Principals, Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson shared insights into their creative inspirations and design process during Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen. The event took place at their recently completed project, The Louis Armstrong Center in Corona, Queens and was hosted by Open House New York.

From celebrating architects of antiquity to honoring modern musical legends, it was an evening of surprises and enlightenment. Special thanks to Piedmont Blūz)—Queens locals—for their performance.

This conversation was hosted as part of Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen, an interview show where guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that are important to them.

Stay tuned—you’ll be able to catch this amazing conversation on personplacething.org in the coming weeks.

Photos by Michael Lee

Copland House, the award-winning creative center for American music and the arts, based at legendary composer Aaron Copland's National Historic Landmark home in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley, today announced its selection of Caples Jefferson Architects to plan, design, and develop Bluestone Farm, its vast satellite venue on the New York-Connecticut border.

This project will honor Aaron Copland’s legacy by creating a vibrant space for creativity, learning, and community engagement. From state-of-the-art performance venues to artist studios and gardens, this expansion will welcome people of all ages and backgrounds into the exhilarating world of the arts.

As Principals Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson explained their attraction to the project, "We love that the campus builds on the foundational legacy of Aaron Copland, whose compositions brought our nation’s music to new levels. We look to find ways, as Copland did, to create experiences that go deep into our art while providing accessible enjoyment to all. We’re excited by the game-changing possibilities that will result as Copland House’s compelling vision reshapes its new campus as a pivotal location for creation and performance. We’re deeply honored to be working on this verdant, hilly site, re-centering it in contemporary American sound."

Stay tuned as we bring this inspiring vision to life!

Caples Jefferson Architects has received an Honorable Mention in the American Architecture Awards for the Louis Armstrong Center. Presented by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum and The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, this recognition celebrates projects that demonstrate innovation, design excellence, and meaningful community impact. The Louis Armstrong Center reflects a commitment to preserving cultural legacy through architecture that inspires and uplifts.

For nearly three decades, The American Architecture Awards remain the United States' most comprehensive public program that promotes the best new design worldwide. The American Architecture Awards reflect the changing state of US design and reveal new design trends by today’s foremost practitioners, as well as representing the largest, oldest and most comprehensive awards program of its kind in the United States. 

Principals of Caples Jefferson discuss a person, a place, and a thing important to them, sparking new stories about their lives and work.

On December 3, Open House New York and Person Place Thing present a live, in-person conversation with Sara Caples, Everardo Jefferson, and host Randy Cohen at the recently completed Louis Armstrong Center. The program will feature live music from Piedmont Blūz, a country blues acoustic duo.

Person Place Thing is produced with the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and sponsored by WAMC Northeast Public Radio. An interview show, it is based on this idea: people are particularly engaging when they speak not directly about themselves but about something they care about. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that are important to them. The result? Surprising stories from great talkers.

Archello Awards 2024has revealed its longlist for Cultural Building of the Year. The longlists celebrate the very best building products, architecture projects, and firms selected from over 1,000 entries for the second edition of Archello's annual awards program. This year, Caples Jefferson Architects’ Louis Armstrong Center has been selected.

Designed as an extension of the historic Louis Armstrong House in Queens, the center explores the legacy of Armstrong’s life and work, offering a space for community, education, and cultural engagement. This recognition places the project among distinguished architectural works that shape and redefine cultural landscapes.

Caples Jefferson Principals, Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson have been elected as National Academicians by the National Academy of Design This prestigious honor recognizes their visionary contributions to contemporary American architecture. The National Academy of Design, championing art and architecture since 1825, recognizes their profound contributions to the field of architecture, notably their commitment to cultural heritage, sustainability, and community-centered design.

With projects like the redesign of the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn and the expansion of the Louis Armstrong Center in Queens, their work reflects a deep respect for history and the power of architecture to serve diverse communities. Their induction into this esteemed institution is a testament to their innovative and socially conscious vision for the built environment.

Prattfolio

2024 Alumni Books

The 2024 roundup of recently published work by Pratt Institute alumni shines a spotlight on the diverse worlds authored and illustrated across a range of genres and forms. These titles spans immersive design experiences and intimate personal narratives, poetic explorations, and engaging literary escapes for readers of all ages.

Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity (RIBA Publishing)
Everardo Jefferson, BID ’68, and Sara Caples

This monograph from Everardo Jefferson and Sara Caples, cofounders of the architecture firm Caples Jefferson, presents insights from their work designing for social equity, emphasizing the importance of cultural understanding and community engagement. Through interviews with designers and international case studies, this book offers practical techniques for architects to create spaces with social equity as a design philosophy.

