Architecture Research Office LLC (ARO)

Architecture Research Office (ARO) is the New York City firm led by Stephen Cassell, Adam Yarinsky and Kim Yao. Founded in 1993, ARO has earned a reputation for earnest exploration and fearless engagement that yields architecture that is original, innovative and imaginative. The firm's process of investigation, analysis, and testing makes ARO as much a laboratory as a design practice. At its core, ARO is a firm for the new millennium. Its diverse project portfolio--spanning strategic planning, architecture and urban design--solves seemingly intractable problems with apparent ease, always with an effort to have the greatest aesthetic impact using the fewest natural and financial resources. The firm's approach to architecture is never a priori or driven by a formal agenda. It is, rather, motivated by the understanding that we live in a complex world facing unprecedented challenges, and thus strives to solve difficult problems through architecture that elevates the quality of the built environment at both a macro scale and at a tactile, personal level. The result is work--from a 1,000-square-foot, low-income, sustainable housing prototype to elegant private homes to a proposal to reinvent the role of ecology and infrastructure in New York City--that is simultaneously sensuous, intellectually rigorous and socially engaging. ARO has worked with leading universities, cultural institutions, global corporations, government agencies, private residential clients and international fashion labels. In addition, the firm has gained a reputation for work that goes far beyond building as it tries to define new ways of thinking about the designed environment. Projects such as New Urban Ground, a proposal that appeared as part of MoMA's exhibition Rising Currents (2010); Five Principles for Greenwich South, a strategic framework and urban vision created with the Alliance for Downtown New York (2009); and the firm's current work with the General Services Administration and the National Endowment for the Arts to define guidelines that will promote design excellence in the federal government show ARO's willingness and capacity to engage with the demands of a complex world. The firm's current and recent architectural projects include: the Donald Judd Home + Studio Museum at 101 Spring Street in New York City; a 90,000 sf dormitory for Tulane University; a private residence in Minnesota; Union Square Park’s North End Expansion, a renovation of the historic New York City park (2010); R-House, an ultra-efficient affordable housing prototype in Syracuse, NY (2010). Past notable projects include the Princeton School of Architecture Addition (2007); the Susan P. and Richard A. Friedman Study Center at Brown University (2007); the Prada New York Epicenter Store, designed with Rem Koolhaas/OMA, (2001); Qiora Store & Spa (2001); the US Armed Forces Times Square Recruiting Station (1999); and Colorado House (1999). Architecture Research Office received the 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters honored founding principals Cassell and Yarinsky with their 2010 Academy Award for Architecture. The firm's work on the impact of climate change on New York City appeared as part of the Museum of Modern Art's Rising Currents exhibition and was featured at the U.S. Pavilion of the 2010 Venice Biennale. In 2003, Princeton Architectural Press published ARO: Architecture Research Office, which summarized the firm's first decade of work, and which was funded, in part, by a grant from the Graham Foundation.