REX

REX is an internationally acclaimed architecture and design firm based in New York City, whose name signifies a re-appraisal (RE) of architecture (X). Operating across many scales, REX consistently challenges and advances building typologies, and promotes the agency of architecture.

REX’s think-tank of 30 designers, hailing from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, is led by Joshua Prince-Ramus, who was founding partner of OMA New York—the American affiliate of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture/Rem Koolhaas—until he rebranded that firm as REX in 2006. Seminal projects include the Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas, Texas; the Vakko Fashion Center and Power Media Center in Istanbul, Turkey; and the Seattle Central Library—all opened to critical acclaim, including American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Awards in 2005 and 2011.

Current projects include the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center (PACWTC), a 7,400 m² (80,000sf) building for the production and premiering of theater, dance, music, musical theater, opera, and film works; the Mercedes-Benz Future Lab in Stuttgart, Germany, a 10,200 m²(110,000 sf) public showcase for the brand’s impact on state-of-the-art mobility and a factory for creating, debating, and presenting the indeterminate future; a 4,300 m² (46,300 sf) private residence on Long Island for a patriarch, his four children, and each of their four future families; the re-cladding and interior renovation of Five Manhattan West, a 140,000 m² (1.5 million sf) Brutalist landmark straddling Penn Station’s rail yard in New York City; and a new, approximately 37,100 m² (400,000 sf) office building in Washington, DC that will host the CBS Washington bureau, amongst other tenants. Within the past few years, REX was declared winner of a limited competition for a $480 million, 80-story tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and has been a finalist in limited international competitions for the new Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway; the Finnish Innovation Fund’s Low2No sustainable development in Helsinki, Finland; the new Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee, Scotland; and the New Central Library for Calgary, Canada.

The subject of numerous international exhibitions and publications, the work of REX has also been recognized with many of the profession’s top accolades, including two AIA National Honor Awards, a U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology National Honor Award, an American Library Association National Building Award, and two American Council of Engineering Companies’ National Gold Awards. The Vakko Fashion Center and Power Media Center was nominated for the 2013 Aga Khan Award, and the Seattle Central Library was a finalist for the inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, awarded in 2014 to the best architectural work in North and South America completed from 2000 to 2013.