The newly completed – in April of this year – Austrian Cultural Forum was immediately judged the city’s narrowest building, just 7.6m wide for 24 floors in glass and steel, almost 85 metres high. But it has also received the “blessing” of the New York Times which has been generous with its words of praise, defining it “the best architecture in Manhattan for decades”.

The new building, which has actually taken a decade to be realised – the competition was set in 1992 – is the first building in New York by Austrian architect Raymund Abraham who, despite being born in the Tyrol, has lived and taught in the US for over forty years.

The official opening took place on 18 April, together with the launch of the festival “Transforming Modernity”: three months of music, film, literature, architecture and avant-garde design. As part of the festival, the first exhibition “Transmodernity. Austrian Architects” is due to open 22 May at 18.00, which places three Austrian architects under fifty under the lights of the ‘Big Apple’, henke und schreick, Jabornegg & Pálffy and Rigler Riewe, giving a sample of the cultural and architectural scene from the homeland.

22.5.2002-12.8.2002
Transmodernity. Austrian Architects
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street, New York
https://www.acfny.org