SIR DAVID FRANK ADJAYE, HFAIA RIBA OBE RA (1966-)
Adjaye was born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, he also lived in Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to the UK at nine. He graduated with a BA in Architecture from London South Bank University in 1990 and an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art. Adjaye established his practice in 2000 as Adjaye Associates and operates globally with offices in Accra, London, and New York with projects worldwide and countless professional honors.
His best known works are the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.
Adjaye co-authored two seasons of BBC's Dreamspaces television series and hosts a BBC radio programme. Adjaye was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania and was the Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Adjaye is married to Ashley Shaw-Scott. Bio adapted from Wikipedia; research by Catherine Westergaard Cramer.
1995 - The Wilson Apartment Renovation, London UK. Status unknown.
1998 - The SJW House Renovation, aka St. John's Wood House, London UK. Status unknown.
1991 - The Newton House Renovation, London UK. Status unknown.
1999 - The Chris Ofili Renovation, 37 Fashion Street, London UK. Status unknown.
1999 - The Moon Loft Renovation, London UK. Status unknown.
1999 - The Whitehall Apartment Renovation, London UK. Status unknown.
1999 - The Jake Chapman House and Gallery, London UK. Status unknown.
1999 - The Elektra Renovation, 84A Ashfield Street, London UK. Adjaye's first new build. Built in a former shoe factory. Commissioned in 1998. Photos by Lyndon Douglas. Status unknown.
1999 - The Sue Webster and Tim Noble House, aka Dirty House, Chance Street 2-4, Shoreditch, London UK.
2000 - The Ewan McGregor and Eve Mavrakis House, London UK. Status unknown. Likely sold.
2000 - The Bouras Apartment, London UK. Status unknown.
2001 - The Sainsbury House, London UK. Status unknown.
2001 - The Swarovski House, London UK. Status unknown.
2001 - The KPG Apartment, London UK. Overlooks Kensington Palace Gardens. Penthouse built on the roof of an existing building. Status unknown.
2001 - The Concrete Garden, Dulwich, London UK. Status unknown.
2001 - The Beardsall House, London UK. Status unknown.
2002 - The Glass House, London UK. Status unknown.
2002 - The Steeles Apartment, London UK. Status unknown.
2002 - The Belsize Townhouse Renovation, 17A Belsize Lane, Belsize Park, London UK. Originally designed in 1970 by architect John Winter. Renovated in 1995 by Jerry Taylor; upgraded and extended by Adjaye. Sold.
2003 - The Bar House, Islington, London UK. Status unknown.
2003 - The Angelika Taschen Apartment, Berlin Germany. Status unknown.
Around 2004 - The Philip Bueno de Mesquita and Roksanda Ilincic House, aka Lost House, 9 Crinan Road, London UK. 3600sf. Sold in 2010 to American owners. For sale in 2020.
2004 - The Marc Quinn House, aka Fog House, Clerkenwell, London, UK. Status unknown.
2004 - The Wharton House, London UK. Status unknown.
2005 - The Chester Apartment, London UK. Status unknown.
2005 - The Canal House, Ladbrook Grove, London UK. Status unknown.
2006 - The Lorna Simpson Studio, aka Pitch Black, aka Vanderbilt Studio, 208 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn NY. The first home built by Adjaye in the US. A film was made about this project.
Around 2006 - The Alexander McQueen House, London UK. Unbuilt, as McQueen sold the property.
2007 - The Ed Reeve House, aka Sunken House, De Beauvoir Street 75A, Hackney, London UK. The site was excavated to basement level, creating a sunken patio. In 2015 Reeve applied for planning consent to dig a private railway station underneath the home, which is directly above the future route for the Crossrail 2 train that is set to connect southwest and northeast London when it opens in 2030.
2007 - The Jüergen Teller House, aka Twin House, Lionel Mews, Notting Hill, London UK. Commissioned in 2002. Photo by Lyndon Douglas. Two houses merged.
2007 - The Shanghai Residence, Shanghai, China. Status unknown.
2007 - The Eton Extension, London UK. Status unknown.
2008 - The Ellen Bruss and Mark Falcone House, aka LN House, 1465 Delgany Street, Denver CO. Article. Located near the Museum of Contemporary Art, which Adjaye also designed.
2008 - The Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan Renovation, aka Montauk House, 406 Old Montauk Highway, Montauk NY. House originally built in 2004. Interiors renovated around 2019 by Bob Melet. Sold in 2021 to Kathryn and Christopher Leonard.
2009 - The Colin Gibbons House, aka Silverlight, 531 Harrow Road, Notting Hill, London UK. Originally planned as renovation of a factory, the architect and client decided to demolish and start new. For sale in 2015: video.
2010 - The Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann House, aka Seven, aka House for an Art Collector, 77 East 77th, New York NY. Commissioned 2005. Renovation of the Bliss Carriage House off Park Avenue. Original architect: Alexander Welch of Welch, Smith and Provot. Adjaye did a gut renovation that added three floors atop the original two, and two more below ground. An entire book was written about it.
