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PROGRESSIVE | PROFESSIONAL | EXPERIENCED

KUSHNER studios is a New York City-based architectural firm known for its forward-thinking and creative residential, commercial, and hospitality projects. Founded by Adam Kushner in 1994, the firm seeks to redefine the nature and place of architectural practice, to be inclusive of traditionally independent disciplines of construction & development. KUSHNER Studios is also known for its pioneering in the field of 3D printing on the architectural scale through its allied company Madco3D, LLC, as well as the founding of its general sister contracting firm, In House Development.

Mission Statement

Adam Kushner, founding principal, believes strongly that design enlightens and enriches its users; to that end, he continually strives to foster opportunities for growth both for himself and those around him. Above all the firm believes that design begins before the client arrives, and doesn't end until after the owner takes the keys.

KUSHNER Studios seeks to redefine the nature and place of the practice of architecture to be all-inclusive of construction and its related endeavors.

KUSHNER Studios approaches each project with an efficient team of credentialed and skilled architects, designers, and allied consultants. With our broad design and engineering backgrounds, we have been able to develop for our clients a sophisticated angle of products and services, from traditional architectural services to presentations and graphic packages as well as modeling, expediting, space planning, and furniture and industrial design among others. The staff's experience in graphic and architectural design makes such innovative packages accessible to a broad spectrum of clients

HISTORY 

KUSHNER Studios was born in Long Island during the summer of 1994 from the cellar of Mr. Kushner’s suburban home in Old Bethpage, Long Island; about 35 miles from New York City. As his practice slowly grew, he transitioned it into a shared office in the storied Cable Building, located at 611 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. KUSHNER Studios hired its first employee; a fellow graduate student and friend, in 1995. Over the following years, the team steadily grew as more employees joined the firm.

​By 1997, KUSHNER studios had outgrown its Broadway space and relocated to a former industrial loft at 245 Canal Street. That followed his landlords were a sect of Buddhist Monks who lived and practiced in the same building. Mr. Kushner considered this a particularly auspicious beginning. Continuing to grow steadily, by 2005 the firm had 30 employees and again needed to seek out a new home in a commercial loft space at 390 Broadway a few blocks away. KUSHNER studios continued to work out of this space until 2019, when faced with a tremendous rent increase decided to transition & combine all of its operations to its current office. We can be found at the historic Liberty Tower Building at 55 Liberty Street which happened to be the former bank office of Franklin D. Roosevelt, now located on the second floor of the building, at the top of a classic double set of marble stairs leading from the building's main entrance. Since 2021, KUSHNER studios share space with Mr. Kushner’s other companies - his construction practice In House Group Inc., Madco3D, and his recently formed development firm: In House Development Group.

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Stationary from Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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Image credits: Joseph Pell Lombardi, Entrance view of 55 Liberty 2nd Floor during early 20th C.

Adam Kushner

Early Background

Mr. Kushner was born in Washington Heights, New York City in 1963, a child raised during the heady era of the Space Race and Woodstock. Having a father who worked on the Apollo LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) project for Grumman Aerospace cultivated Mr. Kushner’s interest in crafting and building things. His interest was fueled by his dad’s encouragement and the Revel models he would bring home for him. The smell of testors glue & paints still remain with him. Mr. Kushner soon graduated from Revel models to Erector Sets, a popular building toy from the late 1960s, as well as balsa wood airplanes (some with the particularly dangerous Cox single-piston gas engines). 

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As the years passed, he never strayed far from this fondness for physical fabrication. During a notable high school summer, he relished the work he did for a Long Island sole practitioner who was an architect/contractor that allowed him to draft in the morning and frame residential additions in the afternoon. During his college and post graduate years, he developed a passion for welding, a skill that remains a hobby of his to this day. The concept of beginning with nothing and ending with a tangible manifestation of an original idea held a powerful place in his life and career development.

