Profile
Mr. Connors established his present practice, Stephen R. Connors Architect in 2003. He specializes in the design of unique residences, hospitality facilities, commercial and institutional buildings and spaces. His guiding principle and focus is the pursuit of creative design solutions that effectively address and respond to each client’s particular needs, desires, sensibility, program and budget. Mr. Connors has established and longstanding relationships with specialized engineers and other consultants, builders, contractors and craftspeople that he collaborates with whenever a particular project or client requires it or can benefit from it. Mr. Connors has extensive experience with restorations, renovations, alterations, additions, and New York City apartment combinations and alterations including on buildings listed in the National and New York Register of Historic Places. He is particularly skilled at addressing the special challenges and requirements inherent in these types of projects, including guiding them through the New York City Landmark’s Preservation Commission’s review and approval process.
Mr. Connors’ residential portfolio includes many custom homes, house additions, renovations, apartment combinations and alterations in New York City and Orange County, NY, houses in Suffolk County, NY and houses, additions and renovation projects in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. His airline, hospitality and airport facilities experience includes first class lounges, ticketing facilities and office projects for British Airways at Washington Dulles, Boston Logan, Philadelphia and JFK International Airports, office facilities in Kingston, Jamaica and projects for National Airlines, TACA Airlines, TWA and Virgin Atlantic Airways. His commercial and institutional experience includes special effects studios in NYC, law offices in Central Valley, NY, a suburban commercial center master plan project in Warwick, NY, a fraternal lodge building project in Englewood, NJ and a community ambulance service facility expansion in Warwick, NY.
Mr. Connors is licensed in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He is a member of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and holds a National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Certificate.
Biography
Stephen R. Connors attended the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York City on a full tuition scholarship and graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Architecture. While at Cooper Union he studied under a world-renowned faculty headed by Dean John Hejduk. Concurrent with his architecture studies and curriculum he studied painting under Will Barnet. In his fourth year Mr. Connors had a one-man show of his hard edge architectonic paintings in the painting gallery of the Cooper Union Foundation Building. For his fifth year thesis project he synthesized his two disciplines into a formal exploration of exhibition space and museum design.
After graduating Mr. Connors worked at Barry Howard and Associates, Museum Designers and Planners, in Larchmont, NY and Marvin H. Meltzer Architects in New York City. He went on to hold senior architect positions at Gruen Associates, the Ehrenkrantz Group and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates in New York City. His portfolio from Gwathmey Siegel includes Center Four of the International Design Center in Long Island City, for which he was the Project Architect, and the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York. His contribution to the School of Agriculture building at Cornell University helped earn the firm a Design Award from the AIA New York Chapter. In 1986 Mr. Connors was a founding partner of Abelow Connors Architects in New York City where he was partner in charge of many of the firms projects including all of the firm’s airline and airport facilities projects as well as NYC landmark townhouse restorations and additions, apartment combinations and renovations and the J.N. Adam Developmental Center for the Mentally Disabled landmark renovation project in upstate New York. In 1996 Mr. Connors received Signature Kitchens and Baths Magazine’s Leading Professional Award as one of America’s Leading Architects of the Year. He has been a visiting critic at the Art Students League and Columbia University School of Architecture.
