Annabelle Selldorf


Annabelle Selldorf is a German-born architect and founding principal of Selldorf Architects, a New York City-based architecture practice. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the recipient of the 2016 AIANY Medal of Honor. Her projects include the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, Neue Galerie New York, The Rubell Museum, a renovation of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, David Zwirner's 20th Street Gallery, The Mwabwindo School, 21 East 12th Street, 200 11th Avenue, 10 Bond Street, and several buildings for the LUMA Foundation's new contemporary art center in Arles, France.
Current projects include an expansion of the Frick Collection, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Hauser & Wirth's new gallery on 22nd street in Chelsea, a new greenhouse and renovation of the historic greenhouse at Dumbarton Oaks, and an Interpretation Center at the Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

Early life and education

Selldorf was born on July 5th, 1960 in Cologne, Germany. While growing up, she was inspired heavily by both her father, Herbert Selldorf, and his subtle architectural approach as well as modernist tradition. At the age of 12, Selldorf's father purchased a house in Cologne, Germany, making tiny adjustments to the lighting, furniture, and wall color that formed the foundation for her own architectural approach. Selldorf also found inspiration in Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe's designs, citing his 1930 Tugendhat House in Brno, Czech Republic as typifying a balance of daily living and design. She moved to New York City in the early 1980s. She received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute in New York and worked briefly for architect Richard Gluckman, then earned a Master of Architecture degree from Syracuse University in Florence, Italy.

Career

Selldorf explains in an article for Architectural Digest that she did not want to be an architect growing up. Her father is an architect, and he eventually recommended she work for a contractor. This experience sparked her interest to pursue the profession. As she moved into more traditional workspaces, many of her projects involved balancing both interior design and architectural endeavors for private and residential clients.
She founded her first independent practice in 1988, which today employs upwards of 65 employees.
Selldorf has designed gallery and exhibition spaces for Hauser & Wirth, the Whitney, Gladstone Gallery, Michael Werner, David Zwirner, Acquavella Galleries and Frieze Art Fair's Frieze Masters. Her firm routinely collaborates with the Gagosian Gallery on exhibition designs.
Her approach to design has been described in the Wall Street Journal as "...about restrained and understated elegance. From reinvented Beaux-Arts galleries to handsome residential towers, the Selldorf statement goes against the grain." Her work has also been praised by Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic for The New Yorker as "...a kind of gentle modernism of utter precision, with perfect proportions." In another article by Architectural Digest, Selldorf describes her design process -- as demonstrated in her work on a Fifth Avenue apartment -- as focusing on "unconscious comfort" and "clean and clear space."
In 2010, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg honored Selldorf's firm with a Public Design Commission Award for the design of the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility a processing center for New York City's curbside metal, glass, and plastic recyclables. Michael Kimmelmann reviewed the building in the New York Times; "Selldorf was, in retrospect, an inspired choice. The German-born Annabelle Selldorf runs the firm, which stresses crisp lines, elegant volumes and a clean, formal vocabulary in which nothing goes to waste." The Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility is also a winning site of Built by Women New York City, a competition launched by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation during the fall of 2014, to identify outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered and built by women.
She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an Academician of the National Academy Museum and School, and a board member of the Architectural League of New York, World Monuments Fund, and the Chinati Foundation. In 2016, she received the AIANY Medal of Honor, and the Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014. Ms. Selldorf has taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and Syracuse University and is a frequent juror and lecturer.

Other activities

As of 2015, Selldorf lived in Greenwich Village with her partner, Tom Outerbridge.

Selected projects