Etna, New Hampshire, United States
Helping architecture practice leadership evaluate and enhance their firm's technical capability, research, and innovation. My work is grounded in three decades inside large global firms, including directing technical architecture at SOM in New York, where I led detailed development on high-rise, mixed-use, and health science projects across the U.S., Asia, and the Middle East. Early and sustained involvement in BIM, computational design, and evidence-based methods gave me a practitioner's view of what works, what doesn't, and what it actually takes to bring new methods through to delivery. Most recently, through Holt Architecture, PLLC, I worked directly with owners, developers, and architectural practice leadership on technical and strategic questions — the engagements that shaped the focus of what I do now. My work is on the practice of technical architecture itself — how it builds depth, how it learns, how it changes. Based in New England. Engagements are selective.
For three decades inside large practices, I worked on the questions every technically ambitious firm faces: how to build deep expertise, how to invest in research, how to bring innovation through to delivered projects. Now I do that from the outside, advising leadership at architecture practices on their technical practice, research programs, and innovation strategy. I work on how a practice knows what it knows and how it develops what it doesn't. Engagements are selective.
Holt Architecture was a boutique practice focused on project management and technical and strategic consulting to architecture firms and project teams. I worked closely with clients to help them achieve their business goals while supporting the delivery of well-crafted, high-performing projects. The approach was collaborative — working directly with stakeholders to develop solutions grounded in decades of experience on world-class projects.
While directing the technical architecture team in SOM's New York office, I oversaw the detailed development and documentation of the office's projects. After joining SOM in 1995, I built extensive experience on high-rise and supertall commercial and mixed-use towers, financial trading facilities, health science projects, and multi-family residential and hotel towers. Working on numerous overseas projects gave me a working understanding of how to collaborate with local owners, fabricators, and stakeholders to leverage regional conditions while meeting international quality and performance standards.I've worked at the leading edge of Building Information Modeling and the project delivery models that BIM enables, with the goal of developing projects more efficiently and effectively. 250 West 55th Street and the Mt. Sinai Center for Science and Medicine were among the first major projects in New York City to be designed and documented in a fully BIM environment.I'm a proponent of evidence-based design development, and I led a group of digital design specialists focused on advanced computational models that analyze the impact of design decisions at key points in the design process. Leveraging advanced digital tools — both within SOM and in collaboration with industry partners — let the team optimize for sustainability, performance, and constructability.
The Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE), is a research collaboration between SOM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. With a focus on developing new sustainable materials and technologies, CASE blends private sector practicality, academic exploration and scientific rigor to seek emergent technologies and develop them for practical application in buildings.
Global Technical Design Leader - Lead the Technical Design efforts at Woods Bagot in close collaboration with the five Regional Technical Design Leaders. Together we developed the ground work for the global implementation of design technology tools, evidence based design, and quality control processes. Regional (North America) Research Leader - Identified opportunities to develop both theoretical and practical research initiatives driven through project work and collaborations with global thought leaders. Research is disseminated and managed through "PUBLIC" Woods Bagot's global research brand. New York Studio Director - Engaged in business development efforts and was a key contributor toward determining the direction of the New York Studio.