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Credits: A Kushner Model/Photo

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Credits: A Kushner Drawing & Photo

Education/Early Career

Personal Life

Mr. Kushner attended grade school at a New York City public school before moving to ‘Co-op City’ in the Bronx, a well-known massive housing project that helped shape and mold his ideas on collective housing. In 1975, Mr. Kushner and his family moved to Old Bethpage, Long Island, a prototypical suburban bedroom community; where he graduated from the Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in 1981. He went on to obtain his B.A. in Architecture in 1986 from ‘Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’, after which he worked for several small firms, as well as the Manhattan satellite office for the well-known Boston-based firm ‘The Architectural Team’, where he was part of many successful and award winning large scale residential developments. Following these endeavors, Mr. Kushner was hired to be the sole architectural designer for the Manhattan-based architect/developer Henry George Greene Architects in 1989. His primary task for over two years was to design a 28-acre waterfront residential/commercial development in Hastings-On-Hudson, a riverfront town located about 20 miles north of New York City. Part urban planning, part building design, this project proved to be an all-encompassing design effort which Mr. Kushner eagerly tackled, that is, until the project was brought to a sudden halt by conflicts within the town’s leadership.

Rattled by this significant setback, in November of 1991, Mr. Kushner embarked on an 11-month around-the-world backpacking adventure to reconsider his future. Upon his return, he wasn’t quite ready to return to a 9-5 job. Instead, in 1992, he returned to academia when was accepted into Cornell’s Graduate School of Architecture program. Mr. Kushner had earned many academic opportunities and awards in addition to receiving his master’s degree in architecture. He was selected to represent Cornell University during a ‘Multi-University Design Charette’ at Wassaic, New York in October of 1993, and received a teaching fellowship in 1993 and 1994. Furthermore, he was invited to represent Cornell University in their ‘International Internet Design Studio’ under a summer research fellowship in the Summer of 1994. Later that year, he was awarded the ‘James Eidlitz Traveling Fellowship’ from Cornell University. After his graduation from Cornell, Mr. Kushner returned to New York and immediately launched his architectural firm, KUSHNER Studios, in May of 1994.

Mr. Kushner married Dr. Louise Chuu, an obstetrician-gynecologist, soon after they both graduated from Cornell University, having met each other two days after he arrived on campus. They currently have twins whom they recently have sent off into the world to attend college. Mr. Kushner, continues to suffer from an incurable case of wanderlust and has been on many global adventures, including an around the world eleven-month backpacking voyage throughout Asia, China, and the Indian subcontinent. He considers himself an avid New Yorker, having been born and raised here and enjoys the nuances and richness of human experience that all urban spaces offer, but especially the one he calls home. He is also an avid runner, having completed his 34th NYC Marathon in 2023 (and 2nd Marathon Di Roma) and a vintage scooter collector of which he owns 7. More recently he has succumbed to the allure of antique map collecting; his most treasured find being a rare copy of ‘Nolli’s Map of Rome'.

Academic Affectation

After his interests in teaching were nourished as a Design Studio Assistant while at Cornell, he went on to teach at Pratt Institute’s Graduate School of Architecture in 1996. Shortly thereafter, he held positions at NJIT School of Architecture, The New York Institute of Technology (Old Westbury Campus), and Rutgers University’s Arts Department. Recently, he was invited to teach one of the first courses in America on 3D printing in Architecture, at the City College Bernard Spitzer School of Architecture (Spring 2022). He is often invited to give lectures and attend reviews at many universities and colleges both locally and abroad.

01

NOTABLE PROJECTS 

This new, seven-story residential building features a ground-floor retail space and 23 high-end condominium apartments, including two penthouse units, and an incorporated duplex townhouse with a private entrance and elevator. 

The development boasts New York City's first fully automated parking system (and the second in the United States), as well as a private gym, public communal space, and private individual rooftop spaces. Mr. Kushner’s construction company, In House Group, acted as the general contractors for this project, making it the first substantial design-build endeavor for KUSHNER Studios, and one of the more ambitious design-build projects of this scale in New York City.

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02

16 Minetta Lane (2022)

16 Minetta Lane is a significant project for KUSHNER Studios as it fulfills an entirely integrated design-build-development paradigm. 

