The Dallas Architecture Forum Presents
Interior Design Hall of Fame and Architectural Digest AD 100 Honorees
TsAO & McKOWN
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Horchow Auditorium at the Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Architecture Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing public education about architecture, design and the urban environment, concludes its 2018-2019 lecture season on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, with architects Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown, Co-founders of TsAO & McKOWN Architects.
Calvin TsAOand Zack McKOWN are internationally acclaimed architects and designers, whose projects range in scale from a 20 acre/six million-square-foot urban development to the design of a lipstick case, and from residential and office towers in Manhattan and Asia to rural retreats and private residences for high-profile clients. Their work can be found in New York City and across the United States, as well as in China, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, and Japan. Highly honored, recognitions include The American Academy in Rome, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award presented by President Obama, and induction in the Interior Design Hall of Fame and Architectural Digest AD 100
Partners Calvin TsAO and Zack McKOWN have led the firm through a diverse range of projects across the disciplines of planning, architecture, interiors, and product/furniture design. From the outset their practice has been both local to its home base, New York City, as well as international, starting with an apartment tower on the outskirts of Shanghai, and subsequently in Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Japan, and other cities in China, as well as the US, where they have designed residential and office towers in Manhattan to the partners’ own rural retreat, a tiny 1850’s farmstead renovation in upstate New York. Recent work includes a residential and community center for retired Buddhist monks in Bhutan, a campus expansion and new headquarters for the Sunbrella textile company in North Carolina, and a two hundred unit residential development in Suzhou, China that is anchored (physically and programmatically) by a ‘life-long-learning’ campus and by an East/West healthcare/wellness complex – plus hotels designed in conjunction with the two centers.
In 2009 Calvin TsAO and Zack McKOWN were both honored at the White House for receiving a Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum National Design Award. They are both Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, and their work has been honored with retrospective exhibits at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Syracuse University, and Parsons The New School for Design. Calvin TsAO currently serves on the Board of The American Academy in Rome and the Architectural League of New York, for which he is a former president. He has lectured and taught at numerous universities in the U.S. and abroad. Zack McKOWN serves on the Board of Directors of the Design Trust for Public Space, a non-profit dedicated to improving public space in New York City, and on the board of Scenic Hudson, a non-profit instrumental in preserving and restoring the Hudson River Valley.
Additional Media Coverage: Introspective Magazine, Departures Magazine, Wallstreet Journal
“TsAO & McKOWN Architects are internationally honored architects and designers whose work exemplifies, in the words of the late Stanley Marcus, “only the best”. They bring understated elegance and the highest standards of design to their projects, be it a multi-million square foot urban high-rise center in China, a clear lipstick case, or a private residence for a high-profile Manhattan client. All of their projects are created to be timeless and to incorporate the local cultures and contexts of a project,” said Forum executive director Nate Eudaly. “Their broad experience and detailed, thoughtful approach to architecture and design will inspire and elevate the vision of those fortunate to attend their presentation for The Forum.”
TsAO and McKOWN will speak on Wednesday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m., with check-in and a complimentary reception beginning at 6:15 p.m., in the Horchow Auditorium at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Tickets for this lecture are $20 for general admission, $15 for DMA members, and $5 for students (with ID).Tickets can be purchased at the door before the lecture. No reservations are needed to attend Forum lectures. Dallas Architecture Forum members receive free admission to all regular Forum lectures as a benefit of membership, and AIA members can earn one hour of CE credit for each lecture. For more information on The Dallas Architecture Forum, visit www.dallasarchitectureforum.org or call 214-764-2406.
Season Sponsors for The Dallas Architecture Forum’s 2018-2019 Season are Faisal Halum | Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty, Maharger Development | Reggie Graham, Perennials and Sutherland LLC, and SMINK, Inc. Series Sponsors are Headington, HKS, Jackson Walker, Scott + Cooner, and Scott + Reid Construction. Lecture Sponsors are AD EX Foundation, Callison RTKL, Claire Dewar, Emily Summers Design Associates, and Workplace Solutions. Reception Sponsors are Ornare and Pritchard Associates.
TsAO & McKOWN
1 May 2019
Wednesday, 7:00 pm
Horchow Auditorium at the Dallas Museum of Art
Forum Reception and check-in 6:15 pm
The Rose Family Lecture
Calvin TsAO and Zack McKOWN are internationally acclaimed architects and designers, whose projects range in scale from a 20 acre/six million-square-foot urban development to the design of a lipstick case, and from residential and office towers in Manhattan and Asia to rural retreats and private residences for high-profile clients. Their work can be found in New York City and across the United States, as well as in China, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, and Japan. Highly honored, recognitions include The American Academy in Rome, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award presented by President Obama, and induction in the Interior Design Hall of Fame and Architectural Digest AD 100
Partners Calvin TsAO and Zack McKOWN have led the firm through a diverse range of projects across the disciplines of planning, architecture, interiors, and product/furniture design. From the outset their practice has been both local to its home base, New York City, as well as international, starting with an apartment tower on the outskirts of Shanghai, and subsequently in Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Japan, and other cities in China, as well as the US, where they have designed residential and office towers in Manhattan to the partners’ own rural retreat, a tiny 1850’s farmstead renovation in upstate New York. Recent work includes a residential and community center for retired Buddhist monks in Bhutan, a campus expansion and new headquarters for the Sunbrella textile company in North Carolina, and a two hundred unit residential development in Suzhou, China that is anchored (physically and programmatically) by a ‘life-long-learning’ campus and by an East/West healthcare/wellness complex – plus hotels designed in conjunction with the two centers.
