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Architects behind the starchitects

Architect Steven Kratchman in front of the "Sky Garage" on 11th Avenue. He is working on the project with starchitect Annabelle Selldorf.

By Gabrielle Birkner

Top billing may go to Richard Meier, Renzo Piano or Jean Nouvel, but neither the starchitects, nor their firms, are likely tasked with the majority of the architectural work on most of the buildings they design.

With a growing number of New York developers seeking out brand-name architects from abroad, some local firms with strong design traditions are taking on more behind-the-scenes roles as so-called architects of record — or executive architects, as they are sometimes called.

As such, the local firms may be responsible for corresponding with city agencies about code compliance, coordinating pre-construction site cleanup, communicating a project's progress and delays to developers and financial backers, and creating up to 90 percent of the construction documents.

In other words, they handle the less sexy elements of the job.

For the vast majority of new buildings in America, a single architecture firm performs both the creative and project management functions. But when it comes to the highest-profile, megamillion-dollar projects — and New York has more than its share of them — two architects are often commissioned. One generates and makes adjustments to the design concept; another executes that concept.

"Some firms do it grudgingly," Peter Samton, a partner at the full-service architecture firm Gruzen Samton, said of accepting work in an executive, rather than design, capacity. "But this is a big city. There are many projects and we can't be too greedy."

Gruzen Samton, a New York- and Virginia-based firm now in its eighth decade, is serving as the architect of record on the German-American architect Helmut Jahn's 65-story, 580,000-square-foot residential and hotel tower at 50 West Street; and doing the same for the Los Angeles-based firm Morphosis on the nine-story, 175,000-square-foot academic building at Cooper Union. The Downtown tower broke ground in June and is slated for completion next year.

The division of labor between design and executive architects is not new, but the boundaries of the roles are no longer as clear-cut as they once were, Samton said.

During the past 20 or so years, and particularly in the last few years as the stock of high-profile architects has risen in New York City, what were once two very separate jobs have become increasingly collaborative. That is thanks in part to electronic communication and computer-aided design, enabling more back-and-forth between the architects.

"There are times you have to bite your lip, but usually I feel very comfortable speaking my mind to the design architect," Samton said.

This arrangement works best when the two commissioned architects — with their unique skill sets and directives — make every effort to integrate their ideas to present a united front to the client.

"If the design architect is so ego-driven that he gets put off by ideas coming from other people, then it could be a problem," Samton said, noting that this has not been the case at 50 West Street or at Cooper Union. "If you don't engage in the silly little child's play of 'Whose toy is it?' that's when you get the best results."

Architect Steven Kratchman said he has developed a synergistic working relationship with design starchitect Annabelle Selldorf, with whom he collaborated, as the executive architect on a six-story, 65,000-square-foot addition to a mixed-use building built in 2002 at 415 West 13th Street.

The two architects are again working together — Selldorf as design architect, and Kratchman as architect of record — on a 19-story, 57,000-square-foot luxury condo. Informally known as the "Sky Garage," the building, slated for occupancy in 2009, features parking on every floor.

"We have great respect for Annabelle's design ability," Kratchman said, explaining that his role as executive architect is to interpret the designs so that they are "buildable, approvable and, ultimately, concrete."

Kratchman said working as an architect of record does not require him to stymie the creative impulses he employs as a design architect. "I find it very satisfying, creatively," he said. "It isn't dreaming things up in the same way; it's problem-solving."

Other prominent examples of New York firms doing much of the heavy lifting for starchitects include Davis Brody Bond Aedas for Renzo Piano on Columbia University's forthcoming Manhattanville expansion project, and FXFowle for Piano on the New York Times Building last year. SLCE Architects served as the architect of record for both Robert A.M. Stern on 15 Central Park West and for Jean Nouvel on the 40 Mercer Residences.

The firms may be hired on simultaneously. But frequently, the client works with the executive architect on a master plan and preliminary construction documents for months, or even years, before a design architect is chosen "to put his or her particular stamp" on a project, said Cliff Moser, who serves as an advisor to the American Institute of Architects in the area of practice management.

In some cases, the client issues a contract to each firm; in others, the two firms are covered under a single contract — often administered by the architect of record, according to Moser.