Diller Scofidio + Renfro facts for kids

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is a special design studio from the United States. They mix different types of design, like building amazing structures, creating visual art, and even designing for performances. Their main office is in New York City.

The studio was started in 1981 by two architects, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio. Later, Charles Renfro joined them in 1997 and became a partner in 2004. Benjamin Gilmartin became the fourth partner in 2015. This team creates unique projects all over the world.

Their work includes famous city parks like the High Line in New York and Zaryadye Park in Moscow. They also design important buildings, such as museums like The Broad and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum. Besides big buildings, they also create art installations and special exhibits.

Amazing Projects by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

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  The Blur Building at Expo.02 in Yverdon, Switzerland (2002). It was made of mist!

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  The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2007). This museum looks like it's floating over the water.

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  Alice Tully Hall in New York (2009). This building was redesigned to be more open and inviting.

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  The High Line in New York (2009–2014). This used to be an old railway line, now it's a beautiful park above the city streets.

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  The Broad museum in Los Angeles (2015). It has a unique "veil and vault" design.

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  Zaryadye Park in Moscow (2017). A modern park with different natural zones.

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  The Shed in New York (2019). This building can change its shape to host different events.

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  Henry R. Kravis Hall at Columbia Business School, New York (2022). A modern building for learning.

Awards and Recognition

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has won many important awards for their creative work.

MacArthur Fellowship

In 1999, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio were the first architects to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. This award is also known as the "MacArthur Genius Award." The MacArthur Foundation said that the firm "created an alternative form of architectural practice." This means they combine design, performance, and digital media with ideas about culture and architecture. Their work shows how space is used in our culture and that architecture is everywhere, not just in buildings.

Other Major Awards

Since then, the studio has received many other honors. They were invited to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and became fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Some of their other awards include:

• The National Design Award.
• The Brunner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
• An Obie award for their work in off-Broadway theater.
• The Centennial Medal of Honor from the American Academy in Rome.
• Many awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), like the AIA President's Award and the AIA Medal of Honor.

In 2009, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio were named among the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, Fast Company magazine called Diller Scofidio + Renfro the most innovative design practice. They were also listed among the 50 most innovative companies in the world. More recently, they won the Lawrence Israel Prize in 2012 and the Royal Academy of Arts' Architecture Prize in 2019. Their Rubenstein Forum building in Chicago won the Tall Building Award in 2022.

Elizabeth Diller has also received individual honors. She was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Jane Drew Prize in 2019. In 2022, she was one of three architects to win the Wolf Prize in Arts.

Exhibitions of Their Work

Many of their early drawings and objects are kept in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2003, the Whitney Museum of American Art held an exhibition called Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio. This show looked at their unusual way of practicing architecture. Another big exhibition of their work, Restless Architecture, opened at MAXXI in 2024.

Selected Projects

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has worked on many different types of projects. Here are some of their most notable ones.

Architecture Projects

• Brasserie, Seagram Building, New York, NY (2000)
• World Trade Center Viewing Platform, New York, NY (2001)
• Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2007)
• Lincoln Center (redesign and master plan), New York, NY (2007-2011). This included changes to Alice Tully Hall, New York State Theater, and Juilliard School.
• Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Brown University, Providence, RI (2011)
• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (renovation), New York, NY (2014)
• The Broad, Los Angeles, CA (2015)
• McMurtry Building, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (2015)
• Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (expansion), Berkeley, CA (2016)
• Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center, New York, NY (2016)
• Zaryadye Park, Moscow, Russia (2017)
• High Line, New York, NY (2009-2019)
• 15 Hudson Yards, New York, NY (2019)
• The Shed, New York, NY (2019)
• Museum of Modern Art (expansion), New York, NY (2019)
• United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum, Colorado Springs, CO (2020)
• Tianjin Juilliard School, Tianjin, China (2021)

Installation Art Projects

These are art pieces or structures created for a specific place or event.

• Traffic, Columbus Circle, New York, NY (1981)
• Memory Theatre, Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, NY (1986)
• Para-Site, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1989)
• Soft Sell, Times Square, New York, NY (1993)
• American Lawn, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Canada (1998)
• Master/Slave, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France (1999)
• Travelogues, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, NY (2001)
• Facsimile, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, CA (2004)
• Who's Your DADA?, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2006)
• Light Sock, commissioned by Swarovski (2007)
• Exit, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France (2009)
• Open House, Levittown, NY (2011)
• In Plain Sight, Venice Biennale of Architecture, Venice, Italy (2018)

Exhibition Design Projects

They also design how art and objects are displayed in museums.

• How Wine Became Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2011)
• The Art of Scent: 1889-2010, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2012-2013)
• Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (displays), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
• Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France (2021)
• The Hare with Amber Eyes, Jewish Museum, New York, NY (2021)

Performance Design Projects

They have designed sets and spaces for performances.

• Jet Lag, performed internationally (1998)
• Traveling Music, Bordeaux, France (2009)
• Be Your Self, Adelaide, Australia (2010)

Documentaries About Their Work

• Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line (2012, 54 minutes). This film shows how they redesigned Lincoln Center and created the High Line park.

See also

In Spanish: Diller Scofidio + Renfro para niños