Office
A practice of leaders, collaborators, and innovators.
Machado Silvetti is an architecture and urban design firm known for creating distinctive buildings and spaces in the United States and throughout the world. Our approach explores and celebrates that which is unique within each project, expressed in designs that are original for their conceptual clarity, visual intensity, and generous public spaces.
Machado Silvetti offers the sustained personal involvement of its principals in every commission from concept through construction. Our organizational structure empowers our commitment to excellence in design, service and the successful execution of built work. Today Machado Silvetti has four principals and a diverse staff whose collective knowledge, experience and contributions have earned the firm both international recognition and local appreciation.
The office has received three National Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects, twelve Progressive Architecture awards and citations, fourteen design awards from the New England AIA chapter, numerous Boston Society of Architects awards, including the 2003 Harleston Parker Medal.
Our Services
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Machado Silvetti is known as one of very few US practices that consistently and successfully merges contemporary ideas with existing and sensitive historic and cultural contexts. We provide a full range of architectural services for new and existing buildings. This includes pre-design services, feasibility studies, existing building assessments, basic services (Schematic Design - Construction Administration), and post-occupancy services.
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Our approach always includes special consideration for the context surrounding each of our architectural projects. This attention comes from our grounding as urban designers and our commitment to the quality, sustainability, accessibility and equality of public spaces. We offer urban design work, whether public, private, or a combination.
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Machado Silvetti's master planning services are characterized by conceptual clarity and holistic approach with meticulous attention to detail, an approach that results in visionary and resilient plans. We offer Master Planning services for small and large cultural institutions, universities, commercial developments, and city-scale redevelopments.
History
The office was founded in 1985 by Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti, recipients of the first ever Award in Architecture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for “boldly conceived and brilliantly executed projects” and for being “uncompromisingly dedicated to envisioning a meaningful architecture of the public realm.”
Rodolfo and Jorge were both born in Argentina and received their Bachelor’s degrees from the National University of Buenos Aires followed by the Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Following their time in California they moved east to teach and hold leadership positions at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Their influence over the theory and practice of architecture extends well beyond the office. They designed many built and unbuilt seminal projects that remain contemporary precedents such as the Fountain House and the House in Tunisia. Their writing on architecture is a recognized part of the architectural zeitgeist of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. In 2021, Rodolfo and Jorge gifted their immense archives of drawings, models, and records to the Harvard GSD Loeb Library. The gift was celebrated in a retrospective exhibition held at the GSD.
In 2015, Stephanie Randazzo Dwyer and Jeffry Burchard were named Partners and Design Principals, responsible for continuing the design excellence established by Rodolfo and Jorge and expanding into new areas of practice. After nearly four decades of steady, successful practice, our portfolio reflects the diverse scope, scale and breadth of the firm's experience, displaying special expertise in Art and Teaching Museums, Education and Institutional environments and facilities, Conservation, Cultural Heritage, Re-Use, Urban Design and Planning. Internationally recognized, we have worked in Berlin, Beirut, Buenos Aires, Seoul, Singapore, Rome, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Malaysia, Vietnam and across the United States.
People & Culture
We have been working out of our office in the South End Neighborhood of Boston since our founding in 1985. The open-studios concept is indicative of the way we work: collaboratively and openly with shared discussions, charettes, design pin-ups, and activity happening in all corners of the space. The people at Machado Silvetti are friendly and focused, attentive to the details of the projects and to cultivating a culture of shared responsibility and investment in the quality of our designs and services. The collective knowledge and experience of the Principals and the entire team is the strength of Machado Silvetti, enabling us to respond to the unique needs and desires of new clients and varied projects.
With three of the four principals as lifetime educators, and several of the staff often engaged in teaching opportunities throughout Boston, we are a culture of learners that always seeks to share new insights with each-other through informal conversations and our very own “Machado Silvetti University” where the staff shares technical knowledge with the entire office on a regular basis. Occasionally, we even take a break to enjoy each other’s company outside the office with summer trips and evening outings. We are a group of designers who want to see things built and who support each other in this pursuit.