Chris Leong has been appointed as the Senior Director of Interiors for MillerKnoll

We are excited to announce that Chris Leong has been appointed as the Senior Director of Interiors for MillerKnoll. In this new role he will lead the design of environments around the world for the iconic brands in its collective–including Herman Miller and Knoll. Chris, who founded Leong Leong with Dominic in 2009,  will remain a partner and strategic advisor at Leong Leong, while Shannon Han will assume the new role of Managing Director, leading the firm’s operations. 

Remarking on the significance of the new role, Matt Stares, SVP of Real Estate, noted “This role reinforces our integration between our architecture, showroom interiors and experience teams. With extensive experience in executing thoughtful commercial, residential, and retail experiences for companies that range from Brookfield Properties to Everlane and Phillip Lim to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chris will provide a valuable approach to designing at the intersection of art and culture.”

In regard to the continuation of the creative partnership he remarked: “The position cements a longtime creative partnership between MillerKnoll and Leong Leong – a collaboration that began with OfficeUS, a prototype workspace for the future of architectural offices, presented at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, and has blossomed into ongoing furniture collaborations over the past decade.” 

“I’m honored to be appointed to this position and join the team. I’m excited to build on Leong Leong’s work at the intersection of art and culture and bring this experience to an organization that is one of the preeminent leaders in design,” remarked Chris Leong. 

“There is no one I can think of who is more qualified for this role. I’m certain that Chris’ thoughtful leadership style and distinctive design vision will have a great impact at MillerKnoll,” notes Dominic. 

On the future of the practice Dominic noted “Chris and I founded the firm with the shared vision of realigning architecture as both an aesthetic practice and a social practice. Over the last fifteen years, we have developed a body of work that spans scales, typologies, and geographies – partnering with forward-thinking clients to realize new spaces for living and creating. Our team will continue building the practice with a renewed focus on addressing the ecological concerns of our immediate future.”

Leong Leong’s Essx Design Featured in NYT’s “10 New York Destinations for Design Lovers”

NEW YORK TIMES: The New York Times explores 10 New York destinations for design lovers this month as art and design fairs draw aesthetes to the city, featuring the concept store Essx whose 7,000-square-foot minimalist, geometric interior space was designed by the architecture firm Leong Leong, strategically employing simple shapes as display elements filled with fashion from brands like Wales Bonner, Comme des Garçons, and Maison Margiela. (LINK)

Vogue Spotlights Leong Leong’s Innovative Exhibit Space for Met’s “Sleeping Beauties”

VOGUE: The New York-based architecture firm Leong Leong designed the physical space for the Met’s “Sleeping Beauties” exhibition, envisioning a single snaking hallway widening into a series of round, domed rooms to create an immersive and episodic experience for displaying the garments. Instead of traditional galleries, Leong Leong’s design features glass cases reminiscent of bell jars as centerpieces within the domed rooms. (LINK)

New York Architect Dominic Leong Has Secured Art and Fashion’s Most Coveted Gig

CULTURED: Cultured visits the Chinatown studio of Leong Leong, the architecture firm designing the Met’s upcoming fashion exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” Brothers Chris and Dominic Leong discuss their multisensory approach to the show, which recontextualizes archival garments through the lens of birth and renewal. (LINK)

Leong Leong transforms 1970s Los Angeles ranch house into “suburban sanctuary”

DEZEEN: Leong Leong transformed a 1970s Los Angeles ranch house into a striking 6,000-square-foot suburban sanctuary blending domestic and institutional spaces, inverting inside/outside and public/private through additions like a continuous wall, outdoor areas, and a polycarbonate-wrapped second story inspired by artists exploring suburban architecture complexities. The photography is by Naho Kubota. (LINK)

Leong Leong’s Wins Bronze at 2023 Brick in Architecture Awards for their Philadelphia Apartment Building Design

THE ARCHITECT’S NEWSPAPER: Leong Leong was honored with a Bronze award in the Residential Multifamily category at the 2023 Brick in Architecture Awards from the Brick Industry Association. Their project The Ray, an arts-oriented apartment building in Philadelphia, was recognized for its exceptional use of brick masonry. The annual awards celebrate projects that push the boundaries of brick design across commercial, residential, educational, and landscaping projects around the world. (LINK)

“Built Ecologies” film screening at MoMA

BUILT ECOLOGIES: Dominic Leong, co-founder emeritus of Hawaiʻi Non-Linear with Sean Connelly, was recently featured in Built Ecologies video series by MoMA’s Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment. As part of the exhibition, Emerging Ecologies curated by Carson Chan, Built Ecologies’s 10-minute episodes highlight architects and artists who profoundly engage with environmental thinking in their distinct practices, including SITE founder James Wines, animal architecture expert Joyce Hwang, aquarium architect Peter Chermayeff, Hawaiʻi Non-Linear’s Sean Connelly and Dominic Leong, and feminist Land Art pioneer Mary Miss.

