Now in the final stages of construction, the grade 6-12 Josiah Quincy Upper School will open to students for the 2024-2025 school year, bringing expanded educational opportunities with spacious, light-filled learning and common areas and a coveted rooftop green space that supports student well-being. Public-facing amenities near the ground level, including a cafeteria, media center, gymnasium, auditorium, and black box theater, will make this school a valuable resource for the entire Chinatown community.

Everyone was thrilled to see our design solutions come to fruition, from the accessible green roof, which is the school’s primary outdoor space, to the cantilevered auditorium and gymnasium that define prominent public programs along the façade.

Next, we made our way to the 116 Norfolk Street: Supportive Housing project, a renovation and addition to a 1907 building in the heart of Cambridge, MA, just a stone’s throw away from HMFH’s office. As one of the first developments under Cambridge’s new Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) zoning ordinance, 116 Norfolk expands affordable housing with 62 units for seniors and previously unhoused people.

We toured light-filled common areas in the vestibule between the existing building and addition, as well as different units, which all feature tall ceilings and windows to create a bright and welcoming interior environment.

Promoted last year to Senior Associate, Suni is driven by the challenge of socially responsible design that positively impacts both the health of people and the environment.

As a Sustainability Leader guiding HMFH’s Sustainability Committee, Suni empowers her colleagues, clients, and community to set ambitious sustainability goals—which isn’t always easy to prioritize in public projects. Particularly for clients who are undertaking what are likely to be once-in-a-lifetime projects for their communities (like school buildings that will be in use for 50+ years), newly available design and sustainability opportunities aren’t always obvious. This is where Suni encourages them to think holistically and consider how they can take their project steps further to create designs that are environmentally and socially impactful. In her words, she pushes them “to do more than just make a new building.”

With her three co-leaders, Suni and the HMFH Sustainability Committee are creating a framework to navigate design processes in concert with the needs of the environment. In doing so, she wants to remind people that design is not just about aesthetics—that it’s important to think more holistically, understand the context, and include sustainable and social justice in the design. “It’s all one package,” she says. “It’s not just about what the building looks like. Good design will address all of these things.”

Outside of HMFH, Suni continues to champion her mission of combining sustainability and social responsibility with good design. She has led the Carbon Leadership Forum Boston chapter’s education committee since 2020. She also curated the Embodied Carbon Series, which helps AEC professionals understand and apply embodied carbon best practices to their projects to reduce emissions and achieve zero carbon. What began as an online series Suni and a small advisory group developed during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a nationally-recognized course and a staple of AIA University.

Notably, Suni prioritizes sharing her experiences and knowledge with the rising generation of future architects.

“It’s important for people to understand that they have options to navigate and that they need to learn how to advocate for themselves.” For Suni, mentoring is about more than just listening to questions and offering advice. She sees it as her responsibility to bring those questions to places she now gets to participate in as a Senior Associate—back to where the decision-makers are. Looking ahead, this is what Suni sees for the future of the architecture profession: education. In all directions.

The four-day event introduced participants to distinct phases of the design process including programming; conceptual design; design development; and construction administration. Throughout the week students exercised extreme creativity with drawings, collage, and model making to design a wide range of rooms and nooks that represented their ideal workspaces. HMFH facilitated the final day, which focused on construction administration (CA). To explore the concepts of CA, our designers Hannah Keith, Jake Picariello, and Nallely Salazar guided participants through the process of selecting finishes, specifying materials, and thinking through fine details such as where in a space one might hang their backpack.

Before the interactive session began, students were presented with a deep dive into some of HMFH’s recent design work, which gave them insight into the wide-ranging skills that are required to accomplish exemplary school building design. The projects reviewed included the four-phased construction of Arlington High School, the Annie E. Fales School which is distinguished as the first net-positive energy school in New England, and the Bristol County Agricultural High School. By seeing the building drawings and learning about work that included coordination with consultants and stakeholder engagement, students could visualize a variety of possible careers.

In addition to providing participants with insight into career pathways in AEC, Architecture/Design Thinking Week provides our designers with mentorship opportunities. Cultivating the next generation of architects and instilling in them a passion for design is one of our core values, which we pursue through community outreach, providing summer intern opportunities, mentorship, and by participating in programs such as Architecture/Design Thinking Week.

Architecture/Design Thinking Week, is a collaborative effort between the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA), the BSA Foundation, Boston Private Industry Council (PIC), Finegold Alexander Architects, Goody Clancy, Sasaki/Sasaki Foundation, and HMFH, which has been participating for the past five years.

The core of our practice is our valued staff, and at HMFH emerging professionals represent not only the future of our firm but the future of the design industry. Under the guidance of HMFH Associate Caitlin Osepchuk, a former AIA New England Young Architects Regional Director, the firm actively encourages young staff members to grow professionally and develop expertise and leadership both within the firm and in the profession at large. The range of opportunities for professional development include:

• Active involvement in various committees
• An annual stipend for professional education and research
• A supported path to licensure with prep materials, study groups, online classes, and guidance from senior colleagues
• Involvement in the BSA’s annual Young Designers Professional Development Institute (YDPDI)
• Paid expenses for active membership in professional activities
• One-on-one check-ins to foster our culture of inclusion and support

Congratulations to all 2021 Emerging Professional Friendly Firms!