Costas Kondylis


Costas Kondylis was an American architect. He designed over 85 buildings in New York City, many of them for real-estate developer and later U.S. president Donald Trump, through his eponymous architectural firm.
Kondylis was born in Burundi, though his parents were from Greece; he ultimately ended up attending boarding school there. He attained master's degrees at the University of Geneva and at Columbia University. After receiving his master's degrees in 1967, Kondylis worked at Davis Brody & Associates, and then at Philip Birnbaum & Associates. In 1989, Kondylis created Costas Kondylis and Partners; the firm's work was featured in several magazines and was the subject of a television documentary. Costas Kondylis and Partners, which was headquartered in New York City, dissolved in 2009. Afterward, he created another firm called Kondylis Design. Kondylis died on August 18, 2018, of undisclosed causes.

Works

Kondylis was known for his conventional designs of skyscrapers in Manhattan, at a time when developers were either building low-rises or unconventional high-rises. He created 86 residential towers in Manhattan over the course of his career. From 2000 to 2007, it was estimated that he designed one residential building in Manhattan every six weeks on average. A 2007 New York Times profile noted that Kondylis had designed 75 projects in New York City and was designing 15 more at the time.
Some of Kondylis's projects were controversial. The 90-story Trump World Tower in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, New York City, was opposed by nearby residents and the United Nations, whose headquarters were located nearby. However, the tower was built without further controversy.

New York metropolitan area projects