AUSTIN + MERGOLD
Austin + Mergold
Austin + Mergold
Founded in Philadelphia, PA, Austin+Mergold is an architecture, landscape and design practice.
We see our work process as slow architecture. Believing that it is preferable to rethink and repurpose existing resources than to tap new ones, we infiltrate existing systems that are responsible for built form, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. We explore local vernacular conditions to discover how an efficient (and economical) reconfiguration of available materials, forms and methods, informed by the latest advances in technology, can result in an improved quality of life for communities and individuals. For us, this is sustainable design—both vis-à-vis the environment and our own business—and it is particularly well-suited to the twinned economic and ecological crises that we face today.
Collectively, A+M has extensive experience in a multitude of disciplines (architecture and landscape, graphic and interior design, development and construction). We thrive on solving design problems around multiple obstacles: time and budget constraints, common (often, unglamorous) materials and long-established local methodologies.
A+M is a winner of 2010 New York Architecture League Prize for Architects and Designers (fka Young Architects Prize), the 2012 Philadelphia AIA Emerging Architects Prize and the 2014 Folly Competition. A+M’s work has appeared in BLDGBLOG, The Architect’s Newspaper, Domus, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Cornell Journal of Architecture, 306090 and other print and on-line publications.
Jason Austin
Jason Austin received a professional degree in Architecture from Cornell University, where he was awarded a Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Silver Medal for his undergraduate thesis. He also attended University of Pennsylvania and received a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture.
Professional design and construction experiences include the offices of SOM in New York, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects in Philadelphia and real estate development company, Lettermen Inc., in Carlisle, PA. Jason is currently an Assistant Professor of architecture at Drexel University, having taught at University of Pennsylvania, Department of Landscape Architecture and the Tyler School Department of Architecture at Temple University. He has also been a guest design critic at Cornell, Drexel, Lehigh, Philadelphia University and University of the Arts.
Jason’s work has been published in Cornell Journal of Architecture and Residential Architect Magazine.
Jason Austin is a LEED Accredited Professional.
Aleksandr Mergold
Coming from a family with two generations of architects, Aleksandr Mergold was trained at Princeton and Cornell University, receiving Master and Bachelor degrees in architecture along with the New York Chapter AIA Medal and the Charles Goodwin Sands Bronze Medal.
After working for several large architecture firms, he joined the office of Pentagram in New York. There he spent six years as senior architect, working on a variety of architectural and design projects, including the interiors for the Arizona Cardinal stadium (with Eisenman Architects), the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee (with HGA Architects) and the Philip Johnson Glass House National Trust for Historic Preservation in New Canaan. Aleksandr has taught at Parsons the New School for Design and at Listaháskóli Íslands / Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik, and Design and Environmental Analysis in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell. He is currently assistant professor of Architecture at Cornell. Aleksandr’s work has been published in Cornell Journal of Architecture, Mnemeio & Perivallon and 306090.
Aleksandr Mergold is a Registered Architect in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, member of the American Institute of Architects, American Institute of Graphic Arts and is a LEED Accredited Professional