NEW YORK, NY.- With its third biennial competition and exhibition, the New Practices Committee of the AIA New York Chapter is thrilled to recognize seven promising and pioneering new architecture firms working in New York. These young firms will be featured in an exhibition opening July 15 at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, and will be featured in 2011 in an exhibition in São Paolo.

The New Practices New York 2010 exhibition will showcase EASTON+COMBS, which earned the highest honor in the competition; Archipelagos; LEONG LEONG; MANIFOLD; SOFTlab; SO-IL; and Tacklebox.

For the first time ever, the exhibition, designed by Leven Betts, is organized by mode of representation, so viewers can compare the work of each firm, side by side. There are more models in this NPNY exhibition than ever before, and each firm produced two short films about their practice for the exhibition.

“The success of this competition relies on the firms that participate each year and each year we see such incredible talent and innovative approaches to design problems – it’s really inspiring.” said Marc Clemenceau Bailly, AIA, New Practices Committee Co-Chair and former New Practices winner. “The group this year really demonstrates a refinement in the use of new design technologies and processes – they have bright futures.”

Through a symposium and studio tours, arranged in conjunction with the exhibition, design enthusiasts will gain even more insight into the ways these young guns work.

The Competition
To qualify for the competition, practices had to be founded since 2004, and be located within the five boroughs. This is the first year that the New Practices competition has been open to firms without a registered architect, widening the field of entrants to architectural designers and young professionals in the process of becoming licensed architects. Sixty-five registrants entered, and a distinguished panel of jurors selected the competition’s winners on Wednesday, May 12. The jury members were: Toshiko Mori, FAIA, Lead Juror, Toshiko Mori Architect; Joe MacDonald, Assoc. AIA, Urban A&O; William Menking, The Architect’s Newspaper; Guy Nordenson, Guy Nordenson and Associates; and Galia Solomonoff, AIA, Solomonoff Architecture Studio.

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“The New Practices Committee is extremely pleased by the quality and breadth of this year’s New Practices New York Showcase winners,” said Matt Bremer, AIA, New Practices Committee co-Chair and former New Practices winner. “This year’s juried portfolio competition shows that despite the economic conditions in New York of the last few years, New York continues to foster tenacity, invention, and sophistication in both the ways new architecture and design firms practice, as well as in the range of built and speculative work they produce. We look forward to giving these firms exposure and a platform on which they can build.”

While the AIA New York Chapter, with close to 5000 members, is the oldest and largest chapter of an 85,000 member national organization, the Chapter’s commitment to support and promote young and emerging talent is expressed through this third iteration of the biennial New Practices competition. “We are heartened to see how these firms are reimagining the future of the profession,” explained AIA