NYCxDESIGN<\/a> returns May 14\u201320, 2026,<\/strong> for its 14th edition under the theme \u201cDesign Connects Us,\u201d with more than 200 events spread across all five boroughs. The full festival calendar<\/a> is broad and ambitious, spanning product launches, gallery openings, guided tours, open studios and more. As ever, the schedule casts a wide net with many events showcasing the very best of what is happening across our industry.<\/p>\n What stands out about this year\u2019s architecture program, though, is how much of it turns inward. Several of the most compelling events examine the methods, materials and responsibilities behind architecture \u2014 circular construction, neuroinclusive public space, climate-adaptive landscape and, of course, the implications of generative AI for architectural authorship. At the same time, the level of access on offer is incredibly generous: studios that rarely open their doors are inviting guests in, and active construction sites are offering hardhat tours. Landscape architects are even walking visitors through the engineering of a rebuilt waterfront park!<\/p>\n The following selection highlights the architecture-related events we think are most worth taking the time to visit. Each offers a chance to see how the discipline is thinking, building and questioning itself in real time in its own way.<\/p>\n See Festival Calendar<\/a><\/p>\n Talk \u2014 May 14, 6:30\u20138:00 PM \u2014 SoHo<\/em><\/p>\n Felix Heisel directs the Circular Construction Lab at Cornell AAP<\/a>, where his research focuses on redesigning the built environment as a material depot where buildings are conceived as banks of reusable components. The talk addresses circularity, material passports and adaptive reuse at a level of specificity that design-week programming rarely reaches. For architects whose work touches demolition or material reclamation, this is a strong reason to be in SoHo on opening night.<\/p>\n Exhibition \u2014 May 14\u201320, 10:00 AM\u201310:00 PM \u2014 Midtown<\/em><\/p>\n An NYCxDESIGN Spotlight<\/a> exhibition exploring the relationship between the industrial legacy of human-centric built environments and the speculative futures of posthuman spaces. Three themes \u2014 Legacy and Rupture, Horizons of the Posthuman City, and Fractured Narratives \u2014 frame works that sit between nostalgia for industrial pasts and anxiety about what comes next. Open all week.<\/p>\n Safe & Sound<\/a><\/strong> (Exhibition, May 14 \u2013 June 28, Lower East Side) \u2014 Slow Construct and Lero Street Studio present a curated collection of objects designed by architects that evoke safety, comfort and belonging within the home. The Discipline and the Path<\/a> (Talk, May 14, 6:00\u20138:00 PM, Upper East Side).<\/p>\n Talk \u2013 May 15, 5:00\u20137:00pm – Manhattan \u2013 SoHo<\/em><\/p>\n INC Architecture & Design<\/a>, in collaboration with the Living City Project<\/a>, hosts a panel that brings together leading voices from government, policy, and academia to address one of the most urgent challenges facing New York City: housing affordability.<\/p>\n Exhibition \u2014 May 15, 6:00\u20138:00 PM \u2014 Greenwich Village<\/em><\/p>\n Parsons\u2019 School of Constructed Environments presents its annual end-of-year showcase across architecture, interior design and product design. The exhibition offers a direct look at how the next generation is responding to contemporary spatial challenges. For studio leads and hiring managers, it is one of the most concentrated showcases of emerging talent on the calendar.<\/p>\n Talk + Tour \u2014 May 16, 5:00\u20137:30 PM \u2014 Financial District<\/em><\/p>\n A featured public talk by Santiago Calatrava at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center \u2014 the church he designed, completed in 2022, to replace the parish house destroyed on September 11. The talk is followed by a personal tour of the Oculus, led by his son Gabriel Calatrava. The setting is as significant as the speaker: this is architecture experienced in the building its architect created, at a site that carries extraordinary public meaning.<\/p>\n Trade Show \u2014 May 17, 10:00 AM\u20136:00 PM (through May 19) \u2014 Javits Center<\/em><\/p>\n The International Contemporary Furniture Fair returns under the theme Common Ground<\/em>. Programming includes the ICFF Editors Awards (May 17), the ICFF Talks<\/a> series, Bespoke: The Art of Making<\/em>\u00a0and WANTED\u2019s Look Book, Launch Pad and Schools Showcase. The talks program is of particular interest to architects, while the broader show floor leans toward product and interiors.<\/p>\n Tour \u2014 May 17, 1:00\u20132:30 PM \u2014 West Harlem<\/em><\/p>\n The third edition of the Harlem Sculpture Gardens<\/a> will be led by Savona Bailey-McClain of the West Harlem Art Fund. The tour covers large-scale sculpture and design works installed across six venues in West Harlem, including Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park and Jackie Robinson Park. It is one of the few architecture-tagged events that takes visitors uptown and engages the public realm at the neighborhood scale.<\/p>\n Tour \u2014 May 18\u201319, 5:00\u20137:00 PM \u2014 Long Island City, Queens<\/em><\/p>\n A fabrication-focused tour through one of the city\u2019s densest maker districts. It is the only Queens event on the architecture calendar and one of the few that moves visitors inside the production side of the discipline into the workshops and studios where drawings become built objects.<\/p>\n Exhibition \u2014 May 18, 6:00\u20138:00 PM \u2014 Upper East Side<\/em><\/p>\n End-of-year thesis exhibitions spanning interior design, architecture and landscape architecture. The thesis shows remain among the most concentrated views of where emerging practice is heading, and of what the schools are currently prioritizing.