2014 + Studio Recognition

In 2014, our firm celebrated 50 years of work by our former president and namesake, Tom Payette. Tom realized the significance of the profound human activity occurring within high technology buildings for health and science and defined a new design paradigm for the practice. In this approach, the unity of the public and private, interior and exterior, social and technical experience of place is essential. Our never-ending pursuit of this methodology informs our practice to this day; over the past year, we were fortunate to be recognized with many honors, for both our practice and our design, as we pursue this great form of architecture.

The Young Designers Core produced our winning submission for the 2014-2017 AIA National IDP Outstanding Firm Award. One of six firms chosen for the honor, the YDC highlighted our think-tank culture of collaboration, our entrepreneurial environment that elevates interns to leadership positions and our firm’s emphasis on knowledge sharing. We believe this pervasive culture of mentorship is crucial to our practice’s success. 

Architect Magazine ranked us 3rd for Design in their annual survey, up from 5th the previous year, as we continue to innovate within the high technology sectors in which we work. Our portfolio included work from George Washington University, Duke University, Boston Children’s Hospital, National University of Ireland, Galway and Penn State University. The judges noted our firm’s “elegant handling of large-scale institutional buildings . . .”

With these complex building types, it is important that we continue to develop programmatic solutions that inform the design, as the iterative act of design unlocks new opportunities for the program. These innovations are a common thread that runs through our portfolio, including the transparency in the light-infused BSL-3 biocontainment environment at the Pell Lab and the dramatic cantilever that carries eight floors of the Mandell Building’s mass.

The judges also noted our “distinguished curtainwall resolution.” Because much of our work is set on campuses and in urban environments, we take our responsibility seriously to respond to surrounding architecture and landscape design. We calibrate our facades to be climactically responsive too, as we continue to reduce the environmental impact of each building through the implementation of innovative energy savings tactics.  

In addition to the IDP Outstanding Firm Award and our ranking in the Architect 50 survey, we were honored to receive numerous design awards throughout the year for individual projects, including the Irish Building & Design Architectural Project of the Year and a Lab of the Year High Honors Award for the Pell Lab. The awards recognized projects that ranged from a 30,000 GSF translational research facility to a 28 acre clinical quadrangle master plan, and came from both regional and national sources.

We are honored to be recognized by our peers and are continually energized by our clients, who provide us with fascinating puzzles to solve.