New Practices Committee of the AIA New York Chapter recognizes seven promising and innovative new architecture firms—each of which has been founded since 2004 - to be featured in an exhibition and programming at the Center for Architecture in New York and be featured in 2011 in an exhibition in São Paolo.

This is the first year that the New Practices competition has been open to firms without a registered architect, widening the field of entrants to architectural designers and young professionals in the process of becoming licensed architects. Sixty-five registrants entered the third biennial portfolio competition,and a distinguished panel of jurors selected the competition’s winners last week. The jury members included Toshiko Mori, FAIA, Lead Juror, Toshiko Mori Architect; Joe MacDonald, Assoc. AIA, Urban A&O; William Menking, The Architect’s Newspaper; Guy Nordenson, Guy Nordenson and Associates; and Galia Solomonoff, AIA, Solomonoff Architecture Studio.

The 2010 winners are: EASTON+COMBS, which earned the highest honor Archipelagos; Leong Leong; Manifold; SOFTlab; SO-IL; and Tacklebox.

“The New Practices Committee is extremely pleased by the quality and breadth of this year’s New Practices New York Showcase winners,” said Matt Bremer, AIA, New Practices Committee co-Chair and former New Practices winner. “This year’s juried portfolio competition shows that despite the economic conditions in New York of the last few years, New York continues to foster tenacity, invention, and sophistication in both the ways new architecture and design firms practice, as well as in the range of built and speculative work they produce. We look forward to giving these firms exposure and a platform on which they can build.”

While the AIA New York Chapter, with close to 5000 members, is the oldest and largest chapter of an 85,000 member national organization, the Chapter’s commitment to support and promote young and emerging talent is expressed through this third iteration of the biennial New Practices competition. “We are heartened to see how these firms are reimagining the future of the profession,” explained AIANY president Anthony Schirripa, FAIA, “They are the design leaders of the 21st century.”