If Bjarke Ingels‘ ascension into starchitecture hasn’t been dramatic enough, the Danish architect is again moving up in the world. On Friday, Ingels’ firm BIG threw a party to christen their new office space in Manhattan. BIG has expanded its Chelsea presence, moving up from the third to the twelfth floor of the Starrett-Lehigh Building. A press preview of the new space preceded the party a couple floors above. Among those in attendance were Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark, who earlier this month awarded Ingels the $90,000 Culture Prize—the MacArthur of Scandinavia—for his emerging work in architecture.
Now it looks like Ingels’ October has just been getting started. The Wall Street Journal Magazine will declare the Danish architect among its inaugural Innovators of the Year. Bjarke, seemingly by-passing starchitect status directly to super-starchitect, wins in the architecture category for “his wildly expressive structures, including the radical re-imagining of the New York high-rise apartment building, his commitment to sustainability and his philosophy of ‘pragmatic utopianism.'” Richard Wurman, architect, author, and founder of the TED conferences (at which Bjarke has spoken) will present the trailblazing award to Ingels this Thursday at the Museum of Modern Art. No word yet on whether royalty will be in attendance.
Ai Weiwei took the innovator award for art, Katie Grand for fashion, Elon Musk for technology, Steve Ells for food, Joris Laarman for design, and Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s The Giving Pledge for philanthropy. Profiles of each of these Innovators of the Year will be featured in the October 29 issue of WSJ Magazine.