Architect Alan Wanzenberg believes that design today is less motivated by the desire to facilitate social change or alter the way we think than it has been in the past. “It’s more driven to compete with trends in media and fashion,” he says, citing the prevailing interest in Modernism as an example.

After graduating from architecture school, he took a job with I. M. Pei and then formed an architecture and design firm with the late Jed Johnson, with whom he worked for 14 years before establishing his own New York City practice in 1996. Wanzenberg says he is inspired most by those “who have authenticity and integrity—they are what they appear to be. The notion of authenticity allows people to work in beautifully resolved ways.”

An emphasis on design resolution and craftsmanship is fundamental to his approach. “I have very few preconceptions about a commission. We start from this position and let it go from there,” says the architect. “I look at the different elements—lifestyle, environment—and how to balance them.” Recent projects include residences on Jupiter Island in Florida; in Litchfield, Connecticut; and in upstate New York; as well as a guesthouse in California’s Napa Valley and a restoration project in New Jersey. He also collaborated with artist Louise Bourgeois on a pavilion in Phi Phi, Thailand, that houses a sculpture memorial for the tsunami victims.

Alan Wanzenberg

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