Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architect PC is internationally recognized for design excellence over a wide range of environmentally- and socially-sustainable projects. The firm has exceptionally strong credentials in the areas of urban housing, childcare centers, and recreation and performance facilities.

Mr. Kirschenfeld began his studies in 1976 at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies headed by Peter Eisenman. The following year, he was invited to work in the Milan office of Aldo Rossi and had the opportunity 15 years later to collaborate with Rossi on the Holtzman Residence in Michigan. Soon after graduating from the Masters program at Princeton, Mr. Kirschenfeld was a founding partner at Architrope, an award-winning design firm established with Andrew Bartle in 1987.

Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architect PC provides comprehensive design services to not-for-profit and public sector clients, institutions, corporations, and private clients.

The firm's most recent large-scale project, The Floating Pool (www.floatingpool.org) drew major television, radio and print coverage during its inaugural summer season at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The 20,000 square foot facility, an example of the firm's commitment to sustainable design, hosted over 50,000 visitors during its eight week season, and won an international 2007 Award of Excellence from the Waterfront Center. The Pool was also honored as the runner-up in the prestigious 2007 Cooper-Hewitt Museum People's Choice Design Award, and has received a 2008 Masterwork Award, a 2008 Building Brooklyn Award, a 2008 Neighborhood Achievement Award and the 2009 International Design Award (Renovation Category).The project has been published widely in national and international books and magazines, and was chosen as one of 15 projects to be exhibited in the American Pavilion at the prestigious 2008 Venice Biennale.

The 600-seat Floating Theater, another of the firm's widely published waterfront projects, is expected to open in Summer 2012. The firm had previously designed a new Recreation Hall and Theater for the Coalition for the Homeless, completed in 2000 on the Coalition's summer camp site in Bear Mountain State Park, N.Y.

In the supportive housing, field the firm is completing the last two of six new SRO Residences for a variety of not-for-profit housing developers. Bronx Park East, one of the first of these buildings to be completed, is the subject of a recent front page Arts feature by the NY Times architectural critic, Michael Kimmelman.

The six SRO buildings, ranging in size from 43 units to 77 units, share similar building programs and share a common feature: they all adapt to irregular, 'remnant' urban sites. On an urban scale, the buildings address the physical particularity of their lots by strengthening the street-wall, figuring common courts and gardens, and providing options for privacy and social interaction for their formerly homeless mentally-ill residents. The 300 sf studio apartments contain full kitchens and bathrooms and a living /sleeping area. Collective spaces typically include large community room with warming kitchen, exercise room, library, counseling offices, and laundry.

Design recognition for the firm's housing work included a 2005 NYC-AIA Housing Design Award and a 2004 Building Brooklyn Award for the 50-unit Marcy Residence. Mr. Kirschenfeld's first building for this same client was the 48-unit Knickerbocker Residence for mentally-ill veterans, located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The building was one of the first new facilities of its kind and has been widely published.

Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architect PC was recently chosen by the 1199 Employer Child Care Corporation to design their on-site child-care centers for a variety of hospital campuses. The firm was also chosen to design the 6750 s.f. expansion of the Lehman College Child Care Center for CUNY. Other child care projects include the $3.6 million Hollis Avenue Day Care Center, completed in 1999 for the NYC Department of Design and Construction, and the Brooklyn Army Terminal Day Care Center, designed for the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Both projects received Awards of Excellence from the NYC Arts Commission.

Aside from his role as principal, Mr. Kirschenfeld has taught at graduate programs including Columbia University's School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, Pratt Institute, and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Mr. Kirschenfeld has been twice selected as first-alternate for the Rome Prize, and has recently founded the Institute for Public Architecture (IPA) a not-for-profit think-tank and residency colony for architects.