Building a city is an ongoing, additive act of creativity. Urban centers are continually being made and remade; they are palimpsests of the values, technologies, ingenuity, and aesthetics of times that precede ours and that were vital in shaping our present. The evolution of the city depends upon designers’ ability to find ways to preserve this past, while shaping a rich and resilient ecosystem for the future.
Whether designing carefully considered ground-up buildings or adapting older buildings for new life, building on history is a fundamental base for contemporary practice. This monograph explores the profound relationship between the past and future of architecture that defines DXA Studio’s practice. The book presents 14 projects that embrace history as a critical influence; they use New York City as a laboratory to implement this approach that acknowledges context and constraint as constructive, rather than restrictive. Integral to its time and place, such architecture offers a distinctive identity, clarity, and timelessness to the urban fabric.
