Brian Healy (architect)

Brian Healy
Born (1956-07-18) July 18, 1956
Alma materPennsylvania State University, Yale University
OccupationArchitect
Websitehttps://brianhealyarchitects.com/

Brian Healy, is an American architect, professor, and painter. He maintains studies in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jackson, New Hampshire. He established an architecture and design firm Brian Healy Architects in Boston, Massachusetts in 1985. Healy is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and has taught architectural design at undergraduate and graduate levels across North America. He currently holds the position of Marlborough Distinguished Visiting Scholar-in-Residence at the School of Architecture & Community Design at the University of South Florida in Tampa.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Brian Healy was raised in Bucks Country, Pennsylvania. He earned a Bachelor of Science in architecture from The Pennsylvania State University in 1978 and a Master of Architecture from Yale School of Architecture in 1981, where he studied under James Stirling, John Hejduk, Vincent Scully, and George Kubler and edited Perspecta 19: The Yale Architecture Journal. After graduation, he received fellowships from Yale University and the Van Allen Institute that supported a year of travel with a residency at the American Academy in Rome in 1983. At 26, he designed and built a home and nursery in the Florida Everglades, which was featured in Life Magazine and won Architect Magazine's Progressive Architecture Award in 1984.[4]

Career

Brian moved from New York City to Boston in 1985 after receiving a residential commission on Cape Cod. Before establishing his own practice in Boston, he worked as a designer in the offices of Charles Moore, Cesar Pelli, and Richard Meier. Healy served as president of the Boston Society of Architects in 2004 and was on its Board of Directors from 2000 to 2005.[2][5] From 2011 to 2014, he was design director at Perkins&Will. He was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 2013.[6]

Brian has designed residential and institutional projects in several states, including Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,[7] New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California. Notable buildings includes the Lincoln Street Garage in Boston, beach House (with Mike Ryan) in Loveladies, New Jersey, Boston Film Company in Cambridge, the Grant Recital Hall at Brown University in Providence, the Children's Chapel and Education Centre at the Korean Church of Boston in Brookline, the Student Centre at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Additions to the McGuirk Alumni Stadum at University of Massachiesetts in Amherst, and the Essex Boathuse in Essex, Massachusetts.[8][9][10][11]

In 2010, architect and Boston Globe critic Robert Campbell described that Children's Chapel at the Korean Church of Boston as "one of Boston's best architectural spaces."[12][13] Brian Healy Architects won several national competitions, including Chicago's Initiatives for Mixed Income Housing (2001), the Civic Center at Lake Elsinore, California (2005), the Mill Center or the Arts in Hendersonville,[14] North Caroline (2007). The firm was a finalist in several national competitions, including the Visitors’ Center for the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, New York (2001), Community Housing and Design in Long Beach, California (2002), and Intergenerational Housing in Chicago, Illinois (2003). They also won the local competitions for the Children's Chapel in Brookline, Massachusetts (2004).[15][16][17]

Brian worked received seven Progressive Architecture design awards, including on e in 2013 for Floatyard," a proposed apartment complex in Boston Harbor addressing rising sea levels where Brian gave a TEDTalk on the project and architects' roles in climate change. Other PA design awards included Korean Church of Boston (2009) Housing Prototype for Atlantic City (1997), Chicago's Inititative for Mixed Income Housing (2002).[18]

Monographs

Brian tow monographs of his work, "Commonplaces" (2008) and "Commonplaces: Working on an American Architecture" (2021), were published by Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers.[19][20][21]

Acadmia

Since 1988, Healy has taught architectural design studios and seminars at undergraduate and graduate levels at various colleges and universities across North America. Healy has held positions as the Hideo Sasaki Distinguished Visiting Critic at the Boston Architectural College and Visiting Distinguished Professor in Architecture at The City College of New York, Roger Williams University, and McGill From 2001 to 2005, Healy was a faculty member at Yale School of Architecture, where he contributed to the Building Project, a first-year design-build studio and summer program.[22][23]

