AtelierTek Architects PLLC is a multidisciplinary, collaborative architecture practice founded in 2021 by Serge Drouin and Daniel Hammerman, who are joined by a talented, growing team. Based in New York City but working near and far, AtelierTek is dedicated to highly responsive and well-crafted projects of all types, scales, and budgets. 

AtelierTek combines two words: « atelier », the place where the hand and the brain come together to make and invent, the workshop, and; « tek », the root word of architect, deriving from tekton, meaning carpenter, or builder. Our design approach stems from appreciation of craftsmanship and performance, clarity and efficiency, scale and sequence, daylight and shadow, inventiveness, delight, and integrity. We believe each detail should be well-conceived, integral to the whole. We find architecture most compelling when it emerges from creative and intensive study, not from flashy gestures. Technical and aesthetic are intertwined. We believe architecture should look like and celebrate what it does, and how it does it; how it works, how it was made, and how it came to be.

We are stubborn optimists about the potential of design to benefit society and the environment. Sustainability is not a buzzword or marketing gimmick, it is an imperative, driving a holistic design approach attuned to operational and embodied energy, climate, community, and context. It is essential to ensure positive impact, not merely mitigation of negative. First, do no harm. But second, build back better. We are responsive architects, in every sense. Responsive to climate, program, site context, budget, schedule, material properties, structural capacities, fabrication processes, natural light and wind, scale and rhythm, needs and wants, occupants and neighbors. Feedback, constraints, and iteration are critical to design refinement and success.  We value process and true collaboration–with builders, with engineers, with clients, with communities–in order to develop the best projects for all parties and perspectives.  We design with, not for.

We deploy complementary digital and analog techniques in the course of design, documentation and fabrication. We typically have a back-and-forth process between hand sketches, physical models, 2D drawings, 3D models, renderings, immersive VR, visual and performance mockups. We embrace building information modeling with high precision to generate particularly comprehensive and well-coordinated drawings for the builder. We relish efficiencies of breaking barriers between architects, engineers, consultants, and contractors, working off a shared model in collaboration. Well-developed models better facilitate pricing takeoffs, extraction of pieces and shop drawings, and avoidance of clashes in the field. It is also helpful in design phase to analyze, optimize and inform the project based on energy use intensity, user comfort, daylight levels, embodied carbon, facade thermal performance, building lifecycle costs, material sourcing and scheduling, and many other key parameters and drivers. Technical proficiency married with a creative approach generates intelligent and inspiring design solutions.

AtelierTek Architects provides the full range of services: visioning/programming, concept/feasibility studies, masterplanning, design documents, construction documents, permit documents, cost estimating/bid review, construction supervision, as-built drawings, and post-occupancy assessment. We are equally passionate and pragmatic, with the creativity, perspective and persistence to conceive, develop, and actualize great projects.

We bring the fresh, scrappy energy of a startup along with extensive experience and sensibility honed on exceptional projects worldwide. Prior to founding AtelierTek, Serge and Daniel spent many (20 and 12, respectively) formative years at Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris, Genova and New York, where they worked on and led many significant projects including The New York Times headquarters (NYC), Columbia University Manhattanville masterplan, Forum building and the Jerome L Greene Science Center (NYC), Eighty Seven Park (MIA), Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (ATH), the Kimbell Art Museum Expansion (TX), and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (LA). Serge was Partner in charge of the RPBW New York office.