them. One surface forms the cabinet faces, kitchen backsplash, and the loft underside, while the other forms its topside, featuring a long, low walkway, which allows for unobstructed headroom to access the sleeping areas of the platform. The walkway creates a unique sectional interlock as it drops below the line of the platform underside to accommodate a standing occupant above. Tapering and meeting at a single long edge facing the dining and entry zones, the surfaces announce their thinness and de-emphasize the depth of the platform internal structure. This domestic fixture defines the zones of the daily domestic ritual, while the remaining volume of the apartment is devoted to living, dining, and play space, and is open to full height ceilings.

AWARDS

2005 AIA Award for Small Projects

Abu Dhabi, UAE | 2008

In August 2008, LEESER Architecture won the bid to design a new luxury hotel in the Zayed Bay District of Abu Dhabi. The central focus is a helical floor surface that surrounds an undulating void, with the public functions of the hotel occurring at each level. A continuous route from bottom to top unifies the floors and provides a seamless experience for the hotel guest and visitor.

At the lobby level, an undulating glass curtain encloses a waterside dining room, opening in the winter and closing in the summer. One flight above, the hotel’s conference facilities embrace a business event garden that overlooks Zayed Bay. Guest suites, lounge areas, international business center, retail shops, a lap pool, running track, gym, spa and a health café are just some of the hotel’s highlights. Designed to be both icon and highly functioning machine for the delivery of world class service, the hotel will serve as an anchor facility in the Zayed Bay District and greater Abu Dhabi. As a mini-city, it will convey a sense of cool, calibrated and contemporary environment from within and without. As much a world destination as it a place to simply spend the night.

PRESS

DEZEEN: Helix Hotel by LEESER Architecture
DESIGN BOOM: LEESER Architecture wins first prize for Helix Hotel in Abu Dhabi
AIArchitect: LEESER Wins Helix Hotel Design Competition for Abu Dhabi Development
INHABITAT: Abu Dhabi's Spiraling Helix Hotel
WORLD ARCHITECTURE NEWS: Spiraling in Control
METROPOLIS: The Other Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
CONTEMPORIST: The Helix Hotel by LEESER Architecture
DESIGN SCENE: Helix Hotel by LEESER Architecture

Brooklyn, New York | 2013

Currently housing BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn and UrbanGlass, the new $40 million expansion to Brooklyn's historic Strand Theater will provide new performance spaces, a television recording studio, art galleries, glass blowing facilities, and classrooms for these two organizations. The theater was constructed in 1918 for vaudeville acts in what is now known as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Cultural District. It later became a movie palace and bowling alley. LEESER Architecture won a bid by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) for the renovation of this BAM landmark.

Construction began in 2011 and is to be completed in 2013. The design will include new facilities for BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, a non-profit organization founded in 1979 to present arts, media and educational programs reflective of Brooklyn's diverse communities. The result is a much more visible presence for BRIC, with enhanced street-level presence for BCAT, Brooklyn's public-access TV. Additions will include a new 6,000 square foot performance space, a 2,500 square foot black-box studio, a 3,500 square foot contemporary art gallery, a 1,000 square foot television studio, as well as classrooms and other support spaces. UrbanGlass, the first and largest artist-access glass center in the United States, will receive 1,700 square feet of gallery and retail space and an 800 square foot walk-in glass workshop.

AWARDS

2014 MASterworks Award for Neighborhood Catalyst

PRESS

INHABITAT: LEESER Architecture Transforms Brooklyn's Historic Strand Theater Into a Cultural Space for the Digital Age
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Designing Brooklyn's Future

New York, NY | 2002

Due to the events of September 11, 2001, the 3 Legged Dog performance group was in need of a new home base to replace their former Lower Manhattan location. It was the first cultural institution to rebuild at Ground Zero. LEESER Architecture was commissioned to design a 12,000 square foot facility to house the production and viewing of cutting edge, large scale, multimedia performance and art.

