Jay Valgora’s Manhattan based practice, STUDIO V Architecture, is dedicated to the reinvention of the contemporary city. The Studio addresses multiple themes in its designs including creating a new architecture of transformative edges and sustainable communities, radical adaptive reuse, and experiments in innovative structures and fabrication. STUDIO V has designed an extraordinary range of work advancing these issues. The Studio’s work encompasses re-imagining New York City's waterfront in all five boroughs including Astoria, Inwood, Flushing, DUMBO, Gravesend, Sunset Park, and Staten Island. Innovative designs for the Empire Stores and Bronx Post Office combine historic and contemporary architecture. The exploration of radical structures and fabrication includes the Accoya wood canopy in Helena Lobby, Yonkers Raceway, MOBI Pavilion, and Morimoto Asia. Mr. Valgora has thirty years of experience in multiple disciplines including architecture, urban design, and industrial design. Mr. Valgora earned a Master of Architecture from Harvard, a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and was a Fulbright Fellow to the United Kingdom where he began his studies of reinventing former industrial waterfronts. Mr. Valgora’s work has received numerous awards including national, state, and local AIA awards, International Design Award, Architizer A+ Awards, Architectural Record Award, among many others. His work is featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Fast Company, Architectural Record, Dwell, Wall St. Journal, New York Magazine, Crain’s New York, and Architect’s Newspaper. He is currently completing a book on the contemporary transformation of cities titled Last Utopia. Mr. Valgora was born in Buffalo where he was inspired to become an architect by the grain elevators and steel mills where his father worked and the loss inflicted by industrial decay. He lived and practiced in London, Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto, and considers these great cities as practice for his eventual embrace of New York City, where he lives with his wife and two sons.