Marble Fairbanks

Marble Fairbanks is an architecture, design and research office founded in 1992 by Scott Marble and Karen Fairbanks. We are committed to highly innovative design through research and analysis of the core issues surrounding each project. Building on the combined experience of our completed work and ongoing research, we approach every project as unique and search for original solutions. Our continuing connection to academia through teaching and participation in conferences and symposia inspires a creative working environment where theory and practice are informed by each other. Our working process is based on a highly collaborative team approach. Our most recent work has focused on cultural and institutional projects for public and private clients including Queens Library, Princeton University, Haverford College, Columbia University, The New School, The Museum of Modern Art, and New York University. Our research-based practice is at the forefront of discussions concerning digital technology, integrated design processes, and education.

Marble Fairbanks was recently awarded an AIA Honor Award in Architecture for the Toni Stabile Student Center at the Graduate School of Journalism, their tenth AIA Award from the New York Chapter. In 2008 Marble Fairbanks was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to design a speculative project addressing the potentials of digital design and fabrication for the exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. Scott Marble and Karen Fairbanks were selected as the Michael Owen Jones Memorial Lecturers at the University of Virginia in 2007. In 2004 they were the Charles and Ray Eames Lecturers at the University of Michigan, and the book, Marble Fairbanks: Bootstrapping, was published on the occasion of that lecture. Marble Fairbanks is the recipient of numerous local, national, and international design awards. The work of Marble Fairbanks is published regularly in books and journals and has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world including the Architectural Association in London, the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York where their drawings are part of the museum’s permanent collection.