26 years ago today, Studio G Architects was incorporated as Gail Sullivan Associates. Yes, it was April Fool’s Day; it was also the first day of the second quarter of the year.
Between spring of 1991 and spring of 1993, I had completed design and construction of our first project—a Head Start Child Care Center in Peabody; and had co-authored a book on the Dudley’s Young Architects and Planners Project which I had co-led. I had also started a planning process with Kit Clark Senior Services to renovate their Codman Square Senior Center, which grew into a 15 year-plus collaboration.
These great projects and the deep relationships they engendered bolstered my commitment to building an architecture firm focused on public interest architecture: designing socially and environmentally sustainable buildings and providing urban planning to communities. In spring of 1993, I hired my first full time employee; 4 months later we moved from my house into an office shared with other architects, and in 1995 we moved to our light-filled studio in the Brewery.
As we’ve grown, we’ve continued to design socially and environmentally sustainable buildings for multi-family housing, K12 schools, early learning centers, senior centers, offices for non-profits, and a variety of civic buildings. We’ve designed trauma-informed places for youth at risk of homelessness and women recovering from addiction. We signed onto AIA 2030, and are working on our first energy-positive housing. We’ve worked with public agencies and community groups on urban planning that meets the needs of local residents and businesses.
Aspiration is the thread that binds our team and ties our work together —the aspiration to design beautiful buildings that are transformative for their inhabitants and their neighborhoods, contribute positively to the environment and serve the broader public interest.
When starting something new, you don’t know where it will take you, and can’t know the gifts it will offer. The gifts have been many:
- Incredible staff members – I’m grateful to each and all for your contributions, whether a 6-month coop or decades of collegiality!
- Clients who have taught us much and appreciated our work so deeply
- The opportunity to revisit spaces we’ve designed, to see them used as we intended and in ways we couldn’t have imagined
26 years ago, I couldn’t have pictured any better future than I see in Studio G today – a creative and collaborative group with shared aspirations designing a better future.
