Architecture Research Office
Biographies
Stephen Cassell
Stephen Cassell co-founded Architecture Research Office in 1993. ARO is now a ten-person firm and has an intense focus on design: its research-driven process is the common thread running through its diverse projects. The firm often custom-designs furniture and fixtures for its clients, working closely with artists and crafts people, and designs on various scales and complexities from furniture to free-standing structures. Recently completed projects include the US Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Time Square; houses in untouched Colorado landscape and suburban New Jersey; store installations for Biotherm cosmetics; high-tech offices for the headquarters of an investment firm. ARO has been noted for several exhibition designs such as the Cooper Hewitt's Henry Dreyfus Directing Design, as well as for New York loft conversions, a lobby and a sculpture garden fence.
Before ARO, Cassell spent five years at Stephen Holl Architects, where he was responsible for several award-winning projects, including the Hybrid Building in Seaside, Florida, which received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. He was project architect for the Sutro Public Baths recreation facility, a winner of a Progressive Architecture Public Realm Award, while with the San Francisco firm TLMS. Cassell has taught at the Rhode Island School of Designand the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He received a 1998 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. He is on the Board of Directors of the American Center for Design. Cassell received his undergraduate degree in architecture from Princeton University and his Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.
Adam Yarinsky
Adam Yarinsky co-founded Architecture Research Office in 1993. Yarinsky received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and his Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University. He was the first-prize winner of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Traveling Fellowship while at Princeton. In his four years at Stephen Holl Architects, he was responsible for several projects, including the Texas Stretto House, which won a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. He served as the Sanders Teaching Fellow at the University of Michigan and has also taught at the University of Virginia School of Architecture,Yale University, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Yarinsky served as athe 1996-1997 Chair of the Young Architects Committee of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
ARO Selected Bibliography
Waters, Debra. Architecture Research Office (ARO). Oculus 1995. October, V.58, n.2, p.9.
Rappaport, Nina. Architecture Research Office: Armed Forces Recruiting Station, New York City. Architecture 2000 January, V. 89, n.1, p. 96-101.
Architecture Research Office: Loft Apartment, Flatiron District, New York City, U.S.A. GA Houses. 1996 March, n.48, p.12-13.
Architecture Research Office: Loft Apartment, SoHo, New York City, N.Y,U.S.A. GA Houses. 1995 March, n.45, p.16-17.
Architecture Research Office: Marking House, Catskill Mountains, New York City, U.S.A. GA Houses. 1997 April, n.52, p.16-17.