S9 Architecture

S9 Architecture is a New York practice of about 60 designers working under the banner of modern contextualism, an approach the firm describes as designing spaces, buildings and neighborhoods rather than isolated objects. Founded in 2011 by Navid Maqami and John R. Clifford, it works largely in commercial and residential projects across the five boroughs, with a strong line in adaptive reuse of older building stock. S9 was design architect on the redevelopment of One Times Square, the 1904 tower the New Year’s Eve ball drops from, working with SLCE Architects as architect of record on a gut renovation that added a wraparound outdoor viewing deck, a museum and event space. The full legal name is S9 Architecture and Engineering, DPC.

The studio describes itself as a team of 60 designers giving form to clients’ pragmatic needs, working from a design approach it calls modern contextualism. In practice that means refusing a house style: the firm rejects preconceived ideas and stylistic preoccupations and lets each solution be shaped by programmatic, physical, environmental, economic and contextual forces. Its stated view is that buildings are part of a larger whole and should act as glue that binds and improves their surroundings.

Leadership is spread across several principals — Paul Carr, Younsung Chung, Sital Patel and Dryden Razook — with John Clifford as founding principal. Co-founder Navid Maqami is listed on the studio’s own site in memoriam. Below that sit associate principals, associates and senior associates, along with in-house controller, marketing and HR roles.

Enquiries are routed by type: office@s9architecture.com for general questions, newbusiness@s9architecture.com for project opportunities, and a separate address for press and speaking requests. Applications must go through the online job listings — the studio explicitly asks candidates not to send emails, hard copies or original portfolios, and discourages phone calls.

The office is at 322 8th Avenue, Floor 10, New York, NY 10001, on +1 212 457 4077.