American architect Deborah Berke continues to advocate for accessible, “ordinary” architecture in opposition to starchitecture following her 2025 AIA Gold Medal win, she tells Dezeen in this exclusive interview.
TenBerke founder and Yale School of Architecture dean Berke believes the architecture discipline and the general public are now “less focused on starchitects” – or celebrity architecture – compared to the discipline in the late 20th century when practitioners such as Frank Gehry rose to cultural prominence.
“That was starchitects’ big kick-off moment, like a set of Rockettes, kicking up their legs – ‘here we are’ – and I think that has changed,” Berke told Dezeen.
“There are still starchitects around, but I think the profession, the discipline, the larger general public who cares about the built environment are less interested in starchitects and see the built environment more broadly, and that’s a very positive thing.”
Berke has differentiated her work from “high-profile products” designed by “celebrity” architects since 1998, when she wrote the book Architecture of the Everyday.
“We exist in a culture where heroes have been replaced by celebrities, and fifteen minutes of fame are valued over a lifetime of patient work,” wrote Berke in Architecture of the Everyday.
“In this climate, the architect must become a celebrity in order to gain the opportunity to build. The built environment is strewn with these high-profile celebrity products – heroic gestures neither made nor commissioned by heroes.”
In its place, Berke argued the case for “everyday architecture”, or design that is “generic” and “quite ordinary” and that “serves the needs of the many rather than the few” while still evoking emotional reactions in visitors.
I believe that buildings have meaning, and that’s true of all buildings
Having been awarded the 2025 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in December, Berke says she still designs in alignment with these points – albeit with some tweaks.
“I mean ordinary in a positive way,” Berke told Dezeen. “I mean sensual in that it’s okay for buildings to show emotion and engagement to provoke your senses.”
“I’m 25 years older than when I wrote that, and the world has changed, and I have changed,” she added. “That said, the core values represented in that piece written all those years ago are things I still believe.”
Based in New York, Berke has been practising architecture since 1982, following studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and The City University of New York for a graduate degree in urban planning in urban design.
Over her career, she has served as a juror for multiple architecture awards programs throughout the US and Canada and as a trustee at institutions such as desigNYC, the National Building Museum and the Brearley Schools in New York, among others.
She formed her eponymous practice, Deborah Berke Partners, with partners Maitland Jones and Marc Leff in 2002 and recently relaunched the business as TenBerke in 2023, with a similar commitment to the architecture that is carried out “inspirationally, imaginatively, sustainably, responsibly, delightfully”.
Over four decades as a working architect and educator, she has become known for projects that focus on sustainability and adaptive reuse, which she prefers to call “historic activation“, as well as an aim of cultivating community through design.
TenBerke’s projects feature straightforward, rectilinear volumes, such as a dormitory building at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania or the firm’s largest project to date, two residential buildings at Princeton University designed to be “approachable and inclusive” to students.
According to the AIA’s citation for the award, such projects “balance modern aesthetics with vernacular sensitivity, showcasing how design can enrich daily life while fostering community and care”.
Another project, Hotel Henry, completed in 2017, exemplifies Berke’s commitment to adaptive reuse, which she said “both sustainably extends the life of buildings and helps reestablish their relevance to the communities they serve”.
The building was a former insane asylum designed by architect Hobson Richardson in 1880 before TenBerke converted it into a hotel in collaboration with Boston firm Goody Clancy.
The intervention included preserving and restoring much of the building’s original details, such as a central staircase, while converting former patients’ rooms into hotel accommodations.
“The Hotel Henry offers a compelling example of how these vast structures can be successfully repurposed for contemporary uses and contribute to their communities,” TenBerke said of the project at the time of its completion.
Berke is an enthusiastic supporter of the growing movement towards adaptive reuse and cites Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal’s 2021 win of the Pritzker Prize as an example of increasing support for the strategy.
“I’m all in,” said Berke. “There are grassroots movements to provide tax support for reusing old buildings, or mandating reusing old buildings, or being able to count the carbon credits and reusing old buildings differently and more accurately to encourage more old buildings to be saved.”
For the architect, the act of adaptive reuse is part of providing for the community and creating more accessible architecture.
“I believe that buildings have meaning, and that’s true of all buildings, not just monuments or buildings whose role it is to have a stated, explicit meaning, said Berke.
“I hold in very high esteem architecture that is accessible to and beloved by people, all kinds of people, and particularly, the kind of spaces and buildings you don’t have to be an architect to enjoy.”
Of a growing appreciation for these projects in contrast to those produced by flashier architects, Berke hopes her work has contributed to the change.
“Maybe through the built work, through the teaching, through all the ways that my life as an architect has influenced or spoken to people, yes, I hope I have been part of that change,” said Berke.
Previous winners of the AIA Gold Medal include Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa of Brooks + Scarpa and the late Richard Rogers.
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