WHO WE ARE
Rice+Lipka Architects (RL) is a New York City-based design studio with a focus on creating cultural and public works with an enduring sense of place. Recognized for bringing a civic-minded intelligence and resourceful vigor to a range of building, planning and research projects, RL embraces complex contexts and constraints, actively teasing out new design potential latent within everyday requirements.
The practice, directed by Lyn Rice and Astrid Lipka, has its roots in the art world. Rice served as a design partner and architect-of-record for Dia:Beacon, one of the world’s largest museums of contemporary art. Internationally recognized for its expansive, daylit art spaces, the project set a new benchmark for the adaptive re-use of industrial space. RL’s range of cultural projects, from small-scale installations, artist collaborations, exhibition work, and gallery design, has extended to include influential performance venues such as Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Choicirciati Cultural Center and The Kitchen.
Committed to innovation in the public realm, RL is actively rethinking the role of one of our last civic spaces - the public library - with new building and renovation projects in development for New York Public Library and Queen’s Public Library. RL’s Hamilton Grange Teen Center in Harlem, designed for NYPL, broke new ground as the first library floor dedicated to teens. The studio brings a civic sensibility to all its work, including nationally recognized works, such as the Sheila Johnson Design Center at Parsons, which breaks down barriers between public and institutional domains. Subsequent educational projects for Parsons/The New School include the Making Center, School of Constructed Environments and School of Art, Media & Technology. Ongoing institutional projects for NYPD include the award-winning new Bomb Squad headquarters building and 48-acre tactical campus masterplan at Pelham Bay Park in New York City.
Rice received both The Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices and Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard awards, with the studio receiving International ALA/IIDA Library and The Architectural Review Future Projects awards, multiple NYC Public Design Commission awards, as well as over a dozen AIA awards, including National AIA/ALA Library and National AIA Honor awards.
MUTUAL SUPPORT
American Institute of Architects (AIA), Member Firm.
The Architectural League of New York, Board of Directors/Executive Committee (Lyn Rice).
LEED Accredited Professional, United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Member Firm.
National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), Board Certified.
Registered in New York, Illinois, Colorado.
Founding Signatory of US Architects Declare.
National AIA Committee on Design, co-chairs 2014 NYC Design Conference (Lyn Rice & Astrid Lipka).
Design Trust for Public Space, Member.
Dia Art Foundation, Member.
Green Planet Architects, Member.
Urban Design Forum, Fellow.
OpenHouseNY, Member.
Storefront for Art and Architecture, Member.
The Van Alen Institute, Member.
College Art Association (CAA), Member.
HOW WE WORK
R+L seeks to elevate the civic experience of architecture by amplifying openness, connectivity and sense of place. By creatively calibrating spatial relationships, a nuanced range of personal and social experiences emerge to connect people, while offering a varied spatial landscape with degrees of privacy.
In our practice, which embraces both new construction and adaptive re-use projects, R+L understands how the raw beauty and materiality of existing structures, contrasted with contemporary interventions, can exemplify how design excellence can be achieved even with the challenges of budget, scale and process that characterize work in the public sphere.
CLIENTS
64E4 Cultural Center
BAM Local Development Corporation
Bellevue Arts Museum
Brooklyn Public Library (BPL)
Broward County Cultural Division
Buro Happold
Center for Architecture New York
Cooper, Robertson & Partners
Creative Time
The City of New York
Davis Museum at Wellesley College
Dia Art Foundation
Dissona
The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
The Fabric Workshop and Museum
Fashion Institute of Technology
Ft. Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport
Hal Foster & Sandy Tait
Grace Church New York
Greycroft Partners
Gural Family Properties
Harvard Art Museums
International Contemporary Furniture Fair
Jiangyuan Cultural & Creative Zone
Joan Mitchell Foundation
Jorinal Development Shenzhen
The Kitchen
Krannert Art Museum
Long Island City Cultural Alliance
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Metropolitan Transit Authority / New York
MTV
James Murphy/DFA Records
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)
National Building Museum
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
New Museum
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
NYC Department of Design & Construction
New York Police Department (NYPD)
New York Public Library (NYPL)
The New York Times
The New York Times Magazine
The New School
New York Stem Cell Foundation
The Noguchi Museum
NSU Art Museum
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Orlando Museum of Art
Parsons School of Design
Philbrook Museum of Art
PS1
Pratt Manhattan Gallery / Pratt Institute
Queens Library
Restaurant Associates
The Sculpture Center
Shiseido
Socrates Sculpture Park
Spotwelders
Staten Island Historical Society
Time, Inc.
University of Illinois
Village of Philmont, New York
The Whitney Museum of American Art
WHERE WE TEACH
Parsons The New School for Design, School of Constructed Environments, Assistant Professor/Master of Architecture Thesis Coordinator, 2008 - current (Astrid Lipka).
Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Adjunct Assistant Professor, 2015-2020 (Lyn Rice).
Syracuse University/NYC, Richard Gluckman Visiting Critic, 2013 (Lyn Rice).
Princeton University School of Architecture, Visiting Lecturer, 2011-12, 2007 (Lyn Rice).
The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, Visiting Associate Professor of Architecture, 2008-2011, 2004-2005 (Lyn Rice).
Parsons The New School for Design, Thesis Advisor, Integrated Design Curriculum, 2003-2004 (Lyn Rice).
Barnard College/Columbia University, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, 2001-2002 (Lyn Rice).
Princeton University School of Architecture, Teaching Assistant, 2001 (Astrid Lipka).
Columbia University, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, 2000 (Lyn Rice).
Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Teaching Assistant, 2000 (Astrid Lipka).
Columbia University, Teaching Assistant, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, 1994 (Lyn Rice).
Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Cooper Union, ETH Zürich, University of Pennsylvania, Illinois Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Florida, Visiting Critic, ongoing (Lyn Rice).
Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, Barnard College, City College NY, Pratt Institute, New York Institute of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Visiting Critic, ongoing (Astrid Lipka).
New York City College of Technology, CUNY, Department of Architectural Technology, Advisory Board Member, ongoing (Astrid Lipka).
