August 9th marks the 90th birthday of Tom Payette. Congratulations and happy birthday Tom!
Today, we look back on the history of our firm. Founded in 1932 under engineer Fred Markus and architect Paul Nocka, we are now named after Tom Payette, who joined in 1960 following his graduation from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Besides seminal projects such as Aga Khan University, Tom is fondly remembered for his Modernist sensibility towards hospital design, interest in functional requirements of healthcare design, and generosity in providing opportunities to young professionals.
Tom was the leader of our firm for forty years. He inspired generations of young architects, emphasizing the importance of the inside and outside connection of architecture and landscape for healthcare and campus design. He also stressed maximizing natural light into the building, the idea of transparency “light at the end of the corridor.” Tom led [so] many of his teams fearlessly into the world’s greatest institutions’ board rooms – preaching his philosophy of making great places for people – humanist design, great environments ahead of its time. He is a huge advocate of our profession, its organizations, ethics, mentoring, teaching all of us what it means to be an architect. He also preached family first, demonstrating balance of great design with the great family.
George E. Marsh, Jr., FAIA
Although time marches on and generations rise and fall, Tom’s incredible legacy lives on within our desks, practice and design philosophy.
Thank you for all that you’ve done!
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A Guest Post Tribute to Tom Payette
Sandrine Héroux, Sophie McKenzie, and Emily Chowdhury are each members of our in-house Fabrication team. Their day-to-day work centers on a simple question: what changes when design becomes something people can physically test?
These women challenge the notion of fabrication as a support service, framing it instead as an essential component of architectural authorship, a way to test ideas, share agency, and widen the boundaries of what architectural practice can include.
In our most recent blog, they discuss their individual paths in architecture and reflect on their experience using fabrication as a tool for fostering shared agency, community engagement and broadening the role of the architect. Link in bio!
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