W Magazine features the Hancock Park House

W MAGAZINE: Visiting the home of L.A. gallery owners Esther Kim Varet and Joseph Varet, in the historic neighborhood of Hancock Park, is surprising from the start—like sipping a drink that looks like cucumber water but turns out to be a vodka gimlet. Despite the house’s strangely plain facade that promises a suburban family home, the interior proves to be beautifully sparse, with carefully considered neo-brutalist touches courtesy of Leong Leong, the New York architecture firm helmed by brothers Chris and Dominic Leong. (LINK)

Leong Leong will design The Costume Institute’s Spring 2024 exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”

In collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leong Leong will design The Costume Institute’s Spring 2024 exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” Organized by Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge at The Costume Institute, the exhibition will reactivate the sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s permanent collection. The highly immersive exhibition will feature first-hand research, conservation analysis, and the application of diverse technologies that includes augmented reality, computer-generated imagery using artificial intelligence, coupled with video animation, projection, and soundscapes. Read more in Vogue. (LINK)

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” opens to the public at The Met Fifth Avenue on May 10, 2024. For more information, (LINK)

Shah Garg Foundation’s “Making Their Mark” Exhibition Opens

Just opened, the Shah Garg Foundation’s “Making Their Mark” is a revelatory exhibition we designed in collaboration with curator Cecilia Alemani.  It showcases the works of over 80 significant female artists from the past eight decades. We are honored to work with an outstanding collector in a storied space at the former DIA building in Chelsea. (LINK)

OSU Baumer Lecture Series, Frida Escobedo & Dominic Leong

The Baumer Series at Ohio State University’s Knowlton School, invites prominent researchers and practitioners of architecture, landscape architecture, and city and regional planning to present their work and to engage subjects both topical and enduring.

Leong Leong named to AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2023

Leong Leong has been named to AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2023, which recognizes the best North American architecture and design companies working in interiors today. (LINK)

Chris Leong lectures at Rice University

Sep. 27, 2023, 6:00pm, MD Anderson Hall, Farish Gallery

Saving Chinatown, While Also Making It Their Own

Dominic spoke to T: The New York Times Style Magazine about what it means for Leong Leong to have its office in Chinatown for a piece about a “younger generation of Asian Americans…fighting to keep the history and culture of the Manhattan neighborhood alive.” (LINK)

Artnet News Interviews Dominic and Chris Leong

Artnet News describes Leong Leong as “a favorite of the art world” in an interview with Dominic and Chris about the things they value in art and life, and why. (LINK)

The World Around Young Climate Prize

The World Around: Dominic was one of 25 world renowned architects, urbanists, and designers who provided mentorship and coaching to one of the 25 under-25 finalists for The World Around’s inaugural Young Climate Prize. Dominic mentored Foday David Kamara, whose winning project, Ecovironment, is a Sierra Leonean social enterprise that addresses environmental issues caused by post-consumer plastic waste and unsustainable building materials. (LINK)

Dominic Leong at The World Around Summit 2023 – Guggenheim Museum

The World Around, a collaborative global platform dedicated to making the best ideas in architecture accessible to all, hosted its fourth annual summit on Saturday, April 22 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. During the summit session showcasing some of the world’s leading practitioners in design, art, film, and architecture, Dominic presented the lecture, “Home is not a House,” in which he discussed Leong Leong’s work and new models of urban living reconfiguring the intersections of art, community, and culture. (LINK)

Chris and Dominic Leong join Various Small Fires, W Magazine, and Maison Margiela in celebrating Frieze Los Angeles at Hancock Park House

W MAGAZINE: In celebration of Frieze Los Angeles, an intimate dinner was held at the private home of Esther Kim Varet and Joseph Varet, co-founders of the contemporary art gallery Various Small Fires and clients of Leong Leong. The Varets commissioned Leong Leong to renovate their 4,500-square-foot home in Hancock Park. As W Magazine reports, “many guests took the time to compliment architects Chris and Dominic Leong, who designed the spare, elegant space”. (LINK)

MoMA features Hawai’i Nonlinear

The Museum of Modern Art’s Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment profiles Hawai’i Nonlinear (Link) in a short documentary, “Reclaiming Indigenous Architecture in Hawai’i” (Link). The documentary is part of the Ambasz Institute’s “Built Ecologies: Architecture and Environment” video series, which highlights prominent architects and thinkers doing innovative work across environmental topics (Link).

