AvroKO’s meteoric rise to fame is the stuff of design-industry lore. Headed by former college chums Kristina O’Neal, Greg Bradshaw, William Harris, and Adam Farmerie, the multidisciplinary collaborative has a reputation for both innovation and utter fearlessness.

For cleaving meat and processing food products, the cavernous loft buildings of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District were made to order.

Elegant limestone and brick facades conceal dramatic entry sequences, grand staircases, and rich millwork—these are the historic residences of Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

One of the limitations of relying on images to explain architecture is that the practice can sometimes encourage viewers to see buildings primarily as objects.

Like the imposing towers lining the edges of New York’s Central Park, the street wall of historic skyscrapers fronting on Chicago’s Grant Park exist as built topography—a man-made cliff of stone and brick that includes such seminal structures as Adler & Sullivan’s robust Auditorium Building.