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NYCxDESIGN returns Might 14– 20, 2026, for its 14th edition under the theme “Design Connects United States,” with more than 200 occasions spread throughout all five boroughs. The full festival calendar is broad and ambitious, covering product launches, gallery openings, directed trips, open studios and more. As ever, the schedule casts a large internet with lots of events showcasing the very best of what is happening across our market.
What stands apart about this year’s architecture program, though, is how much of it turns inward. Several of the most compelling occasions take a look at the approaches, materials and obligations behind architecture– circular building, neuroinclusive public area, climate-adaptive landscape and, of course, the ramifications of generative AI for architectural authorship. At the exact same time, the level of access on offer is exceptionally generous: studios that hardly ever open their doors are inviting guests in, and active building sites are providing hardhat trips. Landscape architects are even strolling visitors through the engineering of a reconstructed waterside park!
The following selection highlights the architecture-related occasions we believe are most worth making the effort to go to. Each offers a possibility to see how the discipline is thinking, structure and questioning itself in real time in its own way.
See Celebration Calendar
Wednesday, Might 14– Opening Day
Existing Work: Toward Circular Building, with Felix Heisel Talk– Might 14, 6:30– 8:00 PM– SoHo
Felix Heisel directs the Circular Construction Laboratory at Cornell AAP, where his research study concentrates on upgrading the developed environment as a material depot where structures are conceived as banks of reusable parts. The talk addresses circularity, product passports and adaptive reuse at a level of specificity that design-week programs hardly ever reaches. For designers whose work touches demolition or product improvement, this is a strong factor to be in SoHo on opening night.
Fractured Horizons: Imaging After Images
Exhibit– Might 14– 20, 10:00 AM– 10:00 PM– Midtown
An NYCxDESIGN Spotlight exhibition checking out the relationship in between the commercial legacy of human-centric constructed environments and the speculative futures of posthuman spaces. 3 themes– Tradition and Rupture, Horizons of the Posthuman City, and Fractured Narratives– frame works that sit in between nostalgia for commercial pasts and stress and anxiety about what follows. Open all week.
Likewise on Wednesday
Safe & Sound (Exhibit, Might 14– June 28, Lower East Side)– Slow Construct and Lero Street Studio provide a curated collection of items designed by designers that evoke security, comfort and belonging within the home. The Discipline and the Path (Talk, May 14, 6:00– 8:00 PM, Upper East Side).
Thursday, Might 15
The Housing Crisis: Genuine Solutions from Real Individuals
Talk– Might 15, 5:00– 7:00 pm– Manhattan– SoHo
INC Architecture & Style, in cooperation with the Living City Project, hosts a panel that brings together leading voices from government, policy, and academia to attend to one of the most immediate obstacles facing New York City: housing affordability.
Parsons School of Constructed Environments: End of Year Exhibition
Exhibit– May 15, 6:00– 8:00 PM– Greenwich Town
Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments provides its yearly end-of-year display across architecture, interior design and product design. The exhibition provides a direct look at how the next generation is responding to modern spatial difficulties. For studio leads and hiring managers, it is one of the most focused showcases of emerging skill on the calendar.
Friday, May 16
NYCxDESIGN Keynote: An Evening with Santiago
& Gabriel Calatrava Talk +Tour– Might 16, 5:00– 7:30 PM– Financial District
An included public talk by Santiago Calatrava at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center– the church he created, finished in 2022, to change the parish home ruined on September 11. The talk is followed by an individual tour of the Oculus, led by his kid Gabriel Calatrava. The setting is as significant as the speaker: this is architecture experienced in the developing its designer produced, at a site that carries remarkable public meaning.
Saturday, Might 17
ICFF at the Javits Center Trade Show– Might 17, 10:00 AM– 6:00 PM(through May 19
)– Javits Center The International Contemporary Furnishings Fair returns under the theme Common Ground. Programs consists of the ICFF Editors Awards (Might 17), the ICFF Talks series, Bespoke: The Art of Makingand WANTED’s Appearance Book, Launch Pad and Schools Showcase. The talks program is of specific interest to designers, while the more comprehensive 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 trip covers massive sculpture and design works set up across 6 locations in West Harlem, including Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park and Jackie Robinson Park. It is one of the couple of architecture-tagged events that takes visitors prosperous and engages the public world at the area scale.