Award and recognition

• Brian worked received seven Progressive Architecture (P/A) awards, presented by Architect Magazine to honor design excellence in advanced programming and innovation in unbuilt or upcoming architectural project cocepts.[24]

• His work was acknowledged as a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Design Winner through a national competitive design process for the Mill Center for the Arts in Hendersonville, North Carolina.[25][26]

• Brian has received more than 50 distinct local Design Excellence, Honor, and Merit awards from the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) and other regional chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).[27]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Info". brianhealyarchitects.com. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  2. 1 2 Belogolovsky, Vladimir (2022-09-13). ""Interesting Things Happen in the Shadows": In Conversation with Brian Healy". ArchDaily. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  3. ↑ "Brian Healy". www.nhptv.org. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  4. ↑ Florida, University of South. "Welcoming Our New 2025 Faculty and Staff!". www.usf.edu. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  5. ↑ Writer, Jonathan Rich Times-News Staff. "Public input being sought". Hendersonville Times-News. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  6. ↑ "Perkins + Will | Tag (page 2) | ArchDaily". www.archdaily.com. 2023-06-16. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  7. ↑ O'Brien, Megan (2022-09-28). "Luxury Home of the Week: For $11.25m, a waterfront contemporary in Rhode Island". The Boston Globe. ISSN 0743-1791. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  8. ↑ England, Buildings of New (2025-01-24). "Lincoln Street Garage // 1956". Buildings of New England. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  9. ↑ "AIA Guide to Boston". aia.stqry.app. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  10. ↑ Louie, Elaine (1997-08-21). "Three Generations Happy Under Four Roofs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  11. ↑ Hill, John (2026-06-01). "Where Architecture Meets the People". A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  12. ↑ "Korean Church of Boston". Korean Church of Boston. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  13. ↑ Bustler. "2013 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards winners revive and modernize religious architecture and art". Bustler. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  14. ↑ Writer, Lindsay Lancaster Times-News Staff. "Mill Center faces challenges". Hendersonville Times-News. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  15. ↑ "Education and Community Center, Korean Church of Boston — BSA Design Awards | Boston Society of Architects". Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  16. ↑ Gerfen, Katie (2008-01-02). "Brian Healy Architects". Architect Magazine. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  17. ↑ Gerfen, Katie (2010-11-10). "Children's Chapel and Education Center". Architect Magazine. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  18. ↑ Boston Architect Wins CHA Design Competition; Doug Garofalo Gamers Unexpected Honorable Mention—Your Next Meal What to Order at the New Economy Cafe. HE NEWSLETTER OF ATA CHICAGO. 2021
  19. ↑ Healy, Brian (Architect) (2008). Commonplaces : thinking about an American architecture. Internet Archive. San Raphael, CA : ORO Editions ; New York : Distribution in North America, Distributed Art Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9793801-7-4.
  20. ↑ "Commonplaces". Oro Editions - Publishers of Architecture, Art, and Design. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  21. ↑ "Healy commonplaces". Yale Architecture. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  22. ↑ The City College of the City University of New York Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture—Architecture Program Report for 2011 NAAB Visit for Continuing Accreditation
  23. ↑ City College of New York Architecture Library—Brian Healy: Selected Bibliography. “REFLECTED LIGHT” Spitzer School of Architecture Lecture – March 13, 2014
  24. ↑ "Award-winning architect lectures October 30 on 'Commonplaces' | Midd Stories". www.middlebury.edu. 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  25. ↑ Writer, Jonathan Rich Times-News Staff. "Healy selected to build it". Hendersonville Times-News. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  26. ↑ NEA’s New Public Works Initiative Supports Design of Mixed Income Housing in California—National Endowment for the Arts-2002 Annual Report
  27. ↑ Levitt, Rachel (2009-06-01). "Designer: Of the Moment". Boston Magazine. Retrieved 2026-07-15.