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Sydness Architects is a New York City-based architecture firm founded by K. Jeffries Sydness in 1996. The firm's other principal is George Chin; Brandon M. Coles is an associate. Both Sydness and Chin are members of the American Institute of Architects.
Prior to forming Sydness Architects, Sydness was an associate at Johnson/Burgee Architects, whose founding principals were Philip Johnson and John Burgee. He began at the firm in 1983, and was made partner in 1988. In his thirteen years at Johnson/Burgee, Sydness designed the Takashimaya Building in New York, 500 Boylston Street in Boston, Puerta de Europa in Madrid, Spain and the Conrad International Hotel in Singapore.
One of Sydness Architects' first projects, completed in 2001, was the 37-story, 328-room St. Regis Shanghai Hotel, in Shanghai, China, owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Architectural Digest called the hotel's design, which won an international design competition, "[A]s brilliant as it is simple."
In 2005, the firm took on the restoration of the 104-year-old Second Church of Christ, Scientist on Central Park West and West 68th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Their work was scheduled to clean the facade, reinforce the stained-glass windows, fix leaks which had developed in the copper dome and illuminate the skylight.
Recently, Sydness Architects designed two contemporary luxury condominium towers for the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, near the United Nations: The Alexander, a 24-story building for 250 East 49th Street, the construction of which was cancelled, and the Alexander Plaza, a 25-story tower at 315 East 46th Street, which is under construction, but on hold after six stories had been built – although the purchase of the site by the United Arab Emirates has put the fate of the project in doubt.