Firms merge to create large-residential specialty group.

Meltzer/Mandl Architects and Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EE&K) have solidified their long-term relationship by forming a new architectural firm, EE&K Residential, LLP. The new company is already working on some of the largest projects underway in the New York metro area.

EE&K Residential specializes in architectural services for new and emerging residential developments that are large or complex enough to be beyond the scope of either of the two founding firms alone.

The new firm's current projects include: four mid-rise residential buildings with commercial space on lower floors in the Arverne-by-the-Sea redevelopment, on the Rockaway Peninsula; an entertainment, hotel, residential and commercial center on Coney Island for Thor Equities; a 30-story waterfront residential tower in Yonkers, NY; a mixed-use project on Peekskill's waterfront with 500 units of housing and a 600,000-s/f mixed-use transit-oriented development in downtown New Brunswick, NJ.

The collaborations that led to the formation of EE&K Residential began in 2002 with a lunch discussion. Principals from Meltzer/Mandl Architects and EE&K have become principals of the new firm, while retaining their roles at their original firms. The new firm's officers are Stanton Eckstut, FAIA, also founding principal of EE&K; James Greenberg, AIA, also managing principal of EE&K; David Mandl, AIA, also president of Meltzer/Mandl; and Marvin H. Meltzer, AIA, also vice president of Meltzer/Mandl. The firms's other principals are Peter David Cavaluzzi, FAIA; William Donohoe, APA; Daniel Heyden, AIA; Denis Glen Kuhn, FAIA; and ChaoMing Wu, AIA.

"Our firm, more than ever, is successfully producing large and ambitious plans for mixed use projects," said Stanton Eckstut, principal-in-charge of EE&K. "This new entity gives us much more capacity and expertise to continue to serve our clients, through to construction."