Ann Beha
Leers Weinzapel
William Rawn
Machado Silvetti
Goody Clancy

Payette and SBRA are very good too.

THANKS!
These are GREAT reccomendations. I appreciate it.

Goody Clancy looks amazing!

Any one have any others?

keep them coming, i am planning to relocate to boston very soon, and career leads are very helpful

SingleSpeed
Brian Healy
Chan Krieger

Office da
Preston Scott Cohen
Kennedy & Violich

yeesh, goody clancy...

try add inc
cbt

yeesh.. add inc. i worked there for three years.. getting laid
off from there was the best thing that ever happened to me..

quitting payette maybe the second..

but i'm not made for working at big firms. early on in my career
it was really good for me..and i do think both of their firm's work
is good for a certain type...i like smaller scale, smaller offices...
less politics and pigeon holing.

a couple other firms although maybe not relevant to the initial
post:

charles rose architects
paul lukez architects?
maryann thompson architects

perry dean rogers? they do alot of the architect of record work
for the big guns that come into boston...ie the ica.


i feel like there was a thread on this...

alot of good landscape architecture offices in boston too if you're interested in that

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. It is a big help to a lot of us that will be headed up to Boston in the Fall.

It looks to me that most of these offices are rather large. Would anyone be able to suggest a smaller firm? Or mabye I am overlooking one of the previous mentioned offices?

arrow street?

kennedy violich, office da are good smaller firms i think

I think most of the smaller firms have been mentioned.

Like some of the people listed below, I don't think Scott Cohen has an office, mainly GSD kids working at school.

Some others.

Elizabeth Whittaker Architecture (middlesex lounge, etc)
Ruhl Walker
Uni Architecture
Studio Luz (diva lounge)
Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample of MOS (puppet theater at Carpenter Center a couple of years ago)
Meejin Yoon (White light white noise, Athens 2006)
Mark Gouthorp (of Decoi)

Oh..heard a rumor that Stefan Behnish is opening a Boston office soon. (He has a large science complex in schematic design, that is the spearhead for Harvard's move into the Allston area)

Theres also sasaki and moshe safdie...

i worked in boston for 7 years... here are some good firms

Anmahian Winton Architects- up and coming design firm
ruhl walker is great, i worked with will ruhl at leers weinzapfel
ted galante architect- small firm
kyu sung woo- lots of college work
imai keller moore (watertown)
leers weinzapfel (nice work environment)
jonathan levi
taylor burns


offices i would avoid
peter rose
charles rose
basically all the roses.

nice desmondo... :)

What's wrong with working for Payette? I've seen a lot of their projects that are very good ones.

The college I went to in undergrad has one of their buildings and it was pretty nice. As a matter of fact, I think it was the nicest building in that state.

The only reason I ask is because I was thinkin about working there down the stretch.

archmed.

payette takes a certain type imo. it is a corporate firm..
they have about five floors of a building on summer st. across
the fort point channel..so the firm is in the financial district...sort
of. (as is brian healy's if it's still there) this area used to be more
blighted..but it's coming up...the ica etc.

the firm does A LOT of healthcare/lab facilities. as you can imagine
this is not the most interesting work..they also do a lot of university
work..usually in those fields.

if you're going to work there i'd suggest you try and get in on the
fifth floor..kevin sullivan i believe..it's the most design oriented
studio...or at least it was when i was there.

again..it just wasn't for me. lots of shirts and ties and stuff.
that and i like to work at a smaller scale...

with that said the work they do produce is well thought out and done
with care. good budgets with good room for detailing.. although
your'e basically just designing shells/ lobbies around labs and
such. i only worked there for 8 months before i decided to quit...
but i'd been at a similar firm before that for three years and i was
sort of burned out on the firm type i think.

desmondo..

i'm interested..did you ever work for charles? i worked there
for three years... one of the toughest critics/bosses i've ever
had but also one of the most talented..and the staff was very
hard working and very intelligent. the work was also always
interesting...no projects that were done just to make money..
pretty much everything was a project you felt good working on.

the money, benefits, hours and such weren't good..but he was
a pretty good guy underneath all his bristly exterior..and he
didn't seem to be around the office too much..plus the office
space is nice...centrally located near cambridge if you lived on
that side of the river.

Lars..yes Healy's is still back here, but we are about to get pushed out by Archon/Goldman Properties in their effort to gentrify the Fort Point Channel. Our lease is up in a few months, so it is off to the next spot.

