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Star architect Rem Koolhaas' top man in New York has split from the architect - and taken all 35 staff New York staff members with him.

Joshua Prince-Ramus, who has been with Koolhaas' practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture for ten years, also took a significant number of the New York office's workload with him, including the Museum Plaza in Louisville, Kentucky; the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater in Dallas and the Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology in Pasadena, California.

Prince-Ramus will set up a new firm in New York with 35-year-old Erez Ella, who joined O.M.A. in 1999, calling it Ramus Ella Architects, or REX.

Koolhaas, who works from the firm's head-quarters in Rotterdam, said the split meant Prince-Ramus would get the credit he deserved. He told the New York Times: "New York was always a separate entity. Ramus has been leading that entity in a way that is very impressive, very successful."

The Dutch arcthiect said that Ramus wanted recognition for his work. He said of Ramus, "On his part there is interest in sole credit for the work because he is sole author of the work. My interest is to clarify, so we don't get a blur between what is the work of Joshua Ramus and what is the work of O.M.A."