Cooper Union presents in-progress and completed work by Leong Leong in “Flow State”

“Flow State” (Link) exhibition opens at The Cooper Union. From November 29 to December 6, a collection of 23 works by Leong Leong will be on display at Cooper Union’s Foundation Building (7 East 7th St, NY, NY). The in-progress and completed works span over 13 years and represent projects at a variety of scales, from urban housing to everyday objects.

Leong Leong named to AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2022

Leong Leong has been named to AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2022, which recognizes the best North American architecture and design companies working in interiors today.

The Bellslip longlisted in Dezeen Awards 2022 Leisure and Wellness Interiors category

Leong Leong’s design of the The Bellslip’s (Link) lobby and gathering space has been longlisted in the Leisure and Wellness category of the 2022 Dezeen Awards.

Dominic Leong appointed Associate Professor Adjunct at The Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture for Fall 2022

Dominic joins the faculty of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art for Fall 2022 as a visiting Adjunct Associate Professor in The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. The studio he is teaching will focus on expanding definitions of accessibility in architecture by looking at the work of artists that moves beyond strategies of assimilation, toward more radical world-building that centers the lived-experience of disabled people. In dialogue with artists Carolyn Lazard and Ezra Benus, students will speculate on radical forms of accessibility and design an extension to PS1 MoMA.

Chris Leong to teach Architecture Studio III at Columbia GSAPP

Chris Leong is returning to Columbia GSAPP for the Fall 2022 semester to teach a graduate design studio that explores how adaptable, multi-use structures can create new models of more connected living. The studio will reimagine housing that can flex to suit diverse, dynamic households to support people at different life stages.

James Fuentes announces new LA gallery to be designed by Leong Leong

The contemporary art gallerist and downtown New York stalwart James Fuentes has announced plans to open a second gallery in Los Angeles in Melrose Hill.

Pandemic Resilient Housing

Together with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) (Link) and Transsolar, Leong Leong has been developing pandemic resilient housing strategies. The first phase of research focused on temporary solutions for families to create a safe room for physical isolation that maintains social connection. A second stage of work on more permanent interventions for improved air quality is now underway. Watch the video here (Link).

MoMA PS1 Courtyard Coalition

Over a two year period, Leong Leong collaborated with MoMA PS1 to develop the Courtyard Coalition (Link), a process that culminated in a participatory mapping project led by artist Cara Michell (Link), that looked at Long Island City’s past and present. In its inaugural presentation in Homeroom, the initiative invited conversation with neighbors, artists, urbanists, community organizers, ecologists, and technologists around a sustainable future for PS1’s Courtyard as an experimental site of shared engagement.

The Bellslip opens at Greenpoint Landing

The Bellslip (Link), a multi-family, mixed income residential tower in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, has opened. Leong Leong designed the interior amenities of The Bellslip for Brookfield Properties.

Leong Leong commissioned by NYC HPD to design affordable housing

NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (Link) has announced (Link) the selection of the Norma, an 11-Story, 100% affordable home ownership project designed by Leong Leong (Link) with Almat Urban and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (Link).

The Norma (named in honor of Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first African American woman to pass her license exam to officially become an architect in both New York and California) will give rise to 44 homeownership opportunities through a mix of one- to three-bedroom condo-style coops for low- to moderate-income households with a broad range of affordability.

Chris Leong appointed Visiting Critic at Cornell AAP

Chris Leong is appointed as a Visiting Critic at Cornell AAP NYC for Fall 2021. Chris will lead a graduate design studio that focuses on the future of intergenerational living and pandemic resiliency for housing in New York City.

Dasha Zhukova launches Ray

Arts patron and philanthropist Dasha Zhukova has launched Ray, a new venture that aims to bring art, culture, and thoughtful design to real estate. Among Ray’s first projects will be a 110-unit building in Philadelphia. Leong Leong will design the building, which will be outfitted with street-level artist studios and maker spaces (Link).

Hawai’i Non-Linear co-founders to teach Advanced Architecture Tutorial at Columbia GSAPP

Dominic Leong and Hawai’i Nonlinear co-founder Sean Connelly will teach an Advanced Architecture Studio at Columbia GSAPP this summer.

HNL + MIT

Dominic and Chris Leong along with Hawai’i Nonlinear co-founder Sean Connelly have been appointed as visiting lecturers to teach a graduate design course at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning this Spring 2021 semester.

Lecture at MIT SA+P – “Bio-Trust: On Insides and Outsides”

In a live-stream lecture presented by MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, Chris and Dominic reflected on Leong Leong’s 10 years of practice and the studio’s ongoing research into informal and formal collectivities. The lecture, titled “Bio-Trust: On Insides and Outsides,” can be viewed here (Link).

