Architecture Competition Greening the Industrial City Honorable mention winner – Burck Schellenberg

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winner for our "Greening the Industrial City" competition – Burck Schellenberg from United States!

Burck Schellenberg from United States

I recently started Burck Schellenberg Architecture, L.L.C. and am working as a sole practitioner.  With over 20 years of experience at firms including Gensler, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Della Valle Bernheimer, and Mancini Duffy, I have worked on a wide range of project types including single/multi-family housing, institutional, commercial, educational and master planning.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

The latest, large project I worked on as Project Manager was TSX 1568 Broadway, a 48-story tower in Times Square a mixed-use building featuring the lifting of the historic Palace Theater 30’ above street level, experiential commercial spaces and a 669 key hotel (https://tsxbroadway.com/) as the Project Manager for Mancini Duffy.  Other major projects include the Aramark Headquarters Philadelphia, PA), Electrical Industry Training Center (Queens, NY), NBC-Universal 30 Rock (New York, NY), Kö-Bogen (Dusseldorf, Germany), Xinhai Museum of Industrial Expansion (Wuhan, China), 459 W 18th St (New York, NY), 245 10th Avenue (New York, NY) and 383 Madison Avenue (New York, NY).

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture is life. It is how I make a living, but it is also the design of that in which we live.  Whether in a house, school, office or institution, we all inhabit space, and how we design and occupy those spaces reflects our values.  I don’t believe that “architecture” requires architects, I do think that architects bring invaluable thought and experience to the building endeavor, creating safe and interesting spaces.   Architects can be provocateurs, critics, builders, and counselors.  We need to embrace all of these roles with a focus on making our environment more equitable, diverse and engaging.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

 I have always appreciated the place of competitions in the architectural discourse.  It is an opportunity to explore ideas and theories in a consequence-free environment and hone one’s concepts and aesthetics.  I am seasoned professional looking to promote a new company.  Winning recognition is amazing and will certainly help, but I strove to make work that could be used in promotion, regardless of results. For younger architects, they provide a forum for sharing those ideas with the wider public that would not be afforded to unknown architects.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

I have no advice on how to win a competition except to say don’t worry about winning (unless there is a commission for the winner).  The first and most important point is to decide why you want to enter and what do you hope to get from participating.  Is it to complete a design concept? Is it practice? Clarity of purpose in entering is paramount.  The second question is time. One must be willing to invest time for a project and go at it with full-throated effort.  Be who you are and let your voice shine.