Ted Baab
Ted Baab teaches architecture at the Cooper Union, and runs his own practice BAAB in Brooklyn.
Building in this city is not easy: an odd-shaped lot, an unlikely access point, a steep sidewalk, dueling frontage on multiple streets, a looming neighbor, restrictive zoning. But difficult sites aren't necessarily bad, not architecturally at least.
There aren’t many round buildings in the city. But at the corner of Hester St. and Eldridge St. in Manhattan’s Chinatown, there’s an unexpected one. Demure yet bold, the four-story school isn’t taller than its neighbors, but stands out with a figure all its own. Unlike the Guggenheim, surely the city’s most well-known rounded facade, this one isn’t just trying to be different.