In 2009 Calvin TsAO and Zack McKOWN were both honored at the White House for receiving a Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum National Design Award. They are both Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, and their work has been honored with retrospective exhibits at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Syracuse University, and Parsons The New School for Design. Calvin TsAO currently serves on the Board of The American Academy in Rome and the Architectural League of New York, for which he is a former president. He has lectured and taught at numerous universities in the U.S. and abroad. Zack McKOWN serves on the Board of Directors of the Design Trust for Public Space, a non-profit dedicated to improving public space in New York City, and on the board of Scenic Hudson, a non-profit instrumental in preserving and restoring the Hudson River Valley.
TsAO & McKOWN has built its practice on a distinctive way of thinking rather than a trademark style. Mindful of the shortcomings of many architectural “interventions,” they approach a project as the occasion to put global experience in the service of local cultures and contexts. Technology meets traditional methods of fabrication. The design of each unique project informs the next, building a knowledge base that helps free the firm from conventional understandings.
Advocate, provocateur, broker — the role of Mr. TsAO and Mr. McKOWN may vary, depending on the situation. Their inspiration resides not in the grandiose and the monumental but in larger existential questions, and in focused observations of the sensual, the tactile, the unexpected: favorite streets in favorite cities, a remembered stairway, a room glimpsed in passing, seen through an open door. The spatial becomes a means to the spiritual. Urban plans, private homes, office complexes, museums, interiors, furniture, bathtubs, table settings, lipstick. The big and the small are equally compelling. The firm’s backgrounds, interests, and idiosyncrasies converge in the life in the studio. They seem to have shed the capacity to distinguish between what’s serious and what’s fun. The serious business of architecture is fun in their experience. The fun stuff, like their annual “Pie Day,” they take seriously.
Calvin TsAO
Calvin TsAO’s work draws from a lively engagement with a variety of art forms, including theater direction – which he studied and practiced while an undergraduate at Berkeley University. He has served as guest critic and lectured at universities internationally, and taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, The Cooper Union, Syracuse University and Parsons The New School. He currently serves on the Boards of The American Academy in Rome and the Architectural League of New York, of which he is a former president. In 2009 Calvin TsAO (along with partner Zack McKOWN) was honored at the White House for receiving a Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum National Design Award. Other recognitions include induction as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Museum of Chinese in America’s Legacy Award.
Zack McKOWN
Zack McKOWN’s approaches to design are greatly influenced by his life-long interests in psychology and the social sciences. His work, and collaborations with partner Calvin Tsao, have been recognized for contributions across the fields of urban design, architecture, and interior design, as well as furniture and product design. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Design Trust for Public Space, a non-profit dedicated to improving public space in New York City, and on the board of Scenic Hudson, a non-profit instrumental in preserving and restoring the Hudson River Valley, including through innovative urban planning initiatives in the region’s economically challenged cities. McKOWN is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and received the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum National Design Award (along with his partner Calvin TsAO). He has served as a guest critic and lectured widely, and has been honored, along with TsAO, by retrospective exhibits of the firms’ work at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Syracuse University, and Parsons The New School for Design.
About the Dallas Architecture Forum
The Dallas Architecture Forum is a not-for-profit civic organization that brings leading architectural thought leaders from around the world to speak in Dallas and also fosters important local dialogue about the major issues impacting our urban environment. The Forum was founded in 1996 by some of Dallas’ leading architects, business, cultural and civic leaders, and it continues to benefit from active support and guidance from these citizens. The Forum fulfills its mission of providing a continuing and challenging public discourse on architecture and urban design in – and for – the Dallas area. The Dallas Architecture Forum’s members include architects, design professionals, students and educators, and a broad range of civic-minded individuals and companies intent to improve the urban environment in North Texas. The Forum has been recognized nationally with an AIA Collaboration Achievement Award for its strategic partnerships with other organizations focused on architecture, urban planning and the arts. For more information on The Forum, visit www.DallasArchitectureForum.org.
Among the over 230 speakers who have addressed The Forum’s Lecture Series are Shigeru Ban, Brad Cloepfil, Diller + Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Daniel Libeskind, Thomas Phifer, Rafael Vinoly, Juhani Pallasmaa, AIA Gold Medal Winner Peter Bohlin, and regional architects David Lake and Ted Flato. Pritzker Prize winners speaking to The Forum have been Kazuyo Sejima, Rafael Moneo, Thom Mayne, Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster (the latter two in collaboration with the ATT Performing Arts Center). Other speakers for The Forum have been leading designers Calvin Tsao, Andrée Putman, and Karim Rashid; landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh; and National Trust President Emeritus Richard Moe. Important critics, authors and patrons who have spoken to The Forum include Emily Pulitzer, Terence Riley, Pulitzer Prize winners Robert Campbell and Blair Kamin, Aaron Betsky, and the late David Dillon.
The Forum organizes and presents an annual series of Panels—local, informal, open, and offered free of charge as a public service to the community—led by a moderator who brings a subject of local importance along with comments by participating panelists. Moderators and Panelists have also come from both other Texas cities as well as from national institutions that were connected with particular Panel subjects. Panels offer attendees the opportunity to participate in creating discourse. Important topics addressed in Panels in recent years include: “Thoughts on the Dallas Comprehensive Plan”; “The Kimbell Expansion: A Discussion”; “Filling Out the Dallas Arts District”; and “Re-envisioning the Trinity”.
For more information on The Dallas Architecture Forum, visit www.dallasarchitectureforum.org. For questions about The Forum, call 214-764-2406.
