Shepley Bulfinch was ranked 39th among the country’s leading interior design firms, according to a survey just published in the January issue of Interior Design magazine. The magazine’s annual ranking of the “100 Interior Design Giants” is based on 2012 interior design fees for major architecture and design firms around the US.

Shepley ranked fifth among education design firms, making the survey’s Top 10 in education design for the fourth year in a row. Shepley’s 2012 major education interiors clients included Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Hamline University, and the University of Houston.

Shepley ...[more]

How are non-academic buildings defining a vibrant student experience? For Hamline University’s Anderson University Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, it’s all about making connections, as discussed in “New facilities enhance the quality of campus life,” a Trends Report in the January issue of Building Design + Construction.

Not simply a student union, the Anderson Center has become a campus-wide crossroads for students, faculty, and staff, and the gateway from the campus to the city of Saint Paul.

The vision was shaped in the planning process, noted principal Angela ...[more]

Shortly after the buzz around the first anniversary of the opening of the Harvard Innovation Lab, Interior Design magazine announced more good news: a 2012 Best of Year (BOY) Merit Award for the Innovation Lab’s design in the Education category.

Since it opened in late 2011, the i-lab has quickly become a hub for entrepreneurs from across the campus. Ambitions for it are unbounded, as noted in an editorial in the Boston Globe in November 2012, “Success of Harvard’s i-lab could buoy the entire region.”

The Innovation Lab is the second ...[more]

Print magazine has selected the graphic design of the Harvard Innovation Lab as a winner in the 2012 Regional Design Annual, which has just been published. The design was the work of Shepley graphic designers Dan Vlahos and Erin Deeley.

The ‘Hi’ design establishes a distinctive identity and conveys a sense of welcome for the i-lab on Harvard’s Allston, Massachusetts, campus. In telling the story of the impact of the design, Shepley Bulfinch senior creative Dan Vlahos said, “Months after the building opened I got an email ...[more]

What are the trade-offs when you design a patient bathroom? How do you navigate the balancing act of optimizing patient safety and ADA compliance?

Healthcare principal Jennifer Aliber discusses these in “Safety zone: designing the danger out of patient bathrooms” in the September issue of Health Facilities Management magazine.

The article also features two sidebars: one by Cindy Lee on bathroom design for the visually impaired and one by Ray Gerbi  on infection control.

“Safety Zone,” Health Facilities Management, September 2012

The creation of Postino East and the transformation of a nondescript commercial building in Gilbert, Arizona, into a lively neighborhood restaurant is the cover story in the latest issue of Retrofit magazine.

In “Growing Roots,” Lauren Bailey of Upward Projects and project designer Ryan Grabe talk about the vision behind the popular Gilbert restaurant and the design thinking that started with an understanding of the surrounding community and the “good bones” of the original building.

Postino East opened in April 2012. It is one of a series of Phoenix-area restaurants designed by Shepley Bulfinch ...[more]

Colleges and universities that are looking for ways to improve energy efficiency and resulting cost savings are realizing that some habits start from the ground up, as discussed in “How to achieve a tight building envelope,”� which appears in the June 2012 issue of College Planning & Management.

In the article, Jonathan Baron talks about the value to owners of investing in building component mock-ups and building commissioning, as well as the importance of evaluating the compatibility of different materials used in creating the building envelope.

Jonathan’s remarks on building ...[more]