Letters to the Developer

In 2014, Storefront launched Letters to the Mayor, a project that invited architects to write letters to their city mayors as a way to open up dialogue about the making of cities and public life. This fall, Storefront launches Letters to the Developer in New York City. As part of this project, a select group of architects, curators, historians, and critics have each  been asked to write a letter to a New York City-based developer who should be recognized for making a positive contribution to public life. The letter articulates one exceptional act that the developer has carried out; an act that goes beyond common practice and that participants believe should become part of the norm. The letters, as a collection, will recognize the great achievements of developers in New York City by presenting a factual representation of the highest possible standards for development. Dwelling upon past and present achievements, the project aims to raise the level of awareness and recognition of acts that can help to inspire better development practices in New York City, and subsequently around the globe. The letters are being exhibited at Storefront’s gallery space in New York from October 5th to October 20th as part of the exhibition Work in Progress, which showcases alternative visions for New York City development projects, as well as a photographic survey of active construction sites throughout the city.

Participants
Spencer Bailey, Barry Bergdoll, Fred A. Bernstein, Phillip G. Bernstein, Suzanne Carlson, Eran Chen, Henry Cobb, Jean-Louis Cohen, Todd DeGarmo, Jared Della Valle, Patrice Derrington, Craig Dykers, Iben Falconer, Belmont Freeman, Mark Gardner, Peter G. Guthrie, Brandon Haw, Laurie Hawkinson, Steven Holl, Frederick Iseman, Andrés Jaque, Dan Kaplan, Thorsten Kiefer, Roy Kim, James von Klemperer, Dominic Leong, Daniel Libeskind, Paul Makovsky, Thom Mayne, Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown, Shawn McLearen, William Menking, Joseph Mizzi, Stephen Moser, Enrique Norten, Nat Oppenheimer, Avani Parikh, Lisa Phillips, Richard Plunz, Linda Pollak, Gina Pollara, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Charles Renfro, Mark Robbins, Robert Rogers, Tomas Rossant, Bradley Samuels, Eduard Sancho Pou, Joel  Sanders, Annabelle Selldorf, Sylvia Smith, Michael Sorkin, Jonathan Garnett / Chelsea Meyer / Steven Harper / Preeti Sriratana, Oana Stanescu, Margaret Sullivan, Carl Swanson, Carla Swickerath, Thomas Sze Leong Yu, Nader Tehrani, Ada Tolla, Christian Wassmann, Marion Weiss, James Newton Wines, Adam Yarinsky