I haven't worked for payette, but you are correct with all first person accounts I have heard from friends there. It should be qualified as a solid corporate firm..then again I am sure I read in this same thread that Goody Clancy has amazing work..so different strokes. You do get paid well there.

as for Charles....Charles has his reputation outside the office....and it isn't unwarranted. I have some stories as I am sure you do. He does have some good work though. If you want the nicer side of what remains of Thompson and Rose..go work for Maryanne. She is really nice.

I figured from the project types the original posted mentioned, that he/she was looking for a corporate type firm.

Frankly I can't think of many small Boston firms would characterize themselves in those categories. Chicago, maybe.

yeah dierxap..i started working for them right at the split up..
they didn't tell me at the time of the interview..but maryann
had basically vacated the office already.

charlie is one of the best business oriented architects i've seen..
which sucks if you want to get paid..but is great if you want to see
how an architect can manipulate budgets..work clients to put more
money into the project etc. he said that it's the people that you
treat the worst that seem to like you the most...or something like
that. anyway.

a friend of mine used to work with healy..and i interviewed with him
as well...he actually did the website back in the day..and did a lot
of form z there too...think he left a while ago though.

yeah the goody clancy comment threw me too.. just made me
aware that that person was not looking for the advice i was gonna give.

agreed myriam.. though there were some others looking for
other types of firms as well...so i think the thread has become an
amalgamation.. sp?

Lars...I assume that you are talking about Shane then? He and Betsy left for Toronto just before I started here back in *cough* 2000.

Anyway Entasis79 ..sorry for the threadjack..I think there is more that enough to get started to look around here in Boston. It will come down to the type of experience you are looking to get in the end.

Good luck.

hahaha... Myriam mentioned CBT... soo good!

OP: Mostue Associates in Somerville might be worth looking into.

Behnish has been working out of Next Phase Studios lately, I believe.

Thanks for all the input guys!
I really appreciate it.

In response to Myriam, I will be a student in Boston. I wasn't looking for a corporate or small firm in peticular, I just wanted to know what was out there.

I see some were jumping on me for saying that I liked some of the Goody Clany work...
I have NO idea who they are or what it is like to work there, so please don't jump to conclusions. All I liked were some of the images/renderings I saw on their website and their idea of what community is all about.

The whole reason I started this tread was to get an idea of what firms people respected and which ones operated with an understanding of their work in context of a greater good.
But it looks like many people have many different opinions, just like an line of work. I work in advertising in NYC right now and it is the same here. Corporate firms usually suck but have bigger clients and more money to throw around to try interesting things. I work in a VERY VERY small boutique agency and we have no money but I get to work on projects I wouldn't normally in another agency.

Again, thanks for the input.

cubellis.

cubellis.com

contact: 617 338 0009

tell 'em zach rose sent you.

Entasis,
in another thread you mentioned that you will be a BAC student, I know some people that work for Sasaki - whom have said that they are supportive of the BAC, employs many BAC students - flex schedule, leaving early, etc. might be worth it to check them out.

however, i have no clue what it is like to work there - a little too corporate for my blood, but perhaps a good place to start as a student.

Wow...excellent! Thanks cln1!!!! That is great to hear that they have experience with the school and its students.

Zach, that is awesome. Thanks for the info. Will dropping your name be a good thing? haha.

Thanks to all!! Honestly, Archinectors are the best. It is great to have a community like this to help out and get answers from when you need help.

CHEERS!

anybody know anything about Architectural Resources Cambridge (ARC) ?

i applied to ARC and got an reply for an interview but, because i am an incredible tool and had another interview that went well about a week earlier, which i thought was in the bag...i waited a week to get back to them and found my chance was gone...so in other words, no i don't know anything about them. in hindsight i would definitely have enjoyed the opportunity to get in there and speak to them. lesson learned!

not sure if you are still looking or just want some additional info, but i thought i'd weigh in.

one firm that you need to avoid like the plague is TROJungBrannen. i've heard they have a project over there called amwaj and it is being run very pooly. if you go there, chances are you will be hired for that project. there is a project manager by the name of steve stear or something like that who is responsible.

that being said, i've worked at perkins and will for the past three years and i've recently switched jobs to SBRA. at perkins and will i learned a tremendous amount but it was a dry and sterile environment. SBRA offers a highly professional atmosphere with nice, smart people, and interesting projects. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

we need to have a boston meet-up fairly soon

Shameless self-promotion here, but I'd recommend that you consider the office I work at, Utile since you're interested in low income housing and adaptive reuse.