Javier Galindo, FAAR is a New York City-based architect and designer.

Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, the central theme of his work is the fragment—the inevitable and primary state of all things.
Though it occupies the greater part of an object’s life, the fragment is rarely treated as a positive force or conscious response in contemporary architectural expression.
His projects seek to reclaim it: to position the fragment as a determined beginning, rather than an unexpected end, in the discourse and the making of architecture.

Inspired by the architecture of ruins and other fragment-like constructs—most notably the reliquary—the work seeks that frail moment of equilibrium between the natural and the artificial. It is a fleeting unity we rarely notice yet deeply long for: the instant when opposing forces hold each other in fragile balance, when decay and intention, time and form, appear momentarily whole. This quiet perception of unity is what makes ruins and fragments so captivating.
By deliberately cultivating that same tension, the work aims to create an architecture that is intentionally informal, incomplete, and ambiguous in both form and program—an architecture that does not resolve itself into permanence, but instead offers a rare and resonant experience of completeness within incompleteness.

Javier has been the recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome, researching The Created Fragment; the Cintas Fellowship in Architecture and Design; the KPF Fellowship; and several other awards and recognitions.


With vast professional experience, Javier was Design Director at Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects in New York City for 17 years.
During that time he led various teams through the design and construction of large-scale urban projects, in both domestic and international markets.
His design portfolio includes supertall towers, retail complexes, repositioning/adaptive reuse works, mixed-use developments, and urban masterplans.
Key projects include 520 Fifth Avenue and One Vanderbilt in New York City, Window La Défense in Paris, Southworks Ithaca, Riverside 66 in Tianjin, and Tianfu Supertall, a new 480-meter tall tower in Chengdu, China.
He has also practiced professionally in leading design firms in Miami and San Francisco.

In academia, Javier was an assistant instructor at Cornell University, teaching Visual Studies and Representation courses.
He is frequently invited as a lecturer and guest critic at universities, and his work has been featured in prominent publications, including A+U, Concept Magazine, Threshold Journal, and others.

Javier holds a Master of Architecture from Cornell University, where he was awarded the Best Thesis Prize, and a Bachelor of Architecture from FIU where he studied under William G. McMinn in Rome and Nicolás Quintana in Miami.

EMAIL:  j.galindo.ch@gmail.com