Alexander Gorlin

ALEXANDER GORLIN
Architect

As a boy growing up in Rego Park, Queens who had never been west of Pennsylvania, the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair landed like an alien spaceship in my backyard. The industrial wasteland described by Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby had been transformed into a series of exotic and fantastic pavilions representing different countries and corporations.


At PS 174, in art class we were each given easels to paint with tempera and watercolors. I chose to present two of my favorite pavilions, the Tower of Light and the General Electric Dome. In the Tower of Light, a powerful central beam was surrounded by colored lights reflecting off of hundreds of scintillating aluminum panels. The honey combed luminous dome of General Electric also changed color in swirling and rotating patterns.


Since there were no architects at all in my family, I now realize that this was my first experience with the fascinating world of architecture. My paintings of the World’s Fair Pavilions certainly opened the possibility of becoming an architect and awakened a desire to not only paint, but to create new architectural works of my own.

Alexander Gorlin Architects is an internationally recognized design firm that for the past two decades has actively sought to embrace a uniquely diverse range of clients. With a portfolio spanning all levels of society, from homeless and affordable housing, religious and educational institutions, to high-end residential accommodation, Alexander Gorlin Architects applies the same design excellence to each project. The firm has won numerous awards, most notably AIA Design Awards for House in the Rocky Mountains, Ruskin Place townhouse, and North Shore Hebrew Academy. In 2005, Architectural Digest recognized Mr. Gorlin as one of the country’s 30 Deans of Design.

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