The purchase of this townhouse was publicly chronicled in season two of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York” (2013 Episodes 1&2).

It was also featured in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Gothamist, in addition to many other media outlets, and has become a top visited site at the Annual OHNY Open House Tour Event since 2011.

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03

Recently completed, 136 Summit Avenue is located in Jersey City, in New Jersey’s quickly developing Journal Square area. These 99 residential units, 148,000 sq foot development is the company’s largest new building to date. It boasts a series of ground floor retail spaces, an expansive lobby space, a 75-unit parking garage, a full-service gym and a series of large public outdoor spaces.

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04

This duplex apartment sited on the top floor of a West Village former industrial loft building features high-end interior and exterior finishes, private outdoor spaces, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. It combines two existing top floor studios with an added mezzanine and several newly designed outdoor spaces. Its design incorporates various New York City iconography such as subway train doors and tiles as well as other Manhattan-centric ephemera. This project, lovingly referred to as ‘The Subway House’, continues to garner critical acclaim from international press and local media alike.

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05

This current and ongoing project will be a mixed-use building with 81 units of residential apartments (1, 2 and 3 bedrooms), all having some access to outdoor space, 21 of which will be considered affordable. In addition, there will be ground floor retail, underground parking, tenant storage, and a rear landscaped yard. 

Notably, this 14-story building will feature a series of 3D printed elements, marking this project as the first high-rise in America to claim such a title. Realized through a series of monumental two-story storefront entries and second floor balconies, these pieces will set the rhythm for both the Third Avenue and Degraw Street sides, making a strong statement on the corner.

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Awards & Recognition: 

KUSHNER Studios is an award-winning firm and are proud of its public recognition for its excellence in design and innovation. K.S. is a winner of the 2024 Architizer A+ Award for its transformative work in 3D printing. KUSHNER Studios was a finalist for the 17th International Hospitality Design Awards  in 2020. In both April 2016 and 2017, it was awarded the Architizer A+ Award for the Gardiner Pool House  project in Gardiner, New York, for its innovation in the adoption of 3D-printing technology into their work. KUSHNER Studios was awarded the ‘Fine Dining Award for Hotel and Hospitality Design’ for the design of ‘En Restaurant’ in 2005. Partners Mr. Adam Kushner & Mr. John Bedard are often asked to speak on a variety of topics to various groups & organizations.

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MADco3D

Madco3D

​L.L.C.

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Since 2012, Adam Kushner has focused on developing the then nascent technology of full-scale 3D printing through his company, Madco3D, and bringing this emerging building methodology to the world at large. At the City College of New York, he has given regular 3D printing lectures for their means and methods of construction course (from 2017-present), and has recently taught 3D printing in architecture, at graduate and undergraduate level there as well (2022).

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Madco3D, L.L.C. is a construction venture that utilizes large-scale 3D printing methods to produce architecturally-scaled structures. Located in Rochester, New Hampshire, and Manhattan, New York, Madco3D has become one of the leaders in the northeast in this emerging industry in fabricating buildings using this developing methodology.  

 

Currently, MADCO3D is led by Mr. Kushner and accompanied by Mr. Dan Bernard, Mr. Tim Lucido, Mr. Mark Lazar and other partners.

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MADco3D Projects 

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Madco3D is producing various construction projects including ground level facades for the first high rise in America to incorporate such a technology. In addition, we have produced a full-scale demo piece for a 3D-printed concrete house which was recently certified (December 2023) by the town of Rochester, New Hampshire, for an upcoming multi-home development. â€‹ The group has successfully created large-scale art using an otherwise little used method of large-scale 3D printing with their sand deposition printer. They have partnered with Twente Additive Manufacturing to expand their fabrication capabilities with their trailer-sized, seven-axis mounted robotic arm concrete ABB extruder machine. â€‹Madco3D is underway in printing its first 3D printed home in Manchester, New Hampshire. Additionally, it has received support from ‘Sika USA’, the internationally recognized cement and materials giant, as well as the University of New Hampshire’s Advanced Manufacturing Center for Information on their 3D printing endeavors.

