Authenticity and Innovation explored preservation in contemporary New York City, a particularly relevant topic for a metropolis characterized by perennial change. Here old buildings have embodied cultural memory and moored a rapidly transforming cityscape as it has been continually reshaped by development pressures and evolving architectural tastes. How historical buildings have responded to the fast pace around them—how they can be both preserved and innovatively repurposed for our time—was the focus of this show. While New York City has about 1,500 individual landmarks and 139 historic districts that are overseen by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, this exhibition featured 28 projects in structures that are not officially designated as “significant.” They represented a range of strategies for the creative reuse of old buildings that took place outside of the official historic preservation mainstream, as resourceful developers, owners, tenants, and architects recognized the potential for housing new functions never imagined by their original builders. The renewal of these familiar structures acknowledged their valued role in communities as well as an appreciation of their time-honored materials and craftsmanship, their durability and generous scale. While demonstrating a variety of strategies for balancing change and preservation, these projects also represented the dynamic fusion of new and old that has long been the core of what is authentically New York City. The exhibition comprised newly commissioned photographs and models of featured projects as well as new interviews with architects and developers, among others.

Mr. Albrecht conceived the idea of the show, selected all artifacts, co-authored exhibition text, and worked with the design team.

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Credits
Content researcher and exhibition text co-author: Eric Jackson-Forsberg 
New photography: Rob Stephenson
Exhibition designer: Perrin Studio
Photographer: Rob Stephenson

Co-curated with Andrew Dolkart and Seri Worden

Presented in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of New York’s landmarks law, Saving Place comprised an illustrated timeline outlining preservation in New York from the end of the 19th century to today, with a display of models, drawings, and building components exploring restoration and new architecture in historic districts. The exhibition underscored that the landmarks law culminated decades of advocacy by citizens, journalists, and civic groups who sought to preserve the city’s patrimony within the context of an ever-changing metropolis. The law gave the new agency the power to protect individual buildings andentire districts of architectural, historical, or cultural significance. A few years later, that power was expanded to include important interiors and scenic landscapes. Over the years, architects and developers have designed additions to historic buildings and built new structures of varying styles inhistoric districts. Everything about preservation has been, and is, a matter of comment and debate. Indeed, the definition of what a landmark is has evolved and is evolving, just as approaches to architectural modification and restoration have changed. Whatever the future holds, the past shows that the landmarks law has transformed the city, fostering a mix of old and new buildings that contributes to the vibrant urbanism that characterizes New York City for both its citizens and the millions of tourists who visit every year. Accompanied by a 208-page catalog, with photographs by Iwan Baan.

Working with co-curators Andrew Dolkart and Seri Worden, Mr. Albrecht developed the themes of the show, selected all artifacts, wrote exhibition text, and worked with the design team. He was responsible for selecting Iwan Baan, whose specially commissioned photographs are featured in the exhibition and catalog.

>See exhibition catalog

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Press

Coverage in the New York Daily News via Associated Press, untappedcities.com, hyperallergic.com, and live segment on New York 1

“Illuminating”
Sam Roberts, New York Times, April 23, 2015

“A revealing new exhibition”
Alex Traub, New York Review of Books Daily, July 12, 2015

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Credits
Exhibition designer: Studio Joseph
Exhibition graphic designer: Studio NR2154
Catalog graphic design: Pentagram
Photographer: Thomas Loof

Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers showcased innovative design solutions to better accommodate New York City’s changing, and sometimes surprising, demographics, including a rising number of single people. It featured a full-sized, flexibly furnished micro-studio apartment of just 325 square feet—a size prohibited in most areas of the city. Visitors saw models and drawings of housing designs by architectural teams commissioned in 2011 by Citizens Housing and Planning Council, in partnership with the Architectural League of New York. The exhibition also presented designs from the Bloomberg administration’s pilot competition to test new housing models, as well as examples set by other cities in the United States and around the world, including Seattle, Providence, Montreal, San Diego, and Tokyo.

Working with Citizens Housing and Planning Council’s policy analyst Sarah Watson and co-curator Andrea Renner, Mr. Albrecht conceived the exhibition’s themes and organization; identified its designer; and wrote exhibition wall text.

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Press

Extensive coverage in all media (print, radio, television and digital): New York Daily News; New York Post; New York Times; Associated Press national outlets; 1010 WINS; special NPR segment; WCBS; CNN; Fox 5; Brazilian, Chinese, Spanish, and Russian television; Curbed

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Credits
Co-curator: Andrea Renner
Exhibition and graphic design: Pure+Applied
Lighting design: Anita Jorgensen
Photographs: John Halpern

Co-curated with Thomas Mellins.

House & Home was a tour through the varied and rich history of residential architecture in America. The exhibition was a multilayered display of photographs, objects, models, and films that reveals American domestic life over four centuries. The exhibition explored changes in architecture, building construction, appliances, financing, community building, and the myriad ways that American homes have expressed both personal and national identity.

The project was launched and partially funded with National Endowment for the Humanities grants written by Mr. Albrecht and Mr. Mellins. They later worked with museum staff to select the exhibition’s artifacts and media presentations and to complete exhibition text.

Voted one of the 10 best exhibitions of the year by the Washington Post.

