George Gard, AIA

George Gard, AIA

In his work at Boston’s Bruner/Colt Architects, Gard considers the form, function, and impact of architecture in ways that challenge assumptions about building design from all eras. He leads teams that develop tailored solutions for existing buildings and deliver award-winning projects. His approach is evident in projects such as the two buildings he transformed for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), which constituted three acres of long-vacant interior spaces that now welcome long-term and changing exhibitions.

Gard’s design, developed with MASS MoCA’s administration and his team, allowed the museum to welcome C.A.V.U., artist James Turrell’s largest round Skyspace, one of just a few with an operable cover. For Frost Terrace in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Gard was the project manager and project architect, he paired three historic homes with much-needed affordable housing to turn a run-down site into a vibrant contributor to the streetscape.

Building on his academic background, Gard has been closely studying the embodied and total carbon of reuse projects since 2015. At the time, he was one of a handful of design professionals who were contributing to the profession’s understanding of its impacts and avoided impacts through quantitative life cycle assessments. He continues to advance that work today, elevating the link between building reuse and the mitigation of climate change. Because of his leadership, project life cycle assessments are the norm at his firm.

Gard’s commitment to sharing knowledge has driven him to teach and mentor. Over four years at Boston Architectural College, Gard taught a graduate-level intensive class focused on direct observation of architectural and urban change in the city. Since 2020, he has instructed an advanced course for Wentworth Institute of Technology’s Adaptive Interventions track, serving as senior faculty for the course in Fall 2022. Through his teaching endeavors, Gard has worked directly with more than 150 students, ranging from those taking their first design class to others focused on conservation.

Gard leads his firm’s immersive co-op program, which annually welcomes between three and five architecture students to gain hands-on experience. He is a mentor and key resource for his team as well as Bruner/Colt’s junior staff. Many of the designers he has mentored have achieved licensure and become project managers themselves.

Gard focuses on designing buildings that improve the lives of the communities he serves. He is the rare architect who adeptly combines design, technology, and theory, and his talents are only matched by his ability to inspire others.