The 3 Legged Dog Art & Technology Center is located in the ground floor of the Battery Parking Garage in Lower Manhattan with street frontage on both Washington and Greenwich Streets. The facility includes a 200-seat main stage theater, a 2200 square foot gallery space, rehearsal space and a video and audio editing suite. The design focuses on opening the conventionally hidden activities of theater production to the public, be it the casual passer-by or the theater visitor. A diaphanous glass façade stretching 90-feet along the length of Greenwich Street is pulled gradually inside the building from the existing structure’s front edge and then back again. A smooth, white lobby connects the intentionally raw spaces of the original parking structure, which contain the major program elements. The main stage and the rehearsal space are visible from the street, and the actors’ changing rooms are equipped with motion sensors which will turn the storefront windows from opaque to clear when not in use. The aim is to reveal the daily activities of the process of creating technologically advanced theater through a lens that produces urban spectacle.

Visit 3-Legged Dog Website >>

AWARDS

WINNER New York Foundation for the Arts Architecture and Design Discretionary Grant

PRESS

METROPOLIS MAGAZINE: Street Performance
NEW YORK TIMES: A Theatre Group Offers Hope at Ground Zero

The Art Pavillion features a flexible exhibition gallery and performance space, administrative offices, storage facilities and general amenities.

The design response for the West Kowloon Arts Pavilion is iconic both in its form and its use of innovative technology. Referencing the late 1960’s art & architecture collective Haus-Rucker-Co whose projects explored the perceptions of space, the Artsphere expands the visitors’ minds similarly to the artwork it houses.

Its radical, contradictory form of soft pillows and sharp, pre fabricated structural spikes features a helioscopic print of film which when activated channels solar energy back in to Artsphere’s primary power source. The translucent envelope visually and audibly connects to the surrounding environment as the tips of each of the façade’s spikes house LEDs, loudspeakers and mist jets which produce a vibrant audio visual display and a new semi permanent canvas for public artists.

The Artsphere’s flexible interior lends itself to rotating exhibitions of 2-D artwork, installations and performances by providing an expansive open space, integrated audio visual technologies and controlled levels of natural and artificial light. A glass elevator connects the ground floor to the site’s amenities “box” which appears to deflect the roof of the Artsphere, a design feature that is in fact a key structural component of the pavilion. Inside the floating box 2 office spaces, a storage area and public bathrooms are housed.

Brooklyn, New York | 2011

In 2011 LEESER Architecture, partnered with developer SDS, designed one of seven proposals for the Pier 1 Park Residence & Hotel proposal at Brooklyn Bridge Park. LEESER Architecture's design synthesizes dynamic architecture with the playful and sustainable qualities of New York City Parks, as exemplified in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The design capitalizes on the unique attributes of the site by engaging the building and users with the culture of DUMBO, the City across the water, and the surrounding natural features of the park.

The building functions as an extension of Brooklyn Bridge Park, seamlessly integrating the entire site to create a unified experience of nature and built environment. A ribbon of park space extends from the ground floor to a large exterior garden terrace at the third floor of the larger building, continuing across the courtyard at the second building in the form of roof terraces and gardens. The vibrant, playful, and natural qualities of the park are drawn through the building with an extraordinary sixty foot wide atrium space that extends up the entire height and along most of the length of the building. Above, the 170 hotel rooms and suites float as though suspended in air, lightly framing the view of the sky. The hotel and public amenities act as formal and programmatic destinations, punctuating the progression of the atrium space. An Olympic-length, glass-bottomed swimming pool floats sixty feet above the atrium space, creating an unprecedented experience for swimmers and onlookers alike.

The building's exterior glazing subtly lifts to shape unique spaces within, creating a dynamic facade and providing the public areas with unobstructed views of the East River, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. This glazing system serves both to maximize natural day lighting and to express the stepping pattern of the residential units on the exterior. Outdoor terraces, an amphitheater, and roof gardens allow for hotel guests and residents to experience the dramatic views.

PRESS

WORLD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Brooklyn Bridge Pier 1 Residences + Hotel Proposals Revealed
INHABITAT: Proposals for Brooklyn Bridge Park's Development are Green All Over

Essen, Germany | 2003

The Design School and the immediate landscape are equipped with high-tech interactive information technology, allowing the users to access and interact with the information contained within. Designed as a “plug-in-park,” landscape ridges feed into the main axis of the site and define the exterior activity spaces of the school complex. Infrastructure is provided for the staging of temporary events such as performances, recreation and conferences. The park invites visitors to plug in and interact. By connecting to the landscape, one also connects to the building itself.

