Melissa Farling

she/her

FAIA, LEED AP

Principal

Architecture is not passive. Architecture is about listening, seeing, tasting, smelling, and feeling. It impacts us deeply. It changes our brain, and therefore our behavior and wellbeing. It has the capacity to uplift and to degrade; it can bring people together and it can divide. And it is our collective and individual responsibility to know how our designs affect people working in, living in, passing by, or visiting them. Architecture is my small way of helping to improve people’s lives.

Melissa provides leadership to the studio and within the design profession with a primary focus on the impacts of architecture on people. She believes this knowledge is essential to enabling the creation of sustaining and appropriate environments and increasing society’s expectations of the built environment while elevating the profession. Clients and colleagues say she has a unique ability to hear what people are saying and to translate those needs and ideas into problem-solving design.

In an effort to create positive impact, much of Melissa’s work has focused on social justice and public projects of all sizes. She has successfully applied research to design, resulting in measurable outcomes. Believing that empathy and respect are the foundations for conversation and design, she excels at bringing multi-disciplinary expertise to the studio to facilitate more informed and rigorous explorations.

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