Wright & Robinson
Architects

63 Adams Place
Glen Ridge, NJ
07028-2041

tel 973 / 566-0449
fax 973 / 566-0819

Mark Wright AIA
Karin Robinson

Wright & Robinson Architects offer comprehensive architectural and interior design services in New York, New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, and beyond.

We work closely with our clients to create thoughtful, responsive architecture appropriate to the intersecting natural, social, historical, and economic contexts of each commission. We strive to integrate architecture, landscape and interior design into a satisfying whole attuned to the particularities of its place, its people, and our time. We enjoy working with fine old buildings and in historic contexts, and we are convinced that doing good work in the present depends on an understanding of and an appropriate respect for the good work of the past. Continuing field research and travel/study abroad and across the United States inform and enrich our judgment. Our work is grounded in craft traditions and sound contemporary construction practice.

We maintain a high level of personal collaborative effort on each project we undertake, and therefore bring the perspective and judgment developed in over forty-five years of professional experience to bear on each commission.

Recent and Current Projects include houses, additions and renovations at all scales in Glen Ridge, Montclair, Short Hills, Summit, Jersey City, Livingston, Plainsboro, Cranford, the Caldwells, Ridgewood, Madison, Chatham and South Orange NJ, in Rye NY and Hudson NY, and in a village on the outskirts of Kisumu, Kenya; cooperative apartments in Manhattan; brownstone renovations in Brooklyn; studies for the loft conversion of a distinguished 19th century mercantile building in the Bronx; the renovation of a commercial office building in Bloomfield NJ; a new pool-house for the Glen Ridge Community Pool; and a new front entrance for the golf clubhouse at Tuxedo Park NY.

Karin Robinson is licensed to practice architecture in New York and New Jersey. She received her BA degree in 1982 Summa Cum Laude, and her Master of Architecture degree in 1984, both from Princeton University. While at Princeton she was teaching assistant to Professors Chimacoff and Plattus, served on the President's Advisory Committee on Architecture, and earned the University Merit Fellowship, the Delaware Valley Masonry Institute Thesis Prize, and the Alpha Rho Chi Medal.

Her early professional work included assisting Bernard Tschumi with his winning competition entry for the Parc de la Villette in Paris. In 1985 she joined R.M.Kliment & Frances Halsband Architects, where she collaborated on the design of a new Computer Science Building for Princeton University. In 1987 she joined the Hillier Group as a senior architect, responsible for the design of new library buildings for Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) and Hood College, in addition to buildings for Union Carbide and Rutgers University. Her building for Western Maryland College was published widely, recognized with an Excellence in Architecture Award by the New Jersey Society of Architects/AIA, and exhibited at Pratt Institute in 1993.

In 1993 she joined Lichten Craig Architects as a senior architect, where she was primarily responsible for the restoration and extension of several 19th century houses at the Onteora Club, an historic Arts & Crafts enclave in Tannersville NY. In addition to her work on houses in suburban and rural resort locations she renovated and restored several Manhattan co-op apartments.

She founded her firm Karin Robinson Architect in 1997, continuing her work at the Onteora Club and building an active independent professional practice in New York and New Jersey. Her house in the Indian Village neighborhood of Rye NY was featured in an article in the New York Times. She expanded her practice to become Wright & Robinson Architects in December of 2002.

Ms. Robinson serves as a Trustee of the Glen Ridge Free Public Library and of the Glen Ridge Historical Society.

Mark Wright, AIA is licensed to practice in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. He received his BA degree in 1980 and his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1982, both from Rice University. While at Rice he was teaching assistant to Professor John Casbarian, served on the faculty committee for the Rice School of Architecture building designed by James Stirling, earned the Jesse H. Jones Merit Scholarship, the Mary Alice Elliot Travel Fund award, and received the American Institute of Architects School Medal.

In 1980 Mr. Wright joined R.M.Kliment & Frances Halsband Architects for a one-year academic preceptorship, and returned to the firm in 1982. He was central to the development of many of their projects, and worked closely with the partners on buildings that were published widely and honored with numerous design awards. He was named an Associate at K&H in 1986. In 1992 he joined Robert Lamb Hart Planners & Architects (now Hart/Howerton) as a senior design architect with generative and management responsibilities on projects for private clients, clubs and developers. While with these firms he collaborated on new houses at every scale in suburban, rural and resort environments; the new town hall for Salisbury CT; Adelbert Hall at Case Western Reserve University; the Long Island Rail Road building on 34th Street in Manhattan; apartments and corporate interiors,; and numerous clubhouses for new and existing country clubs including, in 1996-98, a new golf clubhouse for The Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park NY.

In 2002 Mr. Wright joined Ms. Robinson to form the new firm of Wright & Robinson Architects, serving private residential, corporate, club and municipal clients throughout the region.

Since 1988 Mr. Wright has served on the Design Awards Committee of the AIA New York Chapter; he Chaired the committee in 1993 and 1994. He has served on the Glen Ridge Historic District Preservation Commission since 2002. His paper “H. H. Richardson’s House for Rev’d Browne, Rediscovered” is scheduled for publication in 2009.