Leong Leong longlisted as Dezeen 2019’s Emerging Architect

Leong Leong has been included on the Dezeen Awards 2019 longlist for Emerging Architect of the Year. For more information on the award, please visit Dezeen Awards 2019 (Link).

Public voting will be through Pinterest. Like Leong Leong’s post (Link) to vote for the studio.

The Anita May Rosenstein Campus named 2019 AIA|LA Presidential Honoree

The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter has named the Los Angeles LGBT Center as a 2019 AIA|LA Presidential Honoree for Community Contribution. The AIA|LA Design Awards recognize Los Angeles-based architects and practices that exhibit design excellence and create transnational architecture within Los Angeles and beyond.

For more information on the award, please visit AIA|LA’s website (Link).

Leong Leong’s Nolita Green featured in Quality Affordable Housing Database

Leong Leong’s Nolita Green, a senior afforable housing proposal, is featured in the NYC Public Design Commission’s Quality Affordable Housing Initiative. The Designing New York: Quality Affordable Housing Initiative (Link) provides an expansive database of affordable housing projects.

You can view the complete Quality Affordable Housing Database here (Link)

Anita May Rosenstein Campus named Special Mention by Architizer Awards 2019

The Anita May Rosenstein Campus is named a Special Mention for Architecture + Community in the 2019 Architizer Awards.

For more information, visit Architizer here (Link).

Anita May Rosenstein Campus

The Anita May Rosenstein Campus for the Los Angeles LGBT Center completes Phase I of construction. The campus spans nearly a city block in the heart of Hollywood. The opening coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Center, which serves more LGBT people than any other organization in the world, welcoming more than 42,000 client visits each month.

Phase II of the campus is expected to be completed in early 2020 and will add 98 units of affordable housing for seniors and 25 supportive housing apartments for young people.

For more information on the project, visit the Anita May Rosenstein Campus project page here (Link).

Leong Leong designs “An Opera for Animals” at Para Site Hong Kong

An Opera for Animals, an exhibition curated by Cosmin Costinas and Claire Shea, is now open at Para Site Hong Kong. Exhibition design was done in collaboration with Wkshps. For more information, visit Para Site (Link).

Architecture Effects

Leong Leong exhibits “Float Tank 01” as part of Architecture Effects at The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, an exhibition of architecture, art, and storytelling in the reappraisal of a timeless question: What makes architecture more than just building? It effects. This exhibition points at the idea of effect itself as a common ground for architecture, art, and storytelling in the very museum that stirred global attention on the effects of architecture.

Architecture Effects features works by Nina Canell, Frida Escobedo, Mikel Eskauriaza, Didier Fiúza Faustino, Frank O. Gehry, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Oliver Laric, Leong Leong, MOS, MAIO Architects, Nemesis, PWR Studio, and Jenna Sutela, as well as written contributions by Ashley Mendelsohn, John Menick, Venkatesh Rao, Gordon White, and the exhibition curators Manuel Cirauqui and Troy Conrad Therrien.

We are hiring!

We are hiring! Intermediate Designer sought by Leong Leong Architecture DPC in New York, NY to prepare architectural designs and renderings. Req: Bachelor of Architecture with 5 years of school and 3+ years architectural design experience w/ Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD, 3DS Max, Rhino, Adobe Creative Suites. Email CV to jobs@leong-leong.com (Link).

24x24x24

Making the most of the longest day of the year, 24x24x24 (Link) brings together 24 designers to shape a day of programming and contribute a seat for a collective gathering during the summer solstice. From dawn until dusk, 24x24x24 is an experiment in collective production in design, action, and thinking. 24x24x24 is collectively organized and curated by a group of architects who will be taking over Storefront for Art and Architecture from 7pm on June 20 to 7pm on June 21. Organized by Leong Leong, Buro Koray Duman, Kalos Eidos, Peterson Rich Office, and Studio Cadena.

The Anita May Rosenstein Campus tops out in Hollywood

The Anita May Rosenstein Campus for the Los Angeles LGBT Center recently topped out the steel erection in Hollywood. The project is on schedule to be complete in the Spring of 2019.

NYCxDesign Awards Finalist

Leong Leong is honored to be selected as an NYCxDesign Awards Finalist (Link) for the Everlane New York store (Link). The program, organized by Interior Design and ICFF, celebrates outstanding talent across major areas of design such as architecture, interiors, furnishings, lighting, and technology, and unifies the more than 500 events taking place during NYCxDESIGN (Link), New York City’s showcase of global design.

