Studio
A+M is a platform for collaboration and inquiry for independent architecture, landscape and design entities led by Jason Austin (registered architect in CA) and Aleksandr Mergold (registered architect in NYS, PA, NJ).
Partners
Jason Austin
Jason Austin received his professional degree in Architecture from Cornell University, where he was awarded a Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Silver Medal for his undergraduate thesis. He also attended University of Pennsylvania and received his Masters of Landscape Architecture.
Professional design and construction experiences include the offices of SOM in New York, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects in Philadelphia and development company Letterman Inc in Carlisle, PA.
Jason is an assistant professor at Drexel University’s Department of Architecture, having previously been adjunct faculty member at the Landscape Architecture Department at University of Pennsylvania (Penn Design) and the Tyler School Department of Architecture at Temple University, and a guest design critic at Cornell and Lehigh Universities.
With Aleksandr Mergold, he co-founded Austin + Mergold in 2008 to pursue residential, commercial, landscape and urban design projects.
Jasion Austin is a LEED Accredited Professional.
Aleksandr Mergold
Aleksandr Mergold, AIA was born and raised in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan in the ancient city of Tashkent, whose urban fabric bears simultaneous traces of the Great Silk Road, colonial conquests, and a socialist planned economy. After the collapse of the USSR, Aleksandr came to the US as a refugee in 1992 and began his discovery, inquiry and re-imagining of America.
Aleksandr Mergold was trained in architecture at Princeton and Cornell University. After working for several large architecture firms, he joined Pentagram in New York. There Aleksandr worked on a variety of architectural and design projects, exhibitions, and cultural institutions – including the Harley–Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Arizona Cardinals Stadium in Tempe, interiors for the Daily Show in NYC, and welcome center for Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Estate in New Canaan, CT.
Fascinated by the contemporary American Vernacular, Aleksandr co-founded Austin+Mergold (A+M) to work on projects in areas underserved by design professionals. For last 15 years, he had also been teaching architecture and design at Parsons in NYC, Listaháskóli Íslands in Reykjavik, Cornell in Ithaca, NY and Rome, Italy and at Columbia GSAPP.
Aleksandr’s work has been published in a variety of print and web media, including The Architect’s Newspaper, Architectural Record, BLDGBLOG, Cornell Journal of Architecture, Designboom, Dezeen, Domus, Mnemeio & Perivallon, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Residential Architect Magazine, Specialle-Z and MIT’s Thresholds.
Aleksandr Mergold is a Registered Architect in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; member of the American Institute of Architects, American Institute of Graphic Arts; and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Senior Architect
Aaron Goldstein, RA
A+M Collaborators
Marc Krawitz, Aaron Goldstein, Ann Dinh, Andrew Fu, Alec Higinbotham, Ben Widger, Tyler Barker, Melhissa Carmona, Austin Bierle, Kelly Tigera, Jessica Brown, Yevgenia Kononenko, Varvara Larionova, Jackie Krasnokutskaya, Sir James Bowman, Spencer Lapp & Sally Reynolds
Selected Awards
Master Practitioners (Austin+Mergold), Lawrence Institute of Technology, Detroit, MI, 2018
Figment NYC, City of Dreams Pavilion, Governors Island, NYC, 2017-2018, International Competition Winner
New Station for Moscow Metro, Invited International Competition, Strelka KB, Moscow, Russia, 2015, First Stage Winner
Gateway Tower / Stormwater System, Lancasetr, PA, 2015 Regional Competition Winner
Graham Foundation (via Architecture League of NY), Project grant (Sural Ark), 2014
Baer Art Center, Fellows in residence, Hofsos, Iceland, 2011
Philadelphia AIA Emerging Architects Prize, 2012
The New York Architecture League Prize (Young Architects Prize), 2010
Folly, International Competition, Architecture League of NY, 2014 International Competition Winner,
Intersections: The Grand Concourse Beyond 100, 2009–10, International Competition, The Design Trust for Public Space, First Stage Winner
Governors Island, NYC, 2008, City of Dreams Minigolf competition, Figment NYC, Competition Winner
Writing
Lectures
Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union, NYC, 2020 Fall Semester Student Lecture Series, 2020
HEAD – Genève (Geneva University of Art and Design), MIDIS ARCHI, lecture series, 2020
National University of Architecture and Construction, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia, 2019
School of Architecture, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 2019
College of Architecture and Design, Lawrence Technological University, 2018
Department of Historic Preservation, Lecture Series, GSAPP, Columbia University, 2018
International Festival of Students, Sochi, Russia (inv. from Moscow Architecture Institute), 2017
Urban Edge Award Biennial Prize, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, UWM-Milwaukee, 2017
Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 2016
Alternative Architectural Practices Lecture Series, Princeton University, School of Architecture, 2013
Philadelphia AIA Emerging Architects Prize, AIA Philadelphia, 2013
MARSH, Moscow Architecture School, Moscow, Russia, 2012
Symposium: Input/Output, Temple University Philadelphia, PA, 2010
New York Architecture League, NYC, 2010
Pecha Kucha Night 2, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Temple University, Department of Architecture, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Design, the Arts and the Political, Symposium, School of Visual Arts, NYC, 2009
New Directions in Prefabricated Architecture, Symposium, UMass Amherst, 2009
Cornell University, Department of Architecture Lecture Series, Ithaca, NY, 2008
Listaháskóli Íslands / Iceland Academy of the Arts, 2007
Doodles
At the very foundation of this collaboration is a visual communication and exchange of ideas. These are a few examples.
Teaching
Selected teaching materials produced by students under direct supervision of Jason Austin + Aleksandr Mergold (sometimes with other faculty colleagues) at various design institutions.
(Coming soon)
