Frame Design Lab Designs An Experience

Nina Cooke John and Anne-Marie Singer built Frame Design Lab, a New York based architecture and design studio, to construct personalized projects.

Frame Design Lab is run by working women with an eye for design.

frame design
Photo courtesy of Lisa Russman Photography.

Frame Design Lab studio transforms space, designs architecture and creates community in the greater New York area. Partners John and Singer look at everything from the client’s vision to the final picture to perfect a project. Each project begins with a thorough examination of factors. From there, Frame Design Lab designs a plan and consults craftsmen and fabricators to collaborate with their client.

John and Singer met while working at a firm whose primary area of concentration was residential and commercial design. The duo wanted to create a more personalized service, spending more time and resources on one project. They took more than a professional risk in creating Frame Design Lab. They also gambled with their personal lives, as John and Singer are more than architects and designers. They are parents, wives who help run households, community members and educators. Frame Design Lab gives them creative control. It also helps them manage a balance between work, family and life.

“Being women in the design field, it can be hard to maintain a reasonable work/life balance. Drop out rates in our field for women is higher than in other professional industries,” said Singer.

Singer has practiced architecture since 2006. She has a background in sustainable design, and an appreciation for both the natural and constructed environments. Before Singer attended architectural school, she studied environmental science and management. That education encouraged her to help fix the amount of pollution the construction industry dumps into the environment. Her traveling experience also inspires her sustainability interests.

John, who started her career designing houses with Voorsanger and Associates, has worked on projects such as the New York Botanical Gardens, the Clinton Library and the Bitmore Theater. She has taught architecture and design strategy at Syracuse University for 11 years, and is currently educating students at Parsons the New School for Design.

frame design
Photo courtesy of Lisa Russman Photography.

“Teaching forces me to continue to work the part of my brain that expands into the purely conceptual. By keeping my head in the clouds while discussing ideas with my students, the ideas I might have for more mundane problems in real life will be more creative,” said John. “It’s important to me, to nurture any interest young students may have in the creative industry.”

Frame Design Lab has grown significantly each year it has been in business. John and Singer hope to continue to collaborate with new clients and institutions, and to learn more from other designers.

“We consider our work exploratory, so we of course welcome all new opportunities,” said Singer.

Visit Frame Design Lab’s website or Facebook, or email info@framedesignlab.com with inquires.

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