Staff Architect Keihly Moore and Designer Thomas Shannon are two of Studio G’s sustainability leaders. Both are Phius Certified Consultants (CPHC), and Keihly also serves as Studio G’s Sustainable Design Coordinator. They work closely with each other in the housing studio on projects like E+ Highland and Nubian Ascends in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.
Early Beginnings
“I was exposed to architecture first through my architect neighbor down the street, who I babysat for,” Keihly said. She got to see “cool models” of buildings and learned about the sociological impacts of architecture.
She went to Iowa State University for her bachelor’s degree, where she took design courses in several different design fields her freshman year and then had to choose a path to follow for her degree. She was deciding between landscape architecture and architecture, settled on architecture, and hit the ground running. Later, she completed a dual masters degree in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte. This experience really allowed her to hone her design style and dive more into her design passions.
Keihly began her career working for Passive House Institute US (Phius), where she designed the website, organized the annual conference, designed affordable housing, and learned about passive building principles through the passive house consultant training program. She was in one of the first waves of CPHC training and still remembers loving all the building science info thrown her way. She said she is still in touch with people from those conferences. “That first job was a crucial step” in her career, she said.
“Like most people, I started playing with Legos and especially Lincoln Logs,” Thomas said of his early interest in architecture. Though his mother suggested he explore architecture, he enjoyed wood shop and engineering classes as he got older and eventually attended Wentworth Institute of Technology for architecture.
Role at Studio G
Thomas is a designer at Studio G, working on sustainability for several projects, putting together drawings and presentations. He said his work runs the gamut from Revit modeling to energy models, construction materials, and finishes.
Thomas came to Studio G through the MassCEC Clean Energy internship program and was hired full time in August 2022.
“I told Gail I wanted to be in the housing studio when I came on full time,” he said, as he was passionate about passive building principals which “at the time was pretty much only for housing.”
Now that passive building is more widespread, “I probably will be branching out from housing more,” he said.
“Because I’m passionate about sustainability, I want other folks to know more, learn more, appreciate more,” Keihly said. “I try and take what I learn and disseminate that to everyone else.”
Daily, Keihly can be found working on detailing, selecting finishes, coordinating consultants, and “communicating design intent to the best of our ability,” she said. “So it’s fun, because every day is different.”
On Mentorship
At Studio G, “it’s a wide range of backgrounds,” Thomas said, and he feels he can learn something from everyone.
“Everybody is really nice and willing to share their experience and thoughts,” Keihly said.
Thomas admires Keihly’s dedication to furthering sustainability both directly in her work and at the firm. “You always have some new [resource] pulled up” about new codes or products related to sustainability, he said. “It blows my mind,” he said.
Keihly said that she appreciates “how Thomas is very organized and detail focused.” He’s “able to dive into a certain task and really get to the bottom of it.”
She added, “I think we work well together. [We have] the same kind of understanding.”
Studio G’s Role in Architecture and Beyond
“I think it’s important that we work with a lot of nonprofits and not just for-profit developers, but folks that have deep-rooted connections to the community and we help them realize their vision, often on a tight budget,” Keihly said. “That makes for more creative solutions. Our work is not cookie cutter.”
Thomas said he appreciates the “community aspect” of Studio G’s work, especially the community process as part of the planning efforts for a project.
Aside from Studio G’s professional sustainable work, “we practice what we preach,” he said, as we compost in the office and Keihly has insulated her own home to make it more energy efficient.
Pride in Their Work
Keihly said she is proud of the façade she designed for the Atlantis Charter School in Fall River, where she got to see “all color choices and design choices come to life.” She also recently gave a presentation on how to calculate energy use intensity (EUI) and carbon emissions intensity, (CEI)to Studio G staff, after which she received positive feedback—people appreciated the way she helped them understand the topic, showing that a complicated topic can be broken down more simply. Keihly said she’s also really looking forward to seeing the E+ Highland and Nubian Ascends housing designs taking form, transitioning from line drawings to physical space..
“For me, it’s probably getting to work on the Parker/Terrace submission,” Thomas said. He completed his masters’ thesis on Mission Hill, and this project borders the street his family lived on. He said it would be a real dream to incorporate passive building with “my personal history.”
Thomas also plans to start the process of taking the ARE soon to eventually become a licensed architect.
Dream Projects
Keihly said that she would love to “design the next all electric net zero energy school.” She also hopes to continue designing passive building spaces, as well as urban design and master planning. Keihly also said that incorporating a public art installation into a building, especially one that incorporates science and data, is a goal of hers.
Thomas said his dream project would either be to have the opportunity to renovate his grandparents’ home in Roxbury and make it passive building so multiple generations of his family can live there, or to “do the same thing with St. Alphonsus Hall,” where his grandparents met and got married. His suggestion would be to have it be a community benefit of some sort, “whether it’s housing or a community center” or a similar space.
Keihly added, “Good design is not just for people who can afford it; we all deserve it.”