Sunday– Monday, Might 18– 19
Design + Fabrication Trips Trip– May 18– 19, 5:00– 7:00 PM– Long Island City, Queens
A fabrication-focused trip through one of the city’s densest maker districts. It is the only Queens event on the architecture calendar and among the few that moves visitors inside the production side of the discipline into the workshops and studios where illustrations end up being constructed items.
BFA/ MFA Thesis Projects and MPS Studio Projects
Exhibit– May 18, 6:00– 8:00 PM– Upper East Side
End-of-year thesis exhibits covering interior decoration, architecture and landscape architecture. The thesis reveals remain amongst the most focused views of where emerging practice is heading, and of what the schools are presently prioritizing.
JGNA Presents: A Hardhat Trip of 20 Exchange Location
Trip– Might 19, 5:00– 7:00 PM– Financial District
JG Neukomm Architecture unlocks to an active renovation of the landmark Art Deco tower at 20 Exchange Location. The trip offers hardhat access and an early look at JGNA’s in-progress facility and lobby restoration on the live building website and is set to be among the week’s most distinctive offerings.
The Neurodiverse City: Rethinking Public Space Gain Access To by Design
Exhibit– May 19, 5:30– 7:30 PM– Financial District
Provided by the Design Trust for Public Space with Verona Carpenter Architects and WIP Collaborative, this project reimagines New york city’s streets, play grounds and plazas for neurodivergent users. Pilot prototypes were checked at Louise Nevelson Plaza in 2025. The work covers city design, architecture, and inclusive public space, and will speak straight to professionals associated with ease of access and civic commissions.
NYCxDESIGN Celebration Tour: Wagner Park
Tour– Might 19, 6:00– 7:30 PM– Financial District
Provided by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-NY), this guided trip uses a close reading of the rebuilt Wagner Park by AECOM’s landscape architecture team, SiteWorks and BPCA. The focus is on how the park incorporates flood resilience, climate adjustment and landscape style into a single waterside public space.
Repair work, Refresh, Revive: Responsive Design for Communities
Talk– Might 19, 6:00– 8:00 PM– Midtown
A discussion about responsive, community-oriented style practice. Inspired by the current 2026 AIA New york city president, Mark Garden enthusiast. His presidential theme, “Repair work: Democracy and Urban Space,” is a call to action to commemorate areas we restore 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 areas across the DUMBO district. DUMBO x Style Day unites a number of verified individuals, but 2 stick out. BIG hosts a panel moderated by Lora Appleton of The Female Style Council, featuring female leaders from the firm and spotlighting its brand-new publication BIG Atlas. Snøhetta celebrates the opening of its new 25,000-square-foot head office with an evening reception and reveals a new DUMBO logo design and identity it has actually designed for the community. Also triggering: Henrybuilt, Hudson Wilder, Reform and Fishs Eddy.
Book Talk: Architecture x Architecture– A Dialectic
Talk– May 20, 6:00– 8:00 PM– Flatiron/ Wanderer
MAP (Metropolitan Architecture Practice) co-founders Katherine Lambert and Christiane Robbins present their brand-new monograph, published by ORO Editions, with an afterword by Aaron Betsky and essays by Kyle Steinfeld. The book catches the moment when architecture began to grapple with device vision and generative AI, tracing how these tools are starting to reshape multidisciplinary design practice.
Running All Week
Several architecture-tagged events run across the complete celebration duration or extend beyond it. Worth structure into transit time between the occasions above:
- Art Deco Icons of NYC Tour– Tour, May 1– June 30, 4:00– 6:00 PM, Midtown. Pairs well with the JGNA hardhat trip for anyone on an Art Deco thread.
- Materials of Delight– 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 Style, Architecture, Industrial and Product Style.
- NYCxDesign at HUSH– Talk, May 19, 5:00– 7:00 PM, Brooklyn Navy Backyard. Technology x Design, Architecture, Entertainment x Style.
Architizer is a 2026 NYCxDESIGN Media Partner. The complete celebration schedule is at nycxdesign.org and on the NYCxDESIGN and Bloomberg Links mobile apps.
See Festival Calendar
Designers: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by submitting jobs to Architizer and register for our inspiring newsletters.