BOSTON—Award-winning architect, historian, and author Eric Keune has joined the Boston studio of Perkins and Will as design director. Under Keune’s leadership, the studio will advance its commitment to design excellence, providing clients with beautiful, bespoke, sustainable placemaking solutions.
Keune’s portfolio of global projects includes a 13-building campus and training center for Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Diagnostics and China’s World Trade Center, an 87-story mixed-use tower in Beijing recognized for innovation and sustainability.
“We strive to maintain a fresh, dynamic design culture, which requires us to regularly challenge our own assumptions and, occasionally, to infuse our studio with new perspectives,” says Robert Brown, principal and managing director of the Boston studio of Perkins and Will. “Now, on the heels of fantastic design recognition in the past few years, we don’t want to continue with business as usual—we want to keep pushing boundaries. Eric will refresh our practice and advance our work.”
Keune’s work has been published nationally and internationally, and his work is the recipient of more than 40 design awards. He’s led several high-profile projects, including embassy and consulate complexes for the U.S. Department of State; the North American headquarters for Kia Motors; and two projects for Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Diagnostics.
“I’m honored to join Perkins and Will in this role,” says Keune. “As design director, I’m energized by the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the studio’s work. I hope to cultivate innovative design thinking that improves people’s lives.”
Keune’s particularly interested in improving building performance, marrying the use of a space to its structural form, and strengthening connections between architecture, art, and the public realm.
An accomplished architectural historian, Keune has authored Paffard Keatinge-Clay: Modern Architect(ure)/Modern Master(s), published in 2006, and co-authored 100 Buildings, published in 2017. He has taught at the University of Tennessee, California College of Arts, Northwestern University, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also serves on the U.S. board of DocoMoMo, an international advocacy organization focused on works of the modern movement.
Keune’s appointment comes at a time when the Boston studio is earning high accolades for its work. Both the Snyder Center at Phillips Academy Andover and The Exchange at 100 Federal Street recently won Honor Awards for Design Excellence from the Boston Society of Architects. The Exchange also earned a Citation in the 2019 AIA New England Design Awards.
