Fox & Fowle Cited For Excellence By The Urban Design Awards Program

Quinn & Company

Fox & Fowle Architects will receive a special citation from the Urban Design Awards Program at a biennial awards luncheon this fall in Boston. The program is co-sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects/AIA and the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Design projects from around the world may be submitted to the biennial program, as may urban design projects located in Massachusetts or New York City. Any project completed in the last decade is eligible.

Fox & Fowle, the only New York-based firm to receive an award this year, is being recognized for its work on the Midtown East Master Plan in Long Island City. The master plan was commissioned by the Arete Group who had assembled property at Queens Plaza, an existing transportation hub in Long Island City, Queens ? directly east of Midtown Manhattan. The plan was created to influence public officials to move forward with rezoning of the area in order to spur private investment. The plan succeeded in motivating City Planning to adopt an approach to rezoning which advocated maximum densities on sites with direct transit links. The plan anticipates 3 million square feet of commercial development that will be directly linked to the transportation hub at Queens Plaza.

Fox & Fowle principals Sudhir Jambhekar and Mark Strauss began the Midtown East Master Plan for Arete while at Jambhekar Strauss. This past year Jambekar Strauss merged with Fox & Fowle. Currently, Fox & Fowle is working with Arete and their development partners, Louis Dreyfus Corporation, to design the first phases of the project.

"We are also deeply grateful to the Urban Design Awards Program for this recognition of our work," added Strauss, who is now Director of Fox & Fowle?s Planning and Urban Design Studio. "This is evidence of Fox & Fowle?s commitment to innovative and viable design and planning." In addition to the work in Long Island City, Fox & Fowle?s Planning Studio just completed a Vision Plan for Jamaica, Queens in response to the AirTrain Link to JFK Airport and is leading a Transit-Oriented Development Plan for Huntington Station, Long Island.