NYCxDESIGN 2026: A Curated Schedule of What To See and When To Go
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NYCxDESIGN returns May 14–20, 2026, for its 14th edition under the theme “Design Connects Us,” with more than 200 events spread across all five boroughs. The full festival calendar is broad and ambitious, spanning product launches, gallery openings, guided tours, open studios and more. As ever, the schedule casts a wide net with many events showcasing the very best of what is happening across our industry.
What stands out about this year’s architecture program, though, is how much of it turns inward. Several of the most compelling events examine the methods, materials and responsibilities behind architecture — circular construction, neuroinclusive public space, climate-adaptive landscape and, of course, the implications of generative AI for architectural authorship. At the same time, the level of access on offer is incredibly generous: studios that rarely open their doors are inviting guests in, and active construction sites are offering hardhat tours. Landscape architects are even walking visitors through the engineering of a rebuilt waterfront park!
The following selection highlights the architecture-related events we think are most worth taking the time to visit. Each offers a chance to see how the discipline is thinking, building and questioning itself in real time in its own way.
Wednesday, May 14 — Opening Day
Current Work: Toward Circular Construction, with Felix Heisel
Talk — May 14, 6:30–8:00 PM — SoHo
Felix Heisel directs the Circular Construction Lab at Cornell AAP, where his research focuses on redesigning the built environment as a material depot where buildings are conceived as banks of reusable components. The talk addresses circularity, material passports and adaptive reuse at a level of specificity that design-week programming rarely reaches. For architects whose work touches demolition or material reclamation, this is a strong reason to be in SoHo on opening night.
Fractured Horizons: Imaging After Images
Exhibition — May 14–20, 10:00 AM–10:00 PM — Midtown
An NYCxDESIGN Spotlight exhibition exploring the relationship between the industrial legacy of human-centric built environments and the speculative futures of posthuman spaces. Three themes — Legacy and Rupture, Horizons of the Posthuman City, and Fractured Narratives — frame works that sit between nostalgia for industrial pasts and anxiety about what comes next. Open all week.
Also on Wednesday
Safe & Sound (Exhibition, May 14 – June 28, Lower East Side) — Slow Construct and Lero Street Studio present a curated collection of objects designed by architects that evoke safety, comfort and belonging within the home. The Discipline and the Path (Talk, May 14, 6:00–8:00 PM, Upper East Side).
Thursday, May 15
The Housing Crisis: Real Solutions from Real People
Talk – May 15, 5:00–7:00pm – Manhattan – SoHo
INC Architecture & Design, in collaboration with the Living City Project, hosts a panel that brings together leading voices from government, policy, and academia to address one of the most urgent challenges facing New York City: housing affordability.
Parsons School of Constructed Environments: End of Year Exhibition
Exhibition — May 15, 6:00–8:00 PM — Greenwich Village
Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments presents its annual end-of-year showcase across architecture, interior design and product design. The exhibition offers a direct look at how the next generation is responding to contemporary spatial challenges. For studio leads and hiring managers, it is one of the most concentrated showcases of emerging talent on the calendar.
Friday, May 16
NYCxDESIGN Keynote: An Evening with Santiago & Gabriel Calatrava
Talk + Tour — May 16, 5:00–7:30 PM — Financial District
A featured public talk by Santiago Calatrava at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center — the church he designed, completed in 2022, to replace the parish house destroyed on September 11. The talk is followed by a personal tour of the Oculus, led by his son Gabriel Calatrava. The setting is as significant as the speaker: this is architecture experienced in the building its architect created, at a site that carries extraordinary public meaning.
Saturday, May 17
ICFF at the Javits Center
Trade Show — May 17, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM (through May 19) — Javits Center
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair returns under the theme Common Ground. Programming includes the ICFF Editors Awards (May 17), the ICFF Talks series, Bespoke: The Art of Making and WANTED’s Look Book, Launch Pad and Schools Showcase. The talks program is of particular interest to architects, while the broader show floor leans toward product and interiors.
Harlem Sculpture Gardens
Tour — May 17, 1:00–2:30 PM — West Harlem
The third edition of the Harlem Sculpture Gardens will be led by Savona Bailey-McClain of the West Harlem Art Fund. The tour covers large-scale sculpture and design works installed across six venues in West Harlem, including Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park and Jackie Robinson Park. It is one of the few architecture-tagged events that takes visitors uptown and engages the public realm at the neighborhood scale.
