Kenneth Namkung of Monument Office | Suburbanism in New York City | The American Suburb
Courtesy of Monument Office
The American Suburb
Today, I’m joined by Associate, Senior Project Architect, and Designer formerly of NBBJ, Kenneth Namkung. When he’s not working in the NBBJ Healthcare+ Studio, he’s running Monument Office, his research and design firm. I invited Kenneth on to discuss Suburbanism, a concept design proposal for a civic installation in the Herald Square area of Manhattan.
Kenneth details the inspiration behind Suburbanism and how he came up with the design. He wanted to highlight the transition that many New Yorkers make: growing up in the land of shopping malls and cul-de-sacs, and then moving to the big city for their post-grad career. Kenneth says that he felt inspired by that energy and sought to define the areas around the installation in order to emphasize what was not there anymore. He walks listeners through the installation and explains the research and design process that went into it.
We discuss the history of the American suburb and the design language that is commonly associated with it. We get into some of the factors that resulted in the creation of the American suburb, such as the post-WWII endeavor to define the American lifestyle and differentiate it from immigrants living in cities, the growth of commuter rail roads, and redlining. I also ask Kenneth how he thinks towns outside of New York City have benefitted from the exodus due to the pandemic, and what those changes could look like long term.
“So in some ways, like the scale of this, the scale approaches is very deliberate. The idea is to really take it into something that’s, um, there’s a term I’m looking for, not quite sublime. You have to bring it to us in order to make it present. You have to kind of bring it to a state of unreality to make the concept really, really visible. And I think to be, to take a dark turn towards that, I think this idea of favoring, or perhaps looking back at a childhood memory of home versus a present reality is a really evocative metaphor for millennials”
Courtesy of Monument Office
About Kenneth Namkung
Kenneth Namkung is the founder and designer at Monument Office, a research and design firm based in Brooklyn, New York. He specializes in the interplay between architecture, public space and memory. He is also an Associate, Senior Project Architect, and Designer formerly of NBBJ in the Healthcare+ Studio.
Episode Timestamps
2:51 – You began your architecture education in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon, and then moved to Charlottesville for UVA. Tell us about the experience of living in these two great American cities and studying in these two different schools.
7:58 – Over the course of your career, you've had the opportunity to work for several ‘starchitects.’ How was it working with people of that caliber?
12:04 – What were the priorities you were balancing when deciding to take an entrepreneurial path and a traditional one at the same time?
14:27 – You designed the Suburbanism installation for Harold Square. Tell us about this part of Manhattan and why you chose it for the installation.
17:33 – I'd love for you to talk about once you you've honed in on this area, what your research and design process was like for this project.
27:45 – Talk about some of the materials that you used and help me understand the scale of what you're talking about.
33:15 – Walk our listeners through what they would see and feel as they were walking along 32nd Street into Herald Square and what they would see in and around them at the Suburbanism installation.
37:57 – How have suburbs evolved?
44:00 – Give us an overview of some of the issues with suburbs.
48:00 – How do you think places like Huntington, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut are going to benefit from COVID in the long term in the context of the suburban type?
Connect with Kenneth Namkung:
LinkedIn (Kenneth Namkung)
Instagram (Kenneth Namkung)
LinkedIn (NBBJ Design)
NBBJ Design
Courtesy of Monument Office
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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