Exhibition Tours

Friedman Benda and Galerie56 are pleased to announce Et Tu, Ettore, a collaborative exhibition on the groundbreaking Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007). The exhibition is an intimate approach to Ettore Sottsass’ work with Galerie56 founder Lee F. Mindel, FAIA, offering an architect’s examination of another architect’s creative output. The works to be featured range in medium and time period, acting as a survey of Sottsass’ creative output. This includes rarely seen examples of his early ceramic prototypes made in the 1960s from Sottsass’ own personal collection, two of his iconic totems, and works from his Geology series produced in the early 2000s. The latter pieces in particular possess a potent kinship to the architecture of Galerie56 itself. The exhibition will run March 19th through May 14th.

Join us for an evening panel celebrating graphic designers that have worked with the Center for Architecture. MTWTF, Once-Future Office, and Manuel Miranda Practice will present on past work for exhibitions, web projects, and programs. Diana Budds will join as moderator of a larger discussion on representing architecture and design through graphic media.

Speakers:
Glen Cummings, Principal, MTWTF
Manuel Miranda, Principal, Manuel Miranda Practice
Dungjai Pungauthaikan, Principal Once-Future Office

Moderator:
Diana Budds, design journalist

About the Speakers:
Glen Cummings is a graphic designer, and founding partner at MTWTF, a graphic design studio on New York's Lower East Side. He is an adjunct associate professor in Pratt Institute's School of Design and teaches in the graduate and undergraduate communication design programs. Glen received his B.F.A. from The Art Institute of Chicago and his M.F.A. in Graphic Design from Yale University School of Art. Glen is a former AIGA/NY board member and Vice President, a fellow for the Design Trust for Public Space, and an accomplished heavy metal guitarist.

Manuel Miranda has been a graphic designer in New York City since 2005. His studio Manuel Miranda Practice works on projects for schools, cultural organizations, artists, government, neighborhoods, and parks. He is senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art and has given talks on design and visitor experience for the National Park Service, Columbia University GSAPP, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Miranda has served on the New York City Public Design Commission since 2016. Previously, he was a design director at 2×4, vice president of AIGA New York, and a designer at Brand Integration Group at Ogilvy and Mather. 

Dungjai Pungauthaikan is a founding Principal and Creative Director of Once-Future Office. A big picture systems-thinker who loves connecting design, people, and the built environment, she sees potential in all things and brings unmatched creative vision to the studio. As a first-generation Thai-Chinese American and native Californian, she leads teams and projects with warmth and patience while getting the job done. Pungauthaikan is an award winning designer whose work has been recognized by the Art Directors Club, Type Directors Club, Print Regional Design Annual, the Society of Publication Designers, and the Van Alen Institute. With her hands-on approach, she has led multi-channel campaigns for NYC, branding and wayfinding for world-class buildings and museums, identity systems and websites for leading practices within the architecture and design industry, and exhibitions for renowned cultural institutions. At the AIANY Center for Architecture, Pungauthaikan has led the design of a number of exhibitions including Designing Affordability, Built by Women, Fairy Tale Architecture, and most recently, Built by New York and Why Design?, which are both on view until April 5, 2025. She holds a BA in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and an MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design.

Diana Budds is a design journalist based in New York. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, Wallpaper*, The Architects Newspaper, Architectural Digest, Urban Omnibus, and Curbed, among other publications.

This event is offered in-person and virtually. If you have registered for a Zoom ticket you will receive a link in your registration email.

Sergei Tchoban is a German/Russian architect/artist whose fantastical sectional perspectives build on the traditions of Palladio, Lebbeus Woods, and Paul Rudolph. This exhibit of 30 freehand drawings explores the imaginary use of the architectural section.

Please join us for the opening night celebration for three exhibitions—Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture, AIANY Design Awards 2025, and New Practices New York 2025: Voice—that will be on view at the Center for Architecture from May 8–September 2, 2025. The evening will include remarks from each exhibition team as well as mingling and light refreshments! 

About the exhibitions
Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture traces the life, work, and networks of lesbian feminist architect Phyllis Birkby (1932–1994), who pushed design professionals and the public to imagine a built environment beyond the confines of existing male-dominated forms. Inspired by the women’s movement and gay liberation, she joined one of the first lesbian feminist consciousness-raising groups, staged a feminist building occupation, and co-founded the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture. Her most groundbreaking intervention, however, was a series of workshops  that encouraged women to imagine and draw their “fantasy environments”—the home and community spaces they would like to inhabit. Fantasizing Design takes Birkby and her circle of friends, lovers, and collaborators as a lens on the broader ways feminists and lesbian feminists have worked to remake architectural practice, domestic space, and the broader built environment.
Curators: Stephen Vider and M.C. Overholt
Graphic Designer: Marissa Martonyi
Exhibition Designer: Xiaoxiao Guo

AIANY Design Awards 2025 features Honor, Merit, and Citation award recipients in the categories of Architecture, Interiors, Projects, and Urban Design. The selected projects and the architecture firms that designed them represent the exceptional work by AIA New York members and architects practicing in New York City. All 23 winning projects were chosen for their design quality, response to context and community, program resolution, innovation, thoughtfulness, and technique. To be eligible, projects had to be completed by AIANY members or architects/designers practicing in New York or be New York projects designed by architects/designers based elsewhere.
Graphic Designer: Studio Lin

New Practices New York 2025: Voice will showcase the winners of the latest New Practices New York competition, organized by the AIANY New Practices Committee since 2006. The competition’s goal is to recognize and promote architecture and design firms founded in New York City within the last 12 years. Through juried portfolio review, we’ll honor unique and innovative strategies to establish VOICE through practice and projects. The winning firms are A+A+A, Aanda, AUR, BAAB, IGG, and Mattaforma.
Graphic Designer: New Information