Mustafa K. Abadan joined SOM New York in 1983 and became a design partner in 1996. He has worked both in the New York and London offices, and practices architecture worldwide.
In a span of two decades, Mr. Abadan has been involved in the design of a wide range of corporate, civic, and institutional projects that have helped to redefine and enhance urban environments. He approaches each project as an unique opportunity to explore ideas of physical and social context, program, sustainability, space, and object making. He is foremost interested in making architecture that will positively impact its environment while addressing the specific needs of the people who will ultimately use the buildings. In his international work he brings a sensitivity to place; the cultural context, where he explores contemporary issues against traditional solutions.
Many of Mr. Abadan’s projects have received wide recognition through AIA, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Review, and Chicago Athenaeum-American Architecture Awards and have been showcased in the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennale exhibits. His projects have been published and exhibited both in the United States and Japan. He has been a speaker at numerous professional conferences, and has lectured at Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell Universities. He has also been a frequent selection panelist for the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.
Marianne Kwok has more than 18 years of professional experience in architectural design for a variety of built commercial, residential, and cultural facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. Since joining KPF in 1994, she has been the Senior Designer for some to the firm’s most high-profile projects, including numerous corporate headquarters, mixed-use commercial developments, and master planning projects.
Of note, Ms. Kwok has led the design of several constructed corporate headquarters at London’s Canary Wharf, including Clifford Chance, winner of the British Council for Offices Award (2005), State Street Bank, KPMG and Fitch Ratings, as well as the AIG Headquarters in the City of London. She also was the senior designer of the former Lehman Brothers Headquarters at 745 Seventh Avenue in New York’s Times Square, now home to Barclays Bank, the Bloomingdales at Aventura Mall near Miami, winner of an AIA New York State Chapter Award of Merit, and the renovation of the Samsung Headquarters and the Rodin Pavilion in Seoul. The pavilion’s design has been recognized with several design awards from the American Institute of Architects, the Chicago Athenaeum and the P/A Awards.
Presently, Ms. Kwok is designing a 420-meter-tall super high-rise tower in Suzhou, China, that is a mix of office, residential, and hotel functions. She is also currently leading the design of a 26-acre mixed-use master plan for the proposed redevelopment of Manhattan’s far west side, the Hudson Yards, to include over 13 million SF of office, residential, retail, cultural and educational facilities and of 272,000 m2 of mixed use office, residential, hotel in Shenzhen. She also recently led the design for a mixed-use tower in Boston to include hotel, residential and retail components.
Ms. Kwok received her Master of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and her Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University, where she was the recipient of the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Silver Medal, awarded to the most meritorious architectural thesis in the College of Art, Architecture and Planning.
