August 14, 2025
August 14, New York, NY – On Thursday, October 23, professionals from the architecture, engineering, construction, and real estate industries will gather at Chelsea Piers, Pier 60 for Common Bond: The Center for Architecture Gala. Since the 1980s, AIA New York and the Center for Architecture have gathered 1,000+ guests each fall to celebrate design excellence in New York City and recognize its leaders and visionaries.
Common Bond will serve as the single largest fundraiser for the Center for Architecture, providing critical funding to help the organization and its partner, AIA New York, support our steadfast mission to educate the public about the importance of architecture and design. While offering an unparalleled opportunity for forging professional connections, the event provides funding for the Center for Architecture’s exhibitions, programs, scholarships and other activities, including our popular Education Programs. Guests can support the event by purchasing a sponsorship, ticket, or ad by October 10.
The Center for Architecture has announced its distinguished 2025 Common Bond honorees, each embodying the values that define our community: collaboration, sustainability, inclusivity, civic engagement, and a commitment to design excellence. Please join us in congratulating REX, Daniel Brodsky, Joel Towers, AIA, and Maria Torres-Springer.
HONOREES
REX
Believing architecture should empower its users and communities, not simply be a representational art, New York-based REX challenges and advances building paradigms and promotes architectural agency. This ethos guides the studio to produce inventive designs so functionally specific that they offer new and inspiring aesthetic experiences.
REX is led by Founding Principal Joshua Ramus, FAIA, and Associate Principals Alysen Fiore, Assoc. AIA; Adam Chizmar, AIA; and Raúl Rodríguez, Intl. Assoc. AIA. Their recently completed work includes the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center in New York, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center at Brown University in Providence, and 2050 M Street, a premium office building in Washington, DC. A pair of mixed-use skyscrapers in Perth, Australia; two residential towers on the Brooklyn waterfront; a retail and cultural hub for Kia Motors in Seoul, South Korea; an office tower in Brisbane, Australia; and the Necklace Residence on Long Island, are all currently under design or construction.
Testimony to the firm’s design excellence and innovation, REX and Ramus’ projects have been recognized with two AIA National Honor Awards, five AIA New York Honor and Merit Awards, a U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology National Honor Award, an American Library Association National Building Award, Time magazine’s Building of the Year, and the International Design Awards Building of the Year. Fast Company ranked REX No. 25 on its 2024 World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list.
Daniel Brodsky
Managing Partner, The Brodsky Organization
Dan Brodsky is Managing Partner of The Brodsky Organization, one of New York City’s leading developers, builders, and property managers of residential and mixed-use real estate. Under his leadership, the firm became a pioneer of 80/20 developments, integrating luxury residences with affordable housing to strengthen the city’s social and architectural fabric.
He earned a master’s degree in urban planning from New York University after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. Brodsky served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for over a decade (2011–2021) and remains an active trustee, serving on several committees and advising on major capital and construction initiatives. In 2014, he endowed the position of the museum’s first Curator of Architecture and Design, underscoring his commitment to fostering dialogue between art, design, and the built environment. He also served on the joint committee for the redesign of Lincoln Center’s plaza renovation (2005–2012), a landmark project by Diller Scofidio + Renfro that reimagined the campus as a more open, accessible, and architecturally dynamic public space.
He has held leadership roles on the boards of numerous cultural and educational organizations, including the NYU’s Wagner Graduate School Dean’s Council, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York City Ballet, the Municipal Art Society, and the Manhattan Bowery Corporation. In the educational sphere, he has served as a trustee of New York University, the Saint Bernard’s School, the Dalton School, the Brearley School, Riverdale, and Trinity, reflecting his long-standing dedication to advancing learning and community engagement.
Joel Towers, AIA
President, The New School
Joel Towers, AIA, became The New School’s tenth President on August 1, 2024. An architect, educator, and a passionate advocate for design-based solutions to climate change, he has worked at The New School for more than 20 years as a member of the faculty and administrative leadership.
He joined Parsons faculty in 2004 with a focus on sustainable design and urban ecology. In 2006, he was named Associate Provost for Environmental Studies and founded the university’s Tishman Environment and Design Center, which fosters the integration of design, policy, and social justice approaches to environmental issues. From 2007-2009 he was the founding Dean of the School of Design Strategies at Parsons. He was named Executive Dean in 2009 and served in that role until 2019. During that time, Parsons completed major curricular reforms, launched new graduate and undergraduate programs, expanded its full-time faculty, and opened a 26,000-square-foot cross-disciplinary Making Center. Under his leadership, Parsons consistently ranked as the top school for Art and Design in the United States, a position it continues to hold today.
Throughout his career, President Towers, AIA, has focused on sustainability, resilience, and the development of policy and design-based solutions to climate change and the construction of healthy environments. In 2019, he was appointed by Mayor de Blasio to co-chair The New York City Panel on Climate Change, completing NPCC4 in 2024. Prior to joining The New School, he worked with William McDonough Architects, followed in 1992, by the co-founding of Sislian Rothstein and Towers Architects (SR+T). Over 18 years, SR+T completed award winning projects and was a testing ground for the integration of research, scholarship and creative practice.
Maria Torres-Springer
Maria Torres-Springer is a nationally recognized public servant and urban policy leader with over 25 years of experience across the government, philanthropic, private, and nonprofit sectors. She formerly served as New York City’s First Deputy Mayor where she oversaw the day-today operations of the City of New York and had strategic and budgetary oversight of a 300,000+ public sector workforce and an annual $110 billion budget. She led landmark achievements in housing, including the pathbreaking City of Yes for Housing Opportunity reforms and historic investments in public housing. She also oversaw an aggressive jobs agenda to regain the one million jobs lost in the city during the pandemic. Torres-Springer’s distinguished record of public service across three Mayoral administrations includes leading three agencies where was widely recognized for her ability to turn progressive values into practical results.
Torres-Springer is currently a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, where she previously served as Vice President for US Programs and led the foundation’s domestic grant-making. She is also currently a Senior Advisor for the Boston Consulting Group. In these roles, she continues to identify ways to support cities and states, grounded in her core belief in the dignity of home, the power of the work, and the capacity of government to transform lives.