Adam Sandow’s Material Bank acquires architecture media mainstay Architizer

Architizer, the New York-based digital media company best known for its expansive database of architectural projects and annual awards program, has a new owner.

As finalized late yesterday, Material Bank, a buzzy marketplace for architectural, design, and construction materials headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, acquired the 13-year-old Architizer in a maneuver that aims to fuse the latter company’s “best-in-class design resources” with Material Bank’s “powerful specification tools.” As noted in a press release, the newly formed union will enable the AEC industry to “work more effectively and efficiently by simplifying design decisions.”

A monetary figure attached to the acquisition has not been disclosed.

Architizer will operate independently from its new parent company as a subsidiary of Material Bank and continue to be led by current CEO David Weber. Initially more editorial in scope before shifting focus to its project and building product databases and illustrious A+ Awards, Architizer was founded by digital media entrepreneur Alex Diehl, architects Matthias Hollwich and Marc Kushner, and Ben Prosky, who currently serves as the executive director of AIA New York  and the Center for Architecture. Architizer also shares several alumni with The Architect’s Newspaper.

As detailed in the acquisition announcement, the Architizer community is currently more than 900,000 users strong, including 335,000 architects and 25,000 firms. The company’s robust project database includes more than 3 million architectural images from 86,000 global projects; the platform also features building products from 31,000 manufacturers.

As for Material Bank, the accolade-garnering startup was founded in 2019 by a name that’s likely familiar to those intimate with design media: Adam I. Sandow.

A Florida native, Sandow’s media portfolio, under the umbrella of SANDOW Design Group, includes Interior Design, Metropolis, and Luxe Interiors + Design; other SANDOW Design Group brands and ventures include ThinkLab, LAUNCH, and The Agency by SANDOW. In 2020, SANDOW Design Group took over as the operational force behind NYCxDesign, an annual celebration previously run by the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

“With an incredibly powerful database that provides seamless, curated access to building product information, Architizer allows for creativity and meaningful connections,” said Sandow, who serves as chief executive of Material Bank. “Architizer has built an extraordinary business with a team devoted to innovation in the architecture community—this acquisition will benefit both our users and Brand Partners, and together we will build an even more comprehensive platform for the industry.”

“It is a winning proposition to bring together Material Bank’s unparalleled database of design products with Architizer’s robust database of architectural projects,” added Weber. “We’re excited to combine our data and resources to build better tools that serve the global community of architects and designers.”

Bolstered by several impressive fundraising rounds, Material Bank has acquired two other companies prior to Architizer. In August 2021, the startup acquired Clippings, an all-in-one product procurement platform for the interior design industry headquartered in London; this past March, it took ownership of Amber Engine, a Detroit-based product data technology company.