Passion
Beauty
Equity
Joy
We actively support and engage with the International Living Futures Institute (ILFI) programs Living Building Challenge to strive for a holistic and regenerative design approach. This rigorous standard of sustainability provides a real path forward for our profession and work towards low impact buildings and a built environment that is restorative and equitable.
Our design practice is focused on humanistic and cost-effective approaches to implement energy efficient and environmentally sensitive design. The firm began as a design-build company providing construction management and full-service contracting combined with architectural services for a range of projects from urban, historic, and housing renovations and new construction. This experience has given the firm comprehensive exposure to building systems, envelopes, construction methodology, cost implications, and logistics for project delivery. In 2000, Next Phase Studios Architects transitioned into a purely Architectural firm, providing professional design services exclusively. Our construction management experience continues to permeate our project approach, leadership, and understanding of project delivery & coordination. At the core of this approach is a problem-solving, interdisciplinary assessment and design process that adds value and durability in project specific solutions.
Founded in 1993, Next Phase Studios Architects is a full-service architecture firm that provides integrated architectural design, programming, and project administration services for academic, institutional, municipal buildings, housing and residential.
Next Phase Studios Architects is a collaborative design firm providing full design services for architecture and interiors. We work as an experienced, integrated team and use a dynamic, problem solving approach.
As both individuals, and studio members, we strive for a very high level of expertise and effectiveness. This method leads to creative, sustainable, innovative design, building technology, and well managed Project Delivery.
Our team structure allows us to execute a complex range of projects of a diverse type, budget, and size. Next Phase Studios provides project leadership and actively engages a full team of professional engineers, construction & costs consultants, landscape and lighting designers, and required specialists to collaborate with the client & builder from concept through construction and occupation. At the core of this approach is a design process that fully involves the client and adds value in the realization of architecture and its place in the built environment.
The results of our work incorporate the diverse experiences and contributions by all the team members involved in the creative or design process. This inclusive approach allows us to excel, for example, in the fields of Integrated Design, Sustainability and Building Performance. A creative process is always an integrated one within a Collaborative Team. In the context of our work, and brought into focus by each project, known principles and approaches are constantly questioned and interrogated through new methodologies and disciplined design.
In architectural design, we prefer the unusual to the usual, or put another way, we tend to introduce the ‘usual’ in an unusual way. We see the experiential component of architecture, the composition of space and light, as being free and supportive of the social aspects. This leads to what we call human friendly or Humanistic Design. We believe that such an approach can introduce a certain lightness and simplicity to architecture resulting in well received projects.
Next Phase Studios works closely with both the client and team members to reach a common vision for the project. Through this unified vision, a project will be “created” without it, the project is merely “executed”. Our design and client service process is, by nature collaborative. We believe that the best ideas come through an open and active dialogue.
Independent of the type or size of project, Next Phase Studios prioritizes relationships and professional obligations with close attention to technical design, construction documentation, and team leadership in schedule and cost. The realities and constraints of modern construction play an important role in realizing the aspirations which drive our design process. Technical knowledge, craft of building, insight into regulatory and construction requirements, and extensive experience in both local and international building practices qualify us to provide project management and leadership through open communication in an integrated project team.
Our local, national, and international reputation as stewards of the environment is the result of extensive experience designing and managing LEED certified projects. We have become a significant leader in bringing European sensibilities in Green Building to the U.S. market. Of particular interest is our work at Genzyme Center, which is a well- known example of a fully realized energy efficient design in harmony with the overall mission of a client organization.
Working both as a Design Lead and Architect of Record, we are adaptable, nimble, innovative, and effective. Our long-term goal is to develop a greater presence in the institutional and commercial market where we can best use and expand upon our creativity, sustainable expertise, and project management skills.
Genzyme Center Cambridge, MA
Integrated Design is the seamless collaboration of the design team and consultants in the service of sustainability and architecture. Architect and Climate engineer play the key role in this collaborative team.
We believe that there is no valid alternative for integrated design. The world of design is based on teamwork and team ideas. Globally, the world faces environmental and economic challenges, likewise in architecture and building trades.
While every project and client poses unique environmental challenges, we believe that the Architectural profession can make responsible decisions about the stewardship of our natural and built environment and respect for its resources and cycles. We take a “cradle to cradle” or full cycle approach to our projects, building systems, clients, and communities, and seek to identify and specify renewable and reused building materials. This includes attention to material life cycles, of their growth, harvest, manufacture, use, and eventual disposal and return to the supply chain.
In each project we take a holistic approach to setting environmental goals and the intent of the project. Our role in implementing our Client´s strategy is to make informed decisions in the design process framed within the mission and goals of the individuals or organization. This allows the Client to make educated decisions about building methods based on thoughtful, realistic and clear goals.
