I’m not keen on the standard, interchangeable website bio that proclaims the principal’s commitment to excellent, sustainable design and devotion to client service. That’s what we architects are supposed to be, especially a design-firm leader.

Instead, let me tell you what’s important to me; perhaps my approach to the practice of Architecture will resonate with you. The profile closes with a brief video that Marriott/AC Hotels produced about design branding, in my words.  If, however, you’d rather read about the firm’s services or projects, I suggest you go right to the Welcome and start there.

I’m a good designer, strong on details, tenacious about quality … but my larger job is to make sure that we ask the right questions; that everyone involved makes the right decisions; that we have the right team, so the project goes predictably and speedily; that our clients get the outcomes they want … and, by the way, that our projects meet code requirements and don’t leak.

My first big job was working for the great I.M. Pei.  I learned from him that “Architecture is a pragmatic art.” My take: “If you can’t build it right, and it doesn’t hold up, it’s not worth the money and effort, no matter how elegant it looks.”  Words every young architect needs to remember.

Although I was perhaps his youngest project head, Mr. Pei selected me to lead the Columbia University Master Plan team. That controversial project to update the original McKim plan unfortunately happened during the 1968 sit-ins.  He next gave me leadership of the design team for the billion-s.f. “Tête de la Défense” development in Paris.  Neither politically-charged project happened, another lesson for an optimistic young architect.

A savvy New England developer offered me a major shopping center, so I left the Pei office after seven years to start my practice.  That company is still a client today.  It’s a point of pride that Carnegie Hall, Con Edison, First Hartford, and Hartz Mountain, among many other stalwart clients, have entrusted us with multiple assignments over decades.  Helpern Architects has so far executed over 4,400 projects.

As a kid, I wanted to be in business; my concentration at Brown University was Economics.  But at the strong urging of two phenomenal professors and acceptance by Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, I pivoted to become an architect.

Funny how life works out: Today, I am in business.  Helpern Architects is a professional services corporation, and Helpern Technical Services, which carries out its own contracts, is a general business corporation.  Inevitably, I have become both a design and business consultant to our clients.

At first, we were lucky to attract buildings, campuses, and spaces for institutions, my first love; by now, we’ve also had many corporate, developer, and hospitality projects here and outside the New York region.  Much of our current work involves foresight: analysis and planning, to thoroughly and intelligently scope out a project in complicated times, along with proper management of existing properties to extend their life.

The “outside world” started to acknowledge my growing reputation for quality and my knowledge of the industry.  In 1993, the American Institute of Architects named me a Fellow, recognizing my design work and advocacy. The Society for College & University Planning [SCUP] asked me to survey nationwide the dire condition of many of America’s higher ed buildings and campuses.  Our five-alarm report urged overdue restoration as well as repurposing of buildings, a new concept at the time. It also brought front-page coverage, instigated Congressional review of campus funding, and, I’d like to think, changed priorities.

I was appointed to the US GSA’s National Register of Peer Professionals within its Design Excellence Program, invited onto the Brown University President’s Leadership Advisory Council to counsel two presidents over nine years, and named five times by successive Manhattan Borough Presidents to Community Board 8 [the Upper East Side], where I continue after a decade to co-chair the consequential Landmarks Committee.

The issue of Helpern Architects’ sole ownership does come up.  I’ve never had partners, which is not unusual for mid-sized design firms.  In 2021, my much-reduced staff opted to work in a hybrid mode.  To me, part of the fun of Architecture is collaboration – side-by-side figuring out a project – so I associated my firm with Ronnette Riley Architect. Ronnette is also a sole owner.  We worked well together before, and now we’ve moved into their offices.  We collegially share some of the work at hand, depending on skillset. Our combined staff numbers 30.  It’s been productive and enjoyable, as I expected.

Speaking of staying alive: I am grateful to those organizations, notably Carnegie Hall, that took advantage of COVID’s necessary lockdowns to “make no little plans” and who started projects best executed unimpeded. Their foresight enabled what I call “My Second Act.”

Bonus viewing: You’ll recognize the deep voice and the bowtie in this short videotape. At Marriott’s request, David Helpern became an AC Hotels Design Ambassador. David explains how the AC flag uses capital-D Design to build a following. Click here to see the video.

David Paul Helpern, FAIA