ABOUT US
OFFICE MISSION: Carlo Enzo Architecture focuses on design excellence and sustainability in an effort to suggest more potential beyond the limitations of site, budget and style. CEA's solutions are based on cutting edge technologies and the visionary belief that architecture is a process of analogical and inspirational nature, which is able to make art a quotidian necessity.
PROJECT OVERSIGHT Each project is supervised by the Firm Founding Principal Carlo Enzo and Senior staff at all stages from beginning to end. CEA (CEA) takes pride and honor in each project is hired for. We feel that it is only through the direct involvement of the Firm Founding Principal that the 25 years of gained national and international experience the firm has can be used to deliver design excellence and meet the need of our clients. CEA involvement extends through all project phases from Feasibility study to Construction Administration and Project Closeouts.
INTERNATIONAL AWARD WINNING TEAM CEA (former UOA) has been awarded numerous prizes for competitions and projects around the world, including the prestigious Europan 06, Maribor, Slovenia and the Robbins Elementary School in Trenton, NJ. CEA/UOA has also been featured in lectures and interviews and has been published in many books and magazines around the globe, including Dubai, Taiwan, Germany, USA, Italy, France, China and India. This reputation brings a premium to each one of our clients as they can count and verify the satisfaction former clients have. In addition CEA is able to adjust and interpret different cultures and different needs from International clients displaying a sensitivity to listening and integrating foreign cultures into the local NY territory. ARCHITECTURE EXCELLENCE AND SPATIAL POETICS CEA believes that great architecture is useful as a vehicle to inspire minds in addition to serving the functional purposes of daily activities. Perfectly executed details, flawless flowing spaces are paired with inspiring contemporary aesthetics, in an effort to create a unique vision for each project.
CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT CEA Principal and staff are Faculty at World Class Universities, having taught at Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the Milan Polytechnic University. Through the involvement with teaching, CEA maintains a leading edge on the very latest advancement in Design and Technology, while offering students the ability to gain insight on the academic repercussions in the real world practice. CEA‘s Head of Interior Design, Wamaris Rosario together with CEA/UOA Founding Principal Carlo Enzo has founded in 2011 a volunteer program to introduce Architecture and Design to underprivileged inner school students in Brooklyn, at the Bushwick Ridgewood School, in the aim of giving back and bringing awareness through design and culture. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY CEA looks at each project as a unique opportunity to develop a new and client specific environment, avoiding repetition, and aesthetic solutions used previously, while capitalizing on other work experiences, as far as efficiencies, execution and details. CEA work is contemporary and “pragmatically” visionary, combining aspects of cutting edge look, with décor of more comfortable and intimate nature. CEA’s goal is to provide a problem-solving design process, a contextually appropriate design expression and unparallel attention to technical details.
PROGRAMMING At the beginning of each project, CEA takes a leading role in identifying all necessary requirements including functional and spatial relationships. Key users are heavily involved with in order to anticipate any conflict and immediately adopt appropriate design strategies. Estimating and budgeting are monitored and applied since the project early stages to ensure compliance with the project proposed cost. Drawings and diagrams are created to facilitate the client immediate understanding of the design direction, including views and renderings to capture the client initial design guidelines.
CULTURAL, INTERNATIONAL AND GENERATIONAL INTERGRATION CEA spends copious time listening to the clients’ need and looks for methodologies to integrate our own interpretation of a given singularity into the universal language of space and architecture. Thanks to the Founding principals international upbringing, great attention is given to cultures different than the American. Special attention is paid to create spaces which are welcoming for children, disabled individuals and the general population, in an effort to allow for a comfortable and inspiring experience for all users.
ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH CEA believes that the best resource for spaces are the human occupants. CEA strives to produce spaces which are representative of our race greatest achievement, including the preservation of the Planet for future generations. All members at CEA develop a “green” approach to our work. Imagination and invention are however the strongest environmental tools and are utilized to seek for solutions and methods where others are not looking. CEA oil reuse of decommissioned oil platforms for the new Jersey City Museum and Performing Art Center and the vertical artificial green park for the Urban Golf Resort Hotel are one example of innovative green thinking.
COST CONTROL, CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION AND COMMUNICATION UOA is heavily involved with the monitoring of the cost structure, through the direct communication with the manufacturer and owning great expertise in the field thanks to a number of design-build projects completed. Because of its direct interest in execution, CEA carefully monitors shop drawings and prototypes to verify their compliance with the design intent. Utilizing weekly site meetings and daily check ups with clients and vendors, CEA has formed a reputation for improving construction through communication.
CONSULTANTS CEA/UOA’S consultants are amongst the best in the field and the top in NYC. UOA worked with: Related, Robert Silman associates, MDM engineers, Code LLC, Burnhman NY, Alan Feierstein, IAQ , Buro Happold