NEWSLETTER
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September 17th, 2025
Exhibition at Roger Williams University
Our exhibition opened at Roger Williams University, revealing the unseen side of practice, the projects that never made it past a sketch, a conversation, or a site visit. Through models, drawings, and films, An Archive of Impossible Futures explores the disproportion between what we imagine and what gets built, turning the unbuilt into a space for reflection and dialogue.
September 17th, 2025
The Architect-Builder - Lecture at Roger Williams University
Exploring the relationship between design and construction
On Wednesday, September 17, at the DF Pray Lecture Theatre (ARCH 132) at Roger Williams University, Miguel Quismondo delivered the lecture “The Architect-Builder” as founder of MQ Architecture. The talk explored his architect-builder approach, presenting projects such as the Olnick Spanu House, Magazzino Italian Art, and the Robert Olnick Pavilion, offering an in-depth look at the relationship between conceptual design and hands-on construction.
September 15th, 2025
Bush Terminal – Public Art in Progress
Engineering the vision of Ornaghi & Prestinari
In Brooklyn’s Bush Terminal, a former industrial site transformed for cultural use, we are coordinating a public art project commissioned through New York City’s Percent for Art program. The sculptures, designed by Italian duo Valentina Ornaghi and Claudio Prestinari, engage with the site’s history and surroundings. Acting as the artists’ local representatives, MQ Architecture oversees the process from engineering to installation, ensuring both fidelity to the design and technical feasibility. The project is ongoing, with more updates to come.
August 15th, 2025
Why architects should stop apologizing for talking about aesthetics.
Current thoughts
Somewhere along the way, beauty became a guilty pleasure in architecture. We learned to lead with performance, sustainability, compliance, or equity, as if form were indulgent. But aesthetics are not superficial; they’re how space communicates. A beautiful building can invite, inspire, comfort, or challenge. Design that moves people is not less serious, it’s more complete
Over 2,000 years ago, Vitruvius wrote that good architecture rests on firmitas, utilitas, venustas (firmness, usefulness, and beauty). We have become comfortable talking about the first two. We can measure them, regulate them, and prove them. But venustas, the beauty, has been pushed aside, as if it were optional or suspect.
Performance may keep a roof from leaking, but it does not explain why a shaft of light can transform a corridor into an experience, or why we linger in certain plazas long after the practical task is done. To speak about beauty is not to evade responsibility; it is to acknowledge the full responsibility architects carry.
Aesthetics are not frosting on top of function. They are inseparable from the human experience of space. A clinic that feels warm and dignified changes how patients heal. A library that uplifts its visitors changes how knowledge is pursued. Even infrastructure (a bridge, a subway entrance) can elevate daily life when crafted with care for form as well as use.
It’s time we stop treating aesthetics as an afterthought. Vitruvius placed beauty alongside firmness and utility for a reason, without it, architecture is incomplete.
June 3rd, 2025
Round Table - Instituto Cervantes New York
1964–65 New York World's Fair: The Spanish Pavilion
Instituto Cervantes New York, in collaboration with the Consulate of Spain and the Queens Museum, hosted a special event reflecting on one of Spain’s most remarkable contributions to modern architecture and cultural diplomacy: the Spanish Pavilion at the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. Held at the height of the Cold War and global transformation, the 1964–65 World’s Fair served as a platform for national identity and architectural innovation. Among its most celebrated structures was the Spanish Pavilion -a bold and visionary building designed by Javier Carvajal, a key figure in Spanish modernism. With its minimalist design, elegant geometry, rhythmic wooden structures, and masterful use of light, the pavilion projected an image of modernity, progress, and artistic sophistication. It symbolized a changing Spain and offered a powerful expression of cultural identity on the world stage. The event explored the pavilion’s lasting influence on contemporary Spanish architecture and its role in fostering cultural dialogue between Spain and the United States—an impact that continues to resonate today.
Speakers:
Lynn Maliszewski, Assistant Director of Archives and Collections, Queens Museum
Charlotte von Hardenburgh, Design Historian and Educator, Parsons School of Design
Miguel Quismondo, Principal and Founder, MQ Architecture
Moderator: Javier Valdivielso, Director, Instituto Cervantes New York
January 21st, 2025
The Rock That Stood in the Way
Carriage House
During excavation at our Brooklyn project, we unexpectedly encountered a massive 9 foot diameter rock formation hidden beneath the site. What first seemed like an insurmountable obstacle quickly became a defining moment in the process. After weeks of coordination with engineers and contractors, the rock was finally broken into pieces and extracted, clearing the way for construction to move forward, a reminder of the unseen challenges that lie beneath the city.
October 3rd, 2024
Private Tour with Yale Architecture Students at Magazzino Italian Art
Miguel Quismondo guided a visit alongside architect Mauricio Pezo
Miguel Quismondo hosted a private tour of Magazzino Italian Art for a group of Yale School of Architecture students, joined by architect Mauricio Pezo. The visit offered an in-depth look at the museum’s design and construction, highlighting its dialogue between contemporary architecture, Italian art, and the Hudson Valley landscape.
May 21st, 2024
Light and Architecture - Panel Discussion at Saint Peter’s Church
Exploring how natural light shapes modernist spaces
On May 21, 2024, Saint Peter’s Church and The Arts and Architecture Conservancy hosted a panel discussion inspired by Marco Anelli’s striking photo installation at the church. Angela Wolf Scott, Adam Yarinsky, and Miguel Quismondo explored the relationship between natural light and design through three contemporary spaces — Saint Peter’s Church, Magazzino Italian Art, and the Rothko Chapel. Moderated by Caitlin Watson, the conversation revealed how light captivates, inspires, and enriches the experience of modern architecture.
2024
Introducing our newsletter
MQarchitecture Team
At MQ Architecture, our work begins with curiosity - about materials, about space, about people. For years, we’ve let that curiosity guide us through diverse projects: museums, homes, hospitality spaces, and collaborations with artists and galleries. Each one has added a new layer to how we design, build, and relate to the world around us.
Now, we’re opening another window into that process.
We’re launching a newsletter: not just as a way to share updates, but as a space to reflect, connect, and bring you closer to the ideas, challenges, and details that shape our practice.
You’ll find behind-the-scenes insights, sketches, site moments, stories of craft, and thoughts on architecture as both discipline and dialogue. Whether you’re a client, collaborator, or someone who simply values thoughtful design, we hope it brings inspiration your way.
We believe in building with honesty, with clarity, and with care. This newsletter is an extension of that same ethos.
Subscribe and join us. One story, one project, one idea at a time.
MQ Architecture Team