2012 - The Make It Right House, aka Asem Pa House 4, 1825 Tennessee Street, New Orleans LA. Part of the Make it Right Foundation project to provide affordable housing for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Commissioned in 2007.
2012 - The Nanjing House, Sifang Art Museum site, Nanjing China. Part of the China International Practical Exhibition of Architecture (CIPEA), which featured a collection of built works designed by a selection of 24 Chinese and international practices.
2012 - The Nkron Private Villa, Gomoa Fetteh, Ghana. Status unknown.
2013 - The IBA Hamburg, aka Case Study Hamburg, Hamburg Germany. Designed for the International Building Exhibition. The building is built from a set of prefabricated modules that can be joined together vertically or horizontally; apartments are 1-2 floors and have 1-4 rooms, depending on the configuration.
2013 - The Silverstrand Beach Road House, Hong Kong, China. Status unknown.
2015 - The Chris Ofili House, aka Hill House, Port of Spain, Trinidad-Tobago. Two buildings connected by courtyard on main floor, bridge on 2nd floor. Overlooks Queen's Park Savannah.
2015 - The Sugar Hill Mixed Use Development, West 155th Street at St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem NY. Thirteen stories, 124 apartments. Initiated by nonprofit developer Broadway Housing Communities (BHC). Brings together affordable housing (including housing for homeless New Yorkers), a preschool, and a 17,000-square-foot Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling.
2018 - The Hallmark House, 54 Siemert Road, New Doornfontien, Johannesburg, South Africa. Industrial structure that dates back to the 1970s. Designed with Malica Design. Hotel rooms on 4th and 5th floors; apartments on 6th through 15th ranging in size from 320 to 6450 sq. ft.
2019 - The Sue Webster Renovation, aka Mole House, 121 Mortimer Road, London UK. The studio excavated it below street level and gave it a basement extension. Interior walls and floors that were eroded by decay or damaged in a fire were removed, along with the party wall that had previously divided the property into two houses. For 40 years, Mole House's previous owner, retired civil engineer William Lyttle, dug a warren of burrows. Lyttle was dubbed "Mole Man" by the press when the secret network of tunnels and caves was discovered. He was later evicted, and the tunnels were blocked up with concrete. In homage to the Mole Man's legacy, Adjaye built multiple entrances and exits.
2019 - The Nassim Apartment, aka Nassim Road, Singapore. Status unknown.
2020 - The 130 William Tower, 130 William Street, New York City NY. First high-rise built by Adjaye in NYC. Building and interiors: 66 story, 241 unit luxury condominium tower at 800 feet; 392 available floorplans. Recent sales include a $20M penthouse with 7 rooms, including 4 beds and 4.5 baths.
Around 2019 - The Cube Haus, London UK. Cube Haus was founded by past Adjaye client Philip Bueno de Mesquita and Paul Tully. Prefabs designed for UK infill lots.
Around 2023 - The Grinnell Downtown Student Residences, Grinnell IA. A 150-bed residence with shared space designed in cooperation with Iowa firm OPN Architects.
Around 2023 - Inventer Bruneseau, Paris France. First decarbonized residential mixed-use development in France. The winning proposal for a competition organized by the city of Paris and the SEMAPA, was developed by a team of architecture practices, including Hardel le Bihan, Youssef Tohme Architects, Adjaye Associates, and Buzzo Spinelli Architecture.
Around 2023 - The Timber House, Quayside, Toronto Canada. Plant-covered, timber-based residential building in Toronto's Quayside waterfront redevelopment area to include affordable housing units for senior citizens.
Around 2023 - One Berkeley Street, 1 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London UK. A nearly 400,000 sq. ft. mixed-use complex for Crosstree Real Estate Partners. The redevelopment of properties at 70-73 Piccadilly, 1 and 3 Berkeley Street, and 43-48 Dover Street will create a 10-story building.
Around 2024 - The West Heating Plant, 1055 29th Street NW, Washington DC. Originally built as a heating plant in 1948; decommissioned in 2000. Acquired in 2013 at auction. Plan includes 70 Four Seasons-branded luxury condos and a 1-acre elevated park by landscape architect Laurie Olin.
Around 2024 - Five buildings in Whitechapel Estate Master Plan, London UK. Complex will include 529 housing units, mix of market and affordable, as well as specialist accommodation reserved for staff and visitors associated with the nearby hospital and Queen Mary University Campus.
2024 -
House for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Accra, Ghana.2024 - The Sandbox Complex, Accra, Ghana.
Around 2025 - The Kingsboro Psychiatric Center Campus, Brooklyn NY. Residential/mixed-use redevelopment in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn; design by Adjaye Associates Harlem-based landscape architecture and urban design firm Studio Zewde. The 900-apartment residential community will include senior housing, a set aside for affordable homeownership, and 2 homeless shelters to replace two aging, L-shaped buildings built in the 1930s on the far western edge of the campus.
Sources include: Adjaye Associates; Adjaye: Works, Volume 1, by David Adjaye.