<\/p>\n Tour \u2014 May 19, 5:00\u20137:00 PM \u2014 Financial District<\/em><\/p>\n JG Neukomm Architecture<\/a> opens the doors to an active renovation of the landmark Art Deco tower at 20 Exchange Place. The tour offers hardhat access and an early look at JGNA\u2019s in-progress amenity and lobby renovation on the live construction site and is set to be one of the week\u2019s most distinctive offerings.<\/p>\n Exhibition \u2014 May 19, 5:30\u20137:30 PM \u2014 Financial District<\/em><\/p>\n Presented by the Design Trust for Public Space<\/a> with Verona Carpenter Architects and WIP Collaborative, this project reimagines New York\u2019s streets, playgrounds and plazas for neurodivergent users. Pilot prototypes were tested at Louise Nevelson Plaza in 2025. The work spans urban design, architecture, and inclusive public space, and will speak directly to practitioners involved in accessibility and civic commissions.<\/p>\n Tour \u2014 May 19, 6:00\u20137:30 PM \u2014 Financial District<\/em><\/p>\n Presented by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-NY)<\/a>, this guided tour offers a close reading of the rebuilt Wagner Park by AECOM\u2019s landscape architecture team, SiteWorks and BPCA. The focus is on how the park integrates flood resilience, climate adaptation and landscape design into a single waterfront public space.<\/p>\n Talk \u2014 May 19, 6:00\u20138:00 PM \u2014 Midtown<\/em><\/p>\n A conversation about responsive, community-oriented design practice. Inspired by the current 2026 AIA New York president, Mark Gardener. His presidential theme, \u201cRepair: Democracy and Urban Space,\u201d is a call to action to celebrate spaces we revive and refresh with design that does more.<\/p>\n Open studios, activations, closing party \u2014 May 20, 12:00\u20139:00 PM \u2014 DUMBO, Brooklyn<\/em><\/p>\n The festival\u2019s closing day opens studios and creative spaces across the DUMBO district. DUMBO x Design Day<\/a> brings together a number of confirmed participants, but two stand out. BIG<\/strong> hosts a panel moderated by Lora Appleton of The Female Design Council, featuring female leaders from the firm and spotlighting its new publication BIG Atlas<\/em>. Sn\u00f8hetta<\/strong> celebrates the opening of its new 25,000-square-foot headquarters with an evening reception and unveils a new DUMBO logo and identity it has designed for the neighborhood. Also activating: Henrybuilt, Hudson Wilder, Reform and Fishs Eddy.<\/p>\n Talk \u2014 May 20, 6:00\u20138:00 PM \u2014 Flatiron \/ NoMad<\/em><\/p>\n MAP (Metropolitan Architecture Practice) co-founders Katherine Lambert and Christiane Robbins present their new monograph, published by ORO Editions, with an afterword by Aaron Betsky and essays by Kyle Steinfeld. The book captures the moment when architecture began to grapple with machine vision and generative AI, tracing how these tools are beginning to reshape multidisciplinary design practice.<\/p>\n Several architecture-tagged events run across the full festival period or extend beyond it. Worth building into transit time between the events above:<\/p>\n Architizer is a 2026 NYCxDESIGN Media Partner. The full festival schedule is at <\/em>nycxdesign.org<\/a> and on the NYCxDESIGN and Bloomberg Connects mobile apps.<\/em><\/p>\n See Festival Calendar<\/a><\/p>\n Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by uploading projects to Architizer<\/a>\u00a0and sign up for our\u00a0inspirational newsletters<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year, NYCxDESIGN\u2019s architecture program is asking harder questions and opening more doors than any edition in recent memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":338,"featured_media":206608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"architizer_featured_type":"insert","architizer_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"architizer_project":[],"architizer_brand":[],"architizer_firm":[],"architizer_product":[],"class_list":["post-212436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry","category-inspiration"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWednesday, May 14 \u2014 Opening Day<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nCurrent Work: Toward Circular Construction, with Felix Heisel<\/a><\/h3>\n
Fractured Horizons: Imaging After Images<\/a><\/h3>\n
Also on Wednesday<\/h3>\n
\nThursday, May 15<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe Housing Crisis: Real Solutions from Real People<\/a><\/h3>\n
Parsons School of Constructed Environments: End of Year Exhibition<\/a><\/h3>\n
\nFriday, May 16<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nNYCxDESIGN Keynote: An Evening with Santiago & Gabriel Calatrava<\/a><\/h3>\n
\nSaturday, May 17<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nICFF at the Javits Center<\/a><\/h3>\n
Harlem Sculpture Gardens<\/a><\/h3>\n
\nSunday\u2013Monday, May 18\u201319<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nDesign + Fabrication Tours<\/a><\/h3>\n
BFA \/ MFA Thesis Projects and MPS Studio Projects<\/a><\/h3>\n
JGNA Presents: A Hardhat Tour of 20 Exchange Place<\/a><\/h3>\n
The Neurodiverse City: Rethinking Public Space Access by Design<\/a><\/h3>\n
NYCxDESIGN Festival Tour: Wagner Park<\/a><\/h3>\n
Repair, Refresh, Revive: Responsive Design for Communities<\/a><\/h3>\n
\nTuesday, May 20 \u2014 DUMBO x Design Day
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<\/h2>\nDUMBO x Design Day<\/a><\/h3>\n
Book Talk: Architecture x Architecture \u2014 A Dialectic<\/a><\/h3>\n
\nRunning All Week<\/h2>\n
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