Learn more at routledge.com. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced last week that The Louis Armstrong Museum in Corona, Queens was the recipient of its National Medal for Museums. This is the nation’s highest honor given to libraries and museums that demonstrate significant impact in their communities. In 2023, the museum expanded its reach with the new Louis Armstrong Center, designed by Caples Jefferson Architects. By extending the capacity of the museum and its educational opportunities, the Center preserves and expands the legacy of America’s most-enduring Black popular music icon.

During the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24) in Washington, D.C. CJA principals Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson hosted a seminar titled: Many Voices: Erasing Invisibility in Equitable Communities.

Everardo Jefferson and Sara Caples’s session targeted ways of listening and engaging with assumptions and skills to produce better, more satisfying architecture. Architects should understand how to design for social equity, but too often this is presented as a choice between work that does good and work that looks good. When done well, building for social equity can directly enhance the formal, experimental and creative language of architecture.

Since founding their firm in the 1980s, Sara and Everardo have pledged to do more than 50% of their work in communities traditionally underserved by architects. Their work includes the Louis Armstrong Center and Weeksville Heritage Museum. This talk was informed by their histories of creating equitable and beautiful work, and their recent book Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity.

The Louis Armstrong Center won a NYCxDESIGN Award in Entertainment. Now in its ninth year, the award amplifies the voices of design that make New York the design capital of the world. The NYCxDESIGN Awards are presented by Interior Design Magazine.

The Louis Armstrong Center won 2nd place in the Institutional, Cultural, Government, Urban Design and Planning Project category of the AIA Queens Design Awards. Thank you to the jury and congratulations to all the winners!

Queens is the city’s largest gateway for immigrants, and is also arguably New York’s most important launchpad to the middle class. Yet, given rising rents, climate change, an aging population and other challenges, Queens has significant work to do to ensure all of its residents can fully participate in the borough’s prosperity. This report presents bold policy ideas from 50 Queens leaders for what city leaders can do to create a stronger, more equitable Queens.

by the Center for an Urban Future

What’s the secret to success, when a project lasts years longer than planned?
 
What keeps us going when our work takes more time? How does the subject matter of a project relate to the form of a project? Why should we be thinking equally about the budget for what happens after a project opens? What is the “architecture of delight”? Why do “reverberations matter”? Which is more important: patience, or pushing? (Hint: it’s a trick question.) And most importantly, why should everybody visit the house of Louis and Lucille Armstrong in Queens, New York?
 
Regina Bain (Executive Director, Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives) and Sara Caples, (Principal and co-founder of Caples Jefferson Architects) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss the new Louis Armstrong Center project that all three worked on.

Along the way: why everyone should take acting classes, and what it’s like being inside a cello.

The Weeksville Heritage Center testifies to a long forgotten chapter in Brooklyn’s history. For the past ten years, visitors have been able to experience the physical vestiges — three restored houses and gardens — of a free and intentional 19th century African American community, hidden by successive waves of 20th century development. Earlier this year, WHC inaugurated a new era with the opening of a new building on this campus, designed by Caples Jefferson Architects, that boldly announces that this “multidimensional museum” is as firmly committed to its neighborhood’s present and future as it is to recovering and interpreting its legacy for contemporary audiences.

We are thrilled and honored about our Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize nomination for the Louis Armstrong Center! We are so excited and can’t wait to see the exhibition in Chicago at S.R. Crown Hall on March 20th!

“I hope that social equity will be more than just another box to check off and become a critical aspect of what and why architects create.

In 2023, World-Architects presented 39 US Buildings of the Week, featuring short Q&As with architects about recently completed buildings in the United States.

To bring this year's feature to a close, American-Architects is holding a Building of the Year poll and asking you to decide a winner from these Buildings of the Week. With just a few mouse clicks you can vote for your favorite building. The deadline is Sunday, January 28 and the winner will be announced on Tuesday, January 30.

Please vote for our building, the Louis Armstrong Center, for World-Architects’ Building of the Year 2023 competition. Hats off to our team and their hard work to bring this vision to life!

Many thanks to the Louis Armstrong Center, Severud Associates, DASNY, WSP USA, Arup Group, Arup Americas, CG Partners, Potion Design, Hill International, CUNY, Queens College, Steven Winter Associates, Paul J Scariano, Regina Bain, Jason Moran, The Dormitory Authority and the Art Guild!