The Architect’s Newspaper selects Leong Leong for “Top 50 Interior Architects” list

Leong Leong is honored to be selected by the editors of The Architect’s Newspaper (Link) for its first annual “Top 50 Interior Architects” list, which recognizes the 50 most innovative and influential architects and designers working in interiors today. This honor is the culmination of an extensive review of interior architecture projects across the United States by The Architect’s Newspaper editorial staff to identify the most innovative talents in the industry.

Leong Leong to participate in “No-Thing” exhibition curated by Juan García Mosqueda and presented by Friedman Benda

Leong Leong is excited to participate in No-Thing, an exhibition curated by Juan García Mosqueda and presented by Friedman Benda (Link), with newly commissioned works from nine emerging architectural practices. No-Thing runs from January 18 to April 14, 2018, in Friedman Benda’s project space.

No-Thing will feature new works by Andy and Dave (Brooklyn, NY), Ania Jaworska (Chicago, IL), architecten de vylder vinck taillieu (Gent, Belgium), Leong Leong (New York, NY), MILLIØNS (Los Angeles, CA), MOS (New York, NY), Norman Kelley (New York, NY, Chicago, IL), SO – IL (Brooklyn, NY), and Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Concepcion, Chile).

New Local / Living

Please join us for New Local / Living on Friday, October 27. This is the second in a three-part series of workshops that Chris is co-organizing with Emily Abruzzo​ and the AIA New Practices New York​ Committee in collaboration with A/D/O​, Arup​, and Pratt Institute.

The focus of the workshop will be on the changing patterns of living in cities and the need for new models of housing. Can we use architecture to support new social infrastructures in our urban cores? How can the city become a ‘laboratory’ for living to create a more diverse and equitable future?

Speakers include Vishaan Chakrabarti, Jing Liu, Jared Della Valle, Nadine Maleh, Anika Singh Lemar, and Marc Norman.

Dominic and Chris at Culture Lab Detroit

Dominic and Chris are honored to participate in this year’s Culture Lab Detroit (Link) (October 5 and 6) along with Hilton Als, Martine Syms, Mel Chin, and others. They will explore the role of art as a mechanism for cultural analysis and, in particular, its capacity to address reality and realism in our “post-truth” world.

Dominic to lecture at University of Oregon

Dominic (Link) will be lecturing at the University of Oregon’s (Link) Eugene and Portland campuses. The events are free and open to the public: Monday, April 17 at 5:30pm, Lawrence Hall, Room 206, 1190 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene, OR | Tuesday, April 18 at 5:30pm, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR.

Dominic to lecture at University of Toronto

Dominic (Link) will be lecturing at University of Toronto (Link) Friday, January 27, 2017, 1:00pm to 2:00pm, Room 108, 569, Spadina Crescent, Koffler House.

Leong Leong receives 2017 Emerging Voices award from The Architectural League of New York

Leong Leong has received the Emerging Voices award for 2017 from The Architectural League of New York. The honor is bestowed on “North American individuals and firms with distinct design voices that have the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.” We are honored to be included in such a distinguished group.

Bond Street’s “For New York” series

Chris and Dominic name a few of their favorite non-profits in Bond Street’s “For New York” series (Link).

The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design

Chris to participate on jury for The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards.

Dominic Leong to present lecture at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Dominic Leong to present lecture at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning titled “Bad Practice” on Friday, September 30 at 4:30pm in the Architecture and Urban Planning Building 170.

Leong Leong releases design for AAFE Center for Community and Entrepreneurship

Leong Leong is commissioned to design new AAFE Center for Community and Entrepreneurship in Queens with JCJ Architecture.

Leong Leong’s Chris and Dominic to teach an Advanced Design Studio at GSAPP on Technologies of the Self

Leong Leong’s Chris and Dominic to teach an Advanced Design Studio at GSAPP on Technologies of the Self.

Leong Leong to collaborate with Project Projects on permanent exhibition design for the Bass Museum of Art in Miami

Leong Leong to collaborate with Project Projects on the design of a permanent exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami.

The new Triple Canopy office is near completion

The new Triple Canopy office is near completion.

TOPO, an immersive sound bath, opens at Sight Unseen in New York

TOPO, an immersive sound bath, opens at Sight Unseen in New York.

A Toolkit for a Newer Age opens at Chamber Gallery

Leong Leong’s A Toolkit for a Newer Age opens at Chamber Gallery in New York alongside works by Steven Holl and Leven Betts in a show curated by Andrew Zuckerman.

Leong Leong is commissioned by the Los Angeles LGBT Center to design new campus

Leong Leong is commissioned to design the Anita May Rosenstein Campus for the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood.