Tripti Joshi (Editor)

Karla Rothstein

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Nationality
  
American

Practice
  
Latent Productions

Occupation
  
Architect

Name
  
Karla Rothstein

Alma mater
  
University of Maryland (B. Arch, 1988) Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (M.Arch., 1992)

Projects
  
Ballston Lake House Greylock Mill, North Adams MA SEED, Twenty Five Affordable Homes Beach 43, The Rockaways, Queens NY House of Little People. NY, NY 20th Street Condos. Brooklyn, NY Verboten, Brooklyn, NY

GSAPP Core 1: Eternal Memory Bank Studio


Karla Maria S. Rothstein (born 1966) is an American architect and adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is also the founder and director of Columbia University's trans-disciplinary DeathLAB Rothstein is also the co-founder of Latent Productions, an architecture, research, and development firm in New York City in 1999 with Salvatore Perry. A significant focus of her architecture practice, research, and teaching has been redefining urban spaces of death and remembrance.

Contents

Early years

Karla Rothstein received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Maryland, School of Architecture in 1988 and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) in 1992. While at GSAPP, Karla participated in exchange programs in Russia and Switzerland, receiving Certificates of Academic Exchange from the Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1989 and the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in 1991. Prior to co-founding her own architecture practice, Rothstein worked as an international coordinating architect for William McDonough and Ralph Appelbaum & Associates.

Work

Rothstein's first built work was "Ballston Lake House" in Saratoga, New York, developed with Joel Towers, that is anchored by 150,000 pound of precast concrete. It was the only US house included in the book "In DETAIL: Single Family Houses" (Birkhauser, 2000) in addition to being counted among notable architecture historian Kenneth Frampton’s anthology of American Masterworks (Rizzoli, 2008).

In 2014, Karla Rothstein’s design of a commercial space that featured custom fabricated concrete blocks cast in flour sacks was recognized by Built by Women New York City and the American Institute of Architects New York. In 2015, Latent’s Constellation Park project placed third in an international competition on new ways of memorializing the dead. A model of the project was sold by Christie’s at a charity auction and is currently on display at Sir John Soane's Museum in London. Her most notable work was Verboten, a 10,000 square foot night club in Brooklyn, New York. Current projects include the design and development of 25 units of affordable housing in Brownsville, Brooklyn, awarded through the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the conversion of a 240,000 square foot former mill in the Berkshires, the design of environmentally-advanced civic infrastructure to replace urban cemeteries, an environmentally-conscious childcare facility in New York City, and a prototype for a resilient small scale building in a Rockaways flood zone, among others.

Supported as a Jacob Javits Fellow in Fine Arts from 1988–1992, a William Kinne Traveling Fellow in 1992, and a NYFA recipient in 2000, Rothstein’s professional and academic work has been featured and/or exhibited at Storefront for Art and Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Barnard College, Columbia University, Van Alen Institute, Max Protetch Gallery, the Center for Architecture, Gizmodo, Architecture Magazine, Casabella, The New York Times, Financial Times, and WIRED, Japan.

Selected awards and honors

2001

  • Progressive Architecture Award Citation for 20+22 Renwick, a proposal for an 11-story building challenging NYC zoning interpretation
  • 2006

  • New York/ New Foundations Affordable Housing, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development
  • 2013

  • Presidential Award to Honor Great Teaching, Finalist, Columbia University
  • DesignBoom Design for Death Architecture Competition, Short-listed design for Constellation Park
  • 2014:

  • AIANY Honor Award, Interiors, for Runner&Stone, a bakery-barrestaurant in Gowanus, NY
  • Architizer’s A+ Awards, Architecture + Materials, Finalist for concrete Belly Blocks
  • Monumental Masonry Competition, International funerary design, third place for Constellation Park
  • 2015

  • BxW, Built by Women NYC, award recognizing 100 women contributing to outstanding structures and built environments in New York City
  • Selected publications

    2013:

  • "‘Reconfiguring Urban Spaces of Disposal, Sanctuary and Remembrance" included as a chapter in ABC-CLIO Praeger’s "Our Changing Journey to the End: Reshaping Death, Dying, and Grief in America." ISBN 978-1-4408-2845-4
  • Carbon Black essay in V is for Vermillion as described by Vitruvius, An A to Z of Ink in Architecture ISBN 978-1-883584-90-0
  • 2014:

  • "Civic-Sanctuary", Zawia
  • References

    Karla Rothstein Wikipedia