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Redtop Architects: Three Heads Are Better
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When the three founders of Redtop Architects, in New York City—Virginia Kindred, AIA, Lauren Rubin, AIA, and Amy Shakespeare, AIA—met while working for the New York firm Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, they found that they had a lot more in common than red hair. “We had a mutual admiration for each other,” says Shakespeare, “as well as a similar aesthetic and goals.” The three women had each been holding leadership positions at Mitchell/Guirgola for several years before their individual desires for true authorship of projects coalesced into the decision to start their own, women-run firm.
Upper West Side Townhouse, New York City, 2006
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Kindred, Rubin, and Shakespeare don’t find it surprising that the architecture industry is not exactly a women-led industry. “If you want to raise children and run a firm, you have to be extremely disciplined,” says Kindred. Five years, 31 built projects, and five children later, Redtop Architects has found a way to create its particular brand of clean, Modern architecture while the staff maintains solid family lives. Redtop’s practice strategy? Double up. The architects call it “intentional redundancy.” “Every project we take on is led by two partners,” says Shakespeare. “We cover for each other that way.” With two partners leading the charge, the architects say their projects are designed and constructed at the same pace and with the same professional manner as before their children were born, and they can continue to compete at the highest level.
“We’ve played with the idea of dividing the work—one of us design, one run the office, and one do the marketing,” says Rubin, “But it isn’t us. We all love the design part, and no one’s an obvious choice for the other jobs. So this way, we all just do everything.”
Redtop’s design philosophy is simple: start with the program, conceptualize, clarify, and come up with a precise plan. Their work is clean Modernism, “not a lot of fluff,” says Kindred.
The three designers have cut their teeth on residential projects and plan to continue with such work, but now they’re pursuing more institutional projects; they’re certified with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) as well as New York’s School Construction Authority (SCA). “A balance of residential and institutional is the goal,” says Kindred. Instead of competitions, the architects take on low-budget work,
such as low-income housing, in their “spare” time. They admit to turning down projects that aren’t the right fit for the office, as every project they do has to allow for their high standards. “We take on the craziest small projects sometimes,” says Kindred. “Our goals are not huge. We’ll take on something super low-budget if it’s a way to do excellent work that really matters.”
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