01

Austin House (Proposed)

This house was inspired by the contemporary ‘tiny house’ movement. Notably, this project combines Madco3D’s hybrid printing processes while attempting to create small spaces that vacillate between moments of privacy and publicity. This is significant as most of the buildings in this genre trend more towards the idea of substituting experience with technology, meaning ‘virtual space’ supplants ‘real space’ and mobility is prioritized over fixed objects. The Austin House project aims to be utilized as low-cost housing, working to help solve the overall national housing crisis. As it is still in the development phases, the company aims to have the design ready for construction in the near future.

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02

765 North Mountain Road (Proposed)

This project holds a seemingly unexpected historical record, being the first permitted 3D printed structure in the United States. When Mr. Kushner went to file it with the local building department, he was given only three boxes to check off: stick built, modular construction or masonry construction. He considered this, before drawing a fourth box on the permit application with the words ‘3D Printed’, and proceeded to boldly check it off. It was approved and plans for the project’s actualization have officially begun. As it strives to showcase all of the possibilities of 3D printing, this project has been hampered over the last few years by forces within the team’s control (such as their printer, which was not quite ready for such a production at the time) to those outside of their control: (75’ trees crashing on the site, minus ten-degree weather and even bears!). The permit continues to be renewed and Kushner and Madco3D vow to bring this compelling building to fruition in the near future.

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03

A triptych of sculptures designed by Monad Studio and their founder Eric Goldenberg, Barboletta was realized using MADCO3D’s sand deposition printing technologies. The pieces were exhibited for the Venice Biennial in 2021.

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In-House Group Inc. 

Founded in 2008 by Adam Kushner and Jason Prisco, In House Group Inc. is a general contracting firm that originally served as a hands-on fabrication and construction-related arm of KUSHNER Studios’ architectural practice. The company has now morphed into a fully self-sufficient and successful firm, but is unique in having the knowledge and management systems initiated through its architect founders. This follows a relatively new trend in which architects become involved in the development and construction of the projects that they have designed. In addition to their construction services, In House Group Inc. has also ventured into development and real estate scenes under a sister company, In House Development.

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KUSHNER + In-House Development Projects:

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Route 299 (Expected 2025)

The Route 299 venture is one of the first times that KUSHNER Studios and his partner Mr. Prisco have decided to act as their own developers, using land that Mr. Kushner purchased a decade ago to build a single-family house. While wanting to design a building that steered away from more traditional houses, they took a radical approach. Instead of beginning with a client and their personal ideas, the firm decided to present something unique to the market and allow the world to find them instead. In the design of this project, Mr. Kushner attempts to bring the entire geologic history of the Hudson Valley into one cogent design statement. Aside from the direct ‘quotes’ found in known landmarks around the area, (notable examples include ‘Lake Awosting’ and the well-known boulder called ‘Spyglass’ at the foot of Undercliff Road and the ‘Stony Kill Falls’), the building’s massing recalls the large boulders that had fallen from the last glacier as it receded north up the Hudson Valley. This ‘statement piece’ is intended to be a thrilling and inspiring place to live. The design has recently been permitted and will be breaking ground shortly.

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Other Works/Projects

M34 - Gorzow, Poland 

M34 - Gorzow, Poland: Named after the building’s location in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland, as well as a cheeky reference to a certain mid-town bus, the M34 acts as a symbol of KUSHNER Studios’ international reach. The building stands 13-stories tall, and is composed of a lower, 2-story shopping center, and an 11-story commercial tower. The 158,000 SF project was one of the first of many large strides that the firm would make to establish its presence on the international architecture scene. It also happens to hold an interesting record as the highest building elevation in this region of West Poland. It is also the largest building by volume in this mid-sized town. Mr. Kushner, along with a few friends and partners, purchased the building and after 20+ years, believes that they are perhaps finally on the verge of creating a viable and profitable venture.

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Kushner Studios Architecture + Design, P.C.
55 Liberty St 2nd Fl, New York, NY 10005
+1 (212) 965 0914
info@kushnerstudios.com

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