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Press

“In photographs, films, models, timelines and nearly 200 artifacts (including a pink flamingo lawn ornament, a tortilla press, an early Apple home computer and a vibrator from the 1920s), all spread among six galleries, the show gamely asks some of the big questions….”
Penelope Green, New York Times, May 2, 2012

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Credits
Co-curators: Thomas Mellins with Sarah Leavitt
Exhibition Design: Ralph Appelbaum and Associates
Photographs courtesy National Building Museum

Now Boarding: Fentress + The Architecture of Flight explored the work of Denver-based architect Curt Fentress, who emerged as one of the world’s leading airport architects with the completion of the terminal complex for Denver International Airport in 1995. Since then, he and his firm have designed airports in the United States and Asia that exemplify the most innovative ideas in architectural design, passenger experience, and regional planning. To provide context to the architect’s work, the exhibition included a timeline of airport and airplane history, artifacts exploring air travel in popular culture, a specially commissioned media installation about air travel today, and digital speculations on the airport of the future. Accompanied by a 144-page catalog.

Mr. Albrecht developed the idea of the show, identified media artist Ben Rubin, selected all the artifacts, and wrote exhibition text and a catalog essay.

> See exhibition catalog

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Press
“The exhibit is tight, informative and easy to digest with photos, video and light text.”
Ray Mark Rinaldi, Denver Post, July 29, 2012

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Credits
Associate curators: Darrin Alfred and Peter Christensen
Exhibition designer: Ben Griswold/Spatial Poetics
Exhibition graphics designer: Evan Cotgageorge/McGinty
Installation photography by the Denver Art Museum

Co-curated with Thomas Mellins.

Throughout American history, no style has proven more enduring than the Colonial Revival. Powerfully connecting the present to the past, the Colonial Revival remains popular today, retaining its status as the American style. Surprisingly, New York City—the ultimate modern metropolis, endlessly changing and rebuilding itself in a rush to the future—has long been home to some of the world’s great revivalist styles of architecture and design, including the Colonial Revival. New York architects created social clubs, town halls, and post offices in the style. Designers and manufacturers produced popular examples of Colonial Revival furnishings, often in collaboration with collectors, museum curators, department store executives, and publishers who disseminated the images that define the Colonial Revival style across the country. New Yorkers also advanced the Colonial Revival through elaborate events staged during moments of both celebration and adversity. Accompanied by a 224-page catalog.

Mr. Albrecht and his co-curator conceived and developed the idea of the show and catalog, selected all artifacts, wrote the exhibition text and catalog, and assembled the design team.

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Press
“One of the achievements of the illuminating exhibition
The American Style…is that it helps make the invisible visible.” Edward Rothstein, New York Times, June 13, 2011

“A small, unorthodox exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York…has a large agenda: to restore the reputation of a tradition discarded by modernists as irrelevant and expendable…” Ada Louise Huxtable, Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2011

Mr. Albrecht developed the concept and themes of the show, its organization, and he assembled its design team.

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Credits
Co-curator: Thomas Mellins
Exhibition designer: Peter Pennoyer Architects
Exhibition graphics and catalog designer: Abbott Miller/Pentagram
Lighting designer: Anita Jorgensen
Installation photographer: Peter Mauss/Esto Photographics

Tour of 3 museums in Canada and the United States, starting at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2010

Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie explored the renowned architect’s work and philosophy. The exhibition guided viewers on a journey from Safdie’s groundbreaking Habitat for Expo ’67 in Montreal through his most recent projects in China, India, Singapore, and the U.S., showcasing his extraordinary career as a leading architect, urban planner, theorist, educator, and author. The exhibition was accompanied by a 144-page catalog.

Mr. Albrecht developed the idea of the show and catalog, selected all the artifacts, wrote the exhibition text, assembled the design team, and contributed a catalog essay.

> See exhibition catalog

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Press
“The exhibition does not just reflect the global reach of Safdie’s practice, it goes on to explore Albrecht’s premise that the architect has an unusual ability to represent local culture and aspirations.”
Maria Cook, “Safdie’s World,” Ottawa Citizen, October 2, 2010

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Credits
Exhibition designer: Office dA
Exhibition graphics and catalog designer: Pure+Applied
Installation photographer: Bilyana Dmitrova

Tour of 9 museums in Europe and the United States
2006–2010

This exhibition is the first-ever retrospective of Eero Saarinen (1910–61), one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial architects and designers of the 20th century. Saarinen shaped America’s national identity during what publisher Henry Luce called “The American Century” with his designs for General Motors, Bell Labs, CBS, IBM, and the U.S. government.

> See exhibition catalog

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Press
Reviews in Metropolis magazine and The New York
Review of Books.

“The current show and publication…are exemplars of scrupulous scholarship and handsome presentation.”
Martin Filler, The New York Review of Books, June 12, 2008

“Curator Donald Albrecht superbly describes what the architect did and how he did it…”
Jayne Merkel, Metropolis magazine January 2008

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Credits
Exhibition designer: Roy Manttari
Exhibition graphic designer: Michael Beirut/Pentagram

An exhibition looking at the first building constructed
by avant-garde Los Angeles architect Neil Denari,
a condominium tower abutting New York’s new
High Line park.

Mr. Albrecht conceived the idea for the show
and co-organized it.

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Credits
Co-curator: Thomas Mellins
Designer: Pandiscio Studios