Lecture Series
Presenting the work of outstanding architects from the region
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MASS Design Group
Saturday September 23, 2023 | 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm |
Santa Fe Community Convention Center | Coronado/De Vargas Room
1.5 LU/HSW
MASS Design Group was founded on the understanding that architecture’s influence reaches beyond individual buildings. MASS (Model of Architecture Serving Society) believes that architecture has a critical role to play in supporting communities to confront history, shape new narratives, collectively heal and project new possibilities for the future.
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MASS is a team of over 200 architects, landscape architects, engineers, builders, furniture designers, makers, writers, filmmakers, and researchers representing 20 countries across the globe. They believe in expanding access to design that is purposeful, healing, and hopeful.
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In 2021, The American Institute of Architects honored MASS Design Group with the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm Award. In 2020, MASS was named the Architecture Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, for our origins in healthcare and commitment to architecture as a medium for healing.
In 2019, Architect Magazine ranked MASS fourth in its list of Top 50 Firms in Design and in 2017, MASS was awarded the National Design Award in Architecture, given each year by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Joseph Kunkel, Principal & Director of Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab
Joseph, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, is the Director of MASS's Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab. As acommunity designer and educator, his work explores how architecture, planning, and construction can be leveraged to positively impact the built and unbuilt environments within Indian Country. In 2019, Joseph wasawarded an Obama Fellowship for his work with Indigenous communities. He also received a 2018 Rauschenberg SEED grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and a 2019 Creative Capital Award. Mostrecently, Joseph was awarded the 2021 inaugural Elaine Johnson Coates Award, by the University of Maryland’s Alumni Association.
Shawn Evans, AIA, APT-RP, Principal
Shawn joined MASS Design Group as a Principal in 2022 through
MASS’s strategic partnership with AOS Architects. He was the Principal-in-Charge of the Santa Fe office of AOS Architects as well as the firm’s Director of Preservation and Cultural Projects. Shawn has taught architectural design at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania,
and the University of New Mexico.
Nationally recognized as a leader in historic preservation, he has spoken at numerous regional and national preservation,
museum, and tribal conferences. His work at Ohkay Owingeh and Eastern State Penitentiary was exhibited during the 2018 Venice Biennale. Shawn studied architecture at Texas A&M University and holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennslvania.
Patricia Gruits, AIA, LEED AP, Co-Executive Director and Senior Principal
Architect and researcher, Patricia joined MASS in 2013 and, working in both Boston and Kigali, has led design teams on critically acclaimed
projects, including the African Leadership University, the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Mubuga Primary School, Maternity Waiting Village in Malawi, the headquarters for Children’s Services of Roxbury, and numerous affordable housing
projects, for older adults and vulnerable populations, with 2Life Communities and North Shore CDCs.
Her contributions to The Role of Architecture in Fighting COVID-19 on
Designing Senior Housing for Safe Interaction has been featured by Leading Age, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.