Alan Wanzenberg (born May 5, 1951) is an American architect and designer based in New York. He is frequently among the Top 100 Designers and Architects in Architectural Digest's annual list.^[1][2]

Wanzenberg, a Berkeley and Harvard graduate, began his career in 1978 at I.M. Pei & Partners in New York. In the 1980s and 1990s he had a successful design partnership with interior decorator Jed Johnson. Some of the most sought-after condominium complexes in Manhattan such as 515 Park Avenue, The Hubert, Chelsea Enclave, and 150 Charles Street, were designed by Wanzenberg.^[3] His memoir Journey: The Life and Times of an American Architect was published in 2013.

Alan Wanzenberg was born in Evanston, Illinois, the third son of Henry and Doris Wanzenberg. His mother was a homemaker, an avid athlete, and an amateur pianist, while his father worked as a mechanical contractor and civil engineer.^[4]

As a child, he would admire the architecture of the neighborhood, which included a number of residences designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.^[4] He also spent hours in the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago.^[4] His family spent their summers in Castle Park, Michigan, where he acquired a further appreciation for craftsmanship and traditional shapes from the 19th-century rental cottages at the lakeside resort.^[4]

Wanzenberg intended to get a degree in nautical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. However, he ultimately changed his major and earned a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1973.^[4] He continued his education at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he graduated with a master's degree in 1978.^[4] For the following three years, he worked at I.M. Pei's New York headquarters.^[5]

In 1980, Wanzenberg met Jed Johnson, a budding interior decorator and pop artist Andy Warhol's domestic partner at the time.^[6] Thomas Ammann, an art dealer and mutual friend, introduced them.^[7] They became friends and began collaborating, and over several months they became lovers. "Initially I didn't pay much attention to him because he was quiet," recalled Wanzenberg.^[4] While working on businessman Peter Brant and Sandy Brant's home in Palm Beach, Wanzenberg accompanied Johnson and Warhol to the opening of Warhol's exhibition at the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum in September 1980.^[8][9] In December 1980, Wanzenberg spent Christmas with Johnson in Colorado.^[10]

By 1981, both men had left their respective partners and they moved into a duplex apartment at 15 West 67th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side.^[11][4] The death of one of Wanzenberg's brothers in a plane accident eighteen months into their relationship pushed him closer to Johnson.^[4] They started a design firm out of their house in 1982, which they operated together until they formed their own independent companies, Alan Wanzenberg Architect P.C. and Jed Johnson Associates.^[4] Nevertheless, they kept working together on practically all projects and sharing offices.^[5][12] Fred Hughes, Warhol's business manager, recommended them to Dominique de Menil's nieces Christiane Schlumberger and Katie Jones, who placed their first significant commission.^[4] Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall were also referred by Hughes.^[4]

In 1988, Johnson commented on their easy working relationship with Progressive Architecture, "We do not have ego problems."^[12] They worked together on projects such as remodeling the Sperone Westwater Gallery in 1988 and the headquarters of Interview magazine in 1989.^[12][13] In 1991, they participated in Metropolitan Home magazine's ShowHouse benefit for the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS (DIFFA) in New York City.^[14] In 1994, Wanzenberg designed a residence on Manhattan's Lower East Side for New York's non-profit Housing Works, dedicated to helping victims of homelessness and AIDS.^[15]

In 1995, Wanzenberg and Johnson were honorary chairmen of the Katonah Museum of Art's gala dinner dance at Purchase College in Purchase, New York.^[16] They shared a dachshund called Gus, and a two-home property previously owned by fashion designer Perry Ellis on Fire Island in New York.^[17][18] In July 1996, Johnson was killed when TWA Flight 800, just after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, exploded off the shore of Long Island.^[19] His twin brother Jay Johnson became the president of his decorating company and inherited his Warhol paintings.^[20][21]

Wanzenberg continued to live and work out of the duplex he shared with Johnson, which was featured in the September 1998 issue of Architectural Digest.^[21] He reflected that since Johnson's death, "a lot of the collecting I've done and the modifications I've made are the product of a dialogue I feel I've had with him ... At times it makes me sad, at times it's been stimulating, at times it's been exhilarating.^[21] Wanzenberg sold the duplex with much of its contents for more than $4.3 million in 2012.^[17] He downsized to a two-bedroom apartment on West 60th Street.^[17]

In 1999, Wanzenberg reorganized his business under the name Alan Wanzenberg Design LLC.^[4] He gained a following among Goldman Sachs partners, such as Dan Neidich, who included him in the planning of 515 Park Avenue; he was in charge of the apartment layouts for the building.^[22] He has also conceived designs for the luxury condominiums The Hubert (2003), Chelsea Enclave (2011), and 150 Charles Street (2018) in New York.^[3][23]

Wanzenberg was the Board President of the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.^[24] He is also involved with Opus 40, an environmental sculpture park in Saugerties, New York.^[25]

In 2013, his memoir Journey: The Life and Times of an American Architect was published by Pointed Leaf Press.^[17]

Wanzenberg met his partner landscape architect Peter Kelly in 2003 during Gay Ski Week in Aspen, Colorado.^[17] "He's been my compass for the last decade," Wanzenberg said in 2014.^[4] "He's like Jed in his values and his work ethic. Wisely, he never tried to challenge Jed's influence on my life," he added.^[4]

Wanzenberg splits his time between the house he constructed in the Upstate New York hamlet of Ancram and his vacation home in Costa Rica.^[25][26] Wanzenberg and Kelly purchased Casa de Mañana, a 1970s bungalow in the village of Nosara on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula.^[27] The couple renovated the house and used local timbers to make all of the furniture. In 2019, their home was featured in the WSJ Magazine.^[27]

In 2022, Wanzenberg appeared in the Netflix docuseriesThe Andy Warhol Diaries.^[28]

• Wanzenberg, Alan (2013). Journey: The Life and Times of an American Architect. Pointed Leaf Press. ISBN 978-1-938461-09-5.