Interiors

Join us for a Louis Armstrong “double-header” in Queens: The Louis Armstrong Center and the Louis Armstrong House Museum on February 1, 2025. Sara Caples, AIA, and Everardo Jefferson, AIA, of Caples Jefferson Architects will lead us on a tour of the Louis Armstrong Center, the new state-of-the-art building which preserves and expands the legacy and ideals of America’s first Black popular music icon. The visit will continue with a docent-led tour of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

The Louis Armstrong Center celebrates Armstrong’s distinctive role in African-Diaspora history and vitality, offering year-round exhibitions, performances, readings, lectures, and screenings through an array of public programs for all ages.

As designed by Caples Jefferson, the Louis Armstrong Center is at the scale of the modest neighborhood that Armstrong loved, while creating an urban precinct for his music that welcomes in all visitors. This new building establishes the final piece of the campus that now comprises the museum as whole; it now includes the home itself that reflects the personal values of Louis Armstrong, the garden that serves as a place for gathering and a place for live performances, and the visitor center, designed as an interpretation of Armstrong’s music, where the public can learn even more about the icon that is Louis Armstrong.

Register to join the tour >

The AIANY Interiors Committee and the Retail Design Institute NY Chapter celebrated exceptional retail experiences ranging from full-line traditional department and specialty apparel stores to restaurants, kiosks, and pop-up shops, highlighting outstanding and innovative retail spaces that encourage new techniques in planning, design, graphics, fixturing, lighting, and visual merchandising.

Winning Projects:
Petco THE HEALTH + WELLNESS CO.:
Cindi Kato-Yokoyama, Arcadis
Rick Niera, Petco

Store of the Year: Tiffany & Co.:
Stacey Bertin, Tiffany
Silvia Schwarzer, Tiffany
Ramon Ocampo, Arcadis
Michael Rostkowski, Arcadis

Learn more about this past event >

The AIANY Interiors Residential Review was created by the Interiors Committee to showcase New York City-based architects who are designing outstanding residential spaces. Projects selected from the entries were displayed in showrooms in SoHo, from October 9–31, 2024. Support was generously provided by SoHo Design District.

The 7th Annual Residential Review featured work submitted by:

Andrew Magnes Architecture
AMMOR Architecture
Bangia Agostinho Architecture
Desai Chia Architecture
IN STUDIO
INC Architecture & Design
Kariouk Architects
Leroy Street Studio
Young Projects

Learn more about this past event >

Recipe for a Room is a model-making contest about building spatial, sculptural, miniature rooms while fostering fun, creativity, and professional mentorship. For the 2024 edition, two-person teams, each comprised of a student and architect mentor, designed small-scale places for the displaced. We challenged teams to create one-person shelters which can be folded up into suitcase-size, portable packs.

Over 180,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022. Many did not choose this city as their destination, but all are travelers who left a previous home behind. In September 2023, Mayor Eric Adams stated, “New York is one of the few states where you have the right to shelter… however, while our compassion is limitless, our resources are not.” Shelter is only guaranteed for 30 days for single individuals and 60 days for families.

Recipe for a Room asked student competitors to create a safe, temporary, portable Room for two displaced persons (one parent and one child), constructed of items one might take when leaving a previous life: a bag, a coat, favorite shirt, shoes, family photos, etc.

Learn more about this past event and see the winners >

Speed Presentations was created by the AIANY Interiors Committee to showcase New York-based architects who are designing outstanding interior spaces. The format of the event—10 architects presenting in quick-fire six-minute intervals—allows us to explore a wide range of projects in a short time frame.

The theme of this edition, “Building Community,” calls for projects that make significant contributions to buildings, development and neighborhoods through design, program, service, and/or other strategies. Projects may be of any type or scale, may be public or private, however should be predominantly about the design of interior spaces. Examples include, but are not limited to, social venues, gathering spaces, building amenity spaces (residential or commercial), retail stores, restaurants/cafes, and community rooms/centers.

See submission details here ->