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W Architecture & Landscape Architecture

W Architecture & Landscape Architecture
Private
Industry Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design
Founded 1999
Headquarters Brooklyn, New York City
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Barbara E. Wilks
(Founder)
Website w-architecture.com

W Architecture & Landscape Architecture (W Architecture) is an international architecture and landscape architecture firm based in Brooklyn, New York City. Founded in 1999 by Barbara E. Wilks, the firm is primarily known for its design of major waterfront reclamation projects and collaborative repurposing of public spaces. W Architecture has received substantial coverage in the media for the Edge Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; a redesign of the West Harlem waterfront; restoration of St. Patrick's Island in Calgary; and the recent Plaza 33 Madison Square Garden adjacency.

W Architecture & Landscape Architecture was formed as a Limited Liability Corporation in 1999 by Barbara E. Wilks, who remains founder and principal of the firm. Wilks, a fellow in both the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) and the American Society of Landscape Architects (FASLA), claims to have started the company "to create a design-oriented, multidisciplinary practice focused on urban issues," and to "realign nature and the city. In recent years, W Architecture's projects have increasingly moved toward larger collaborations spanning multiple municipal agencies such as NYCEDC and other neighborhood revitalization organizations or economic development councils.

In the 2015 Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here W Architecture is described as being part of a "new kind of urban activism and urban design," willing to "stimulate social action for sustainable urban design and therefore cooler cities." The firm's site plans display a preference for the reintroduction of natural ecological systems rather than ad hoc botanical features. The designs tend to emphasize the resiliency of local flora previously displaced by manmade, commercial manipulation of municipal waterways. Consistent characteristics throughout the firm's portfolio are the utilization of reclaimed local materials, streets and walks that turn into greenways, sloped planes, as well as long angular overlays and subtle dimensional transitioning to introduce water, botanical, and recreational features. Not all the firm's projects are waterfront revitalizations, however, Wilks said, speaking at the 2013 reSITE conference in Prague, she enjoys this kind of work because it's "where natural systems come together with manmade, human systems."


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