Sunday–Monday, May 18–19
Design + Fabrication Tours
Tour — May 18–19, 5:00–7:00 PM — Long Island City, Queens
A fabrication-focused tour through one of the city’s densest maker districts. It is the only Queens event on the architecture calendar and one of the few that moves visitors inside the production side of the discipline into the workshops and studios where drawings become built objects.
BFA / MFA Thesis Projects and MPS Studio Projects
Exhibition — May 18, 6:00–8:00 PM — Upper East Side
End-of-year thesis exhibitions spanning interior design, architecture and landscape architecture. The thesis shows remain among the most concentrated views of where emerging practice is heading, and of what the schools are currently prioritizing.
JGNA Presents: A Hardhat Tour of 20 Exchange Place
Tour — May 19, 5:00–7:00 PM — Financial District
JG Neukomm Architecture opens the doors to an active renovation of the landmark Art Deco tower at 20 Exchange Place. The tour offers hardhat access and an early look at JGNA’s in-progress amenity and lobby renovation on the live construction site and is set to be one of the week’s most distinctive offerings.
The Neurodiverse City: Rethinking Public Space Access by Design
Exhibition — May 19, 5:30–7:30 PM — Financial District
Presented by the Design Trust for Public Space with Verona Carpenter Architects and WIP Collaborative, this project reimagines New York’s streets, playgrounds and plazas for neurodivergent users. Pilot prototypes were tested at Louise Nevelson Plaza in 2025. The work spans urban design, architecture, and inclusive public space, and will speak directly to practitioners involved in accessibility and civic commissions.
NYCxDESIGN Festival Tour: Wagner Park
Tour — May 19, 6:00–7:30 PM — Financial District
Presented by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-NY), this guided tour offers a close reading of the rebuilt Wagner Park by AECOM’s landscape architecture team, SiteWorks and BPCA. The focus is on how the park integrates flood resilience, climate adaptation and landscape design into a single waterfront public space.
Repair, Refresh, Revive: Responsive Design for Communities
Talk — May 19, 6:00–8:00 PM — Midtown
A conversation about responsive, community-oriented design practice. Inspired by the current 2026 AIA New York president, Mark Gardener. His presidential theme, “Repair: Democracy and Urban Space,” is a call to action to celebrate spaces we revive and refresh with design that does more.
Tuesday, May 20 — DUMBO x Design Day
DUMBO x Design Day
Open studios, activations, closing party — May 20, 12:00–9:00 PM — DUMBO, Brooklyn
The festival’s closing day opens studios and creative spaces across the DUMBO district. DUMBO x Design Day brings together a number of confirmed participants, but two stand out. BIG hosts a panel moderated by Lora Appleton of The Female Design Council, featuring female leaders from the firm and spotlighting its new publication BIG Atlas. Snøhetta celebrates the opening of its new 25,000-square-foot headquarters with an evening reception and unveils a new DUMBO logo and identity it has designed for the neighborhood. Also activating: Henrybuilt, Hudson Wilder, Reform and Fishs Eddy.
Book Talk: Architecture x Architecture — A Dialectic
Talk — May 20, 6:00–8:00 PM — Flatiron / NoMad
MAP (Metropolitan Architecture Practice) co-founders Katherine Lambert and Christiane Robbins present their new monograph, published by ORO Editions, with an afterword by Aaron Betsky and essays by Kyle Steinfeld. The book captures the moment when architecture began to grapple with machine vision and generative AI, tracing how these tools are beginning to reshape multidisciplinary design practice.
Running All Week
Several architecture-tagged events run across the full festival period or extend beyond it. Worth building into transit time between the events above:
- Art Deco Icons of NYC Tour — Tour, May 1 – June 30, 4:00–6:00 PM, Midtown. Pairs well with the JGNA hardhat tour for anyone on an Art Deco thread.
- Materials of Joy — Installation, April 9 – May 23, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM, TriBeCa. Art x Design, Interior Design, Architecture.
- PIT ROOM — Exhibition, May 7 – June 11, 12:00–6:00 PM, DUMBO. Art x Design, Architecture, Industrial and Product Design.
- NYCxDesign at HUSH — Talk, May 19, 5:00–7:00 PM, Brooklyn Navy Yard. Technology x Design, Architecture, Entertainment x Design.
Architizer is a 2026 NYCxDESIGN Media Partner. The full festival schedule is at nycxdesign.org and on the NYCxDESIGN and Bloomberg Connects mobile apps.
Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by uploading projects to Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.
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