The design concept is based on the surface of a conveyor belt that is folded onto itself to define spaces as introverted and extroverted. The introverted envelope contains program designated for students and faculty of the school. The extroverted surface unfolds into the plug-in landscape and is programmed as an auditorium and a start up factory for recent graduates. The design was selected for the Surfaces section of the 2004 Venice Biennale.

Moscow, Russia | 2011

LEESER Architecture was awarded second prize in the international competition for the reconstruction and renovation of Moscow's Polytechnic Museum. The 430,000 sq ft Museum was built in three stages from 1887 to 1907 and has since become an architectural and cultural landmark in Moscow. LEESER Architecture's design included covering the courtyards of the existing building with an additional 22,000 sq ft of exhibition space identified as 'the Cloud.' The Cloud, comprised of all glass, floats above the proposed active courtyard spaces, allowing for visitors to experience the feeling of walking on air. When occupying the Cloud visitors are granted unprecedented views over the city of Moscow establishing the Museum as a cultural destination.

The concept of the Cloud embeds itself in the project both formally and functionally. LEESER proposed that the program of the building takes on the dynamic, current, and evolving nature of clouds. The integration of innovative technologies, such as a digital archive brings the Museum's overwhelming collection into the 21st century, making the museum more accessible to a wider audience. Other main features include a robotic library and hydraulic theater, allowing for infinite flexibility of space configuration of the courtyard.

PRESS

DOMUS: Moscow Polytechnic Museum 2nd Place to LEESER
ARCH DAILY: Moscow Polytechnic Museum by LEESER Architecture
ARTHITECTURAL: LEESER Architecture Moscow Polytechnic Museum

Taipei City, Taiwan | 2009

LEESER Architecture proposed a design for the construction of a new pop music performing arts center in Taipei City, Taiwan. The structure includes an indoor as well as outdoor performance space, exhibition space, and commercial space. An elevated extension of the street serves as the central space from which one enters the venues of the Pop Music Center. It serves as the central meeting place accessible by car, foot, and most importantly by motorbike (Taipei is a city with the largest percentage of bikes per capita). Stores and music industry facilities will line the outer ring surrounding the central main music performance space. An elevated green belt, where the outdoor performance space is imbedded, will run along the site.

Dubai, UAE | 2008

The strategy for the site and towers is to use a unifying geometric overlay that then generates the placement of every aspect of the design including water features, parking roadways, pathways, the towers themselves and the individual apartments. At the same time, each tower and apartment is unique. Rather than generating duplicate, anonymous buildings we have created a conglomeration of units that recognize the individuality of the owner while at the same time expressing unity throughout with a replicating pattern.

As specified by the client, the parking is underground and has been integrated into the site. Vegetated light wells pierce the ceiling allowing for light and air to circulate to the space below.

The outdoor space and terraces are given the utmost importance and are completely integrated into each apartment’s layout. The terraces can be screened in to become part of the interior or opened up to become part of the exterior spaces. Through this simple idea, seasonal differences can be taken advantage of. Each apartment has an individualized view as well as exterior screen pattern that reinforce the unique design of each unit. Overall, these buildings will enhance the lives of the residents as it reinforces the notion of the individual as part of a larger, universal fabric and brings a sense of pride in place.

Seoul, Korea | 2003

Drawing from the iconography of the televisual, the program within the Nam June Paik Museum can be discerned almost immediately upon observing the building. Just as Nam June Paik questioned the framing of art and its production, LEESER Architecture worked to reinterpret the physical form of the museum, distorting and reshaping the conventions of museum design. The distortion allows for many opportunities for projection and exhibition. The museum consists of multiple pod forms that are shifted and joined at alternating levels.

The floor plate of each pod is bent, allowing for casual seating and viewing areas as well as an elevated, more intimate, gallery space above. As with the exterior of the building, this shifting and shearing of the floor plate distorts the iconographic frame, allowing for multiple ways of seeing the art on display. The building hovers at the bottom of a valley to displace the smallest number of trees and existing topography.