Farr Associates Architecture & Urban Design is proud to announce Mercedes E Miley, AIA, CPHC, NCARB and Len Sciarra, AIA, ASHRAE, LEED Fellow, CPHC have joined the ownership team as President and Vice-President, respectively. Together, with Founder Douglas Farr, FAIA, FCNU, they will advance the firm’s mission of prototyping the future and bringing cutting-edge, affordable, sustainable design to all. 

Doug Farr: “I am thrilled to have two amazingly talented partners committed to advancing Farr’s mission-driven work. Their leadership will allow me to focus on the two things I most like to do: mainstreaming sustainable design practices through education and advocacy, and assembling strategic partnerships to plan and build the next generation of state-of-the-art sustainable places and buildings.” 

In the last 34 years, Farr Associates has been recognized at a firm, project, and individual level for advocacy in sustainable, mission-driven design. The firm’s work spans 10 states and includes 1.9 M square feet of high-performance architectural works, 5,000 acres of urban design master plans and studies, and form-based codes covering 384 square miles of communities. Two of Farr’s projects have received the highest sustainability award, AIA's COTE® Top Ten, and most have been certified under a green rating system for high-performance design. Doug Farr was awarded the AIA Chicago Young Architect Award in 1996, inducted as an AIA Fellow in 2014, and a Congress for New Urbanism Fellow in 2015.  

Mercedes Miley is a licensed architect, developer, and urban designer with experience in a variety of project types and industries. She has facilitated architecture projects from $2M to $95M with a focus on housing and civic works. In the urban design realm, her work has mainly impacted underserved or underrepresented communities across seven states. She is the Co-Founder of Home 42, an incremental development firm preserving attainable housing on Chicago’s Southside, and of the Chicago Parent’s Forum, a cohort of parents in the AEC industry developing community and advocating for parent’s rights. 

Mercedes Miley: “New faces. Same mission: healthy and sustainable by design. I am honored to work with Len and Doug on prototyping the future, leading a team of curious architects and designers that believe in our power to accelerate change. Onward.” 

Len Sciarra is a recognized expert in integrating sustainable design principles into architectural practice. A strategic problem-solver, Len brings 30+ years of experience, completing projects for a broad spectrum of clients from small interiors to ground–up high-rises. Len was part of the core team that developed the AIA 2030 climate change reporting tool, chaired the Chicago AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE), and was a key player in the passage of green building ordinances in Chicago and Evanston, IL. Currently, Len serves as the Vice Chair of ASHRAE Standard 90.1. 

Len Sciarra: “I am honored to continue the Farr legacy.  Doug and I have known each other for decades and have had very different architectural trajectories, but always with the same goal of better, affordable high-performance design at all scales. With this expansion in leadership, we now have more resources to push the boundaries of sustainable design at all levels. The world is changing—why shouldn’t we?” 

The new team embraces Farr’s reputation for being contrarian and re-commits to our unshakable desire to change the world for future generations we will never meet. We are here on the frontier—dedicated enthusiasts, inquisitive ramblers, and a little mad scientist—curating the little moments that accelerate the rate of change to the only default we know: healthy and sustainable.  

Because if not now, when?   

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For more information, please email [email protected]