Our approach follows the project from concept design through to the building owner´s manual and occupation. Our fundamental understanding of building histories and performance improves all designs in a systematic and cost appropriate manner. Our design work includes an environmental education mission, grounded in the research and experience of the firm.
Mount Pleasant Home Jamaica Plain, MA
Sustainability at its core is a sense of the relationship of location and culture in time – truly emerges from an Architecture that evolves from space and light.
Bringing these complex relationships, often composed of contrary forces and situations, together into architecture defines Integrated Design.
Integrated Design paired with a humanistic (or human friendly) approach forms the essence of our work in Next Phase Studios.
All of the spaces we create are based upon human needs and serve people through attention to their social and functional requirements while addressing the imprints of culture, history, and sensation of comfort.
While this humanistic approach forms the pivot for all of our design, the integration of creative engineering, especially climate engineering and day lighting design, is especially important. We encourage these components to become an active component of the design process rather than providing for secondary “applied” technology.
We believe that this methodology can lead to spaces in which the resultant positive impacts on health, comfort, well being, productivity and communication may easily outperform the cost of sustainability features.
In the example of the Genzyme Center, we find that an artful, daylit, and healthy environment provides for human needs holistically. While on the one hand, sickness and fatigue are reduced, communication, creativity, and efficiency of work can be improved.
Genzyme Center Cambridge, MA
Rick Ames, AIA, LEED AP
Founder and Principal
Keith Campbell, Senior Associate
Architect/Designer
Nora Shull, RA, LEED GA, MCPPO
Architect / Project Manager
Chris Mara, LEED GA
Architectural Designer/ Project Manager
Athena Hay, LEED GA
Architectural Designer
Drew Ton-Morrison, LEED GA
Architectural Designer / BIM Technician
Anya vanBeuzekom, EA
Controller
Founder and Principal
617-375-9300
Rick Ames has a held a strong commitment to site specific, humanistic design since founding Next Phase Studios, Architects in 1993. He has focused his work on environmental performance and justice in the built and natural worlds, since forever, starting with the teachings of his parents. He is a licensed architect in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey.
Currently, he is an active member or leadership in several green initiatives and organizations:
Built Environment +
ILFI for LBC (Living Building Challenge)
NESEA Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
U.S. Green Building Council (LEED)
Mayor’s Green Technology Advisory Panel
Yestermorrow School, Boston Building Materials Re-use Center, MA Audubon, Roca, Trustees of Reservations, Youthbuild Boston, NEFF, Bikes not Bombs
Rick has a Master of Architecture from Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Vermont (UVM) in a self-designed major in Architectural & Engineering Studies. Education and research are an active part of the practice with ongoing teaching commitments. Rick is an avid bike commuter and while not in the office, he can be found riding road and off-road bicycles, building home projects, and getting into the wilderness. He and his wife Meg have two daughters. Travel is the best.
Architect/Designer
617-375-9300
Keith Campbell is a Senior Associate at Next Phase Studios since 2007. He has joined our firm after taking time off to be a fulltime at home parent raising his children. Keith brings diverse interest in both design and firm management. He manages marketing and project proposals for both public and private clients. Keith has also spent time teaching in local Elementary and Middle Schools as a Science and Special Education substitute teacher and mentoring youth in after school programs. He is often involved in Community Development projects where he participates in Neighborhood Workshop Sessions. Keith contributes to the exploratory collaborative sustainable design mission of our firm in the form of national and international competitions.
Keith has completed his undergraduate education at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York where he earned a Bachelor of Arts. After graduating in 1984, he worked for Brooklyn College designing and building painting studios for the Graduate Fine Arts program and participated with the Design Group team in building an outdoor public deck for performances and art exhibitions. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and graduated with a Master of Architecture in 1988. During his graduate years at MIT, he attended Tsinghua University, Beijing in 1987 where he participated in an urban design studio focusing on economic development of the historical areas around The Forbidden City, Beijing.
Architect / Project Manager
617-375-9300
Nora joined Next Phase Studios in 2015 after working for several other small design firms in Massachusetts and Mississippi. She has experience with a wide range of building types and is committed to developing smart, responsive designs that integrate building function, sustainability and user experience. Nora is a registered Architect in Massachusetts [and a Certified Passive House Consultant].
Nora completed her undergraduate work at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and French & Francophone Studies. After graduating in 2008, she worked for a short time with a large-scale metal sculptor before returning to school in 2010 for her Masters in Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Outside of architecture, Nora enjoys a diverse range of hobbies including long distance running, calligraphy and furniture restoration.
Architectural Designer/ Project Manager
617-375-9300
As a designer, Chris values utility, tactility and how users shape buildings over time. He continues to be inspired by the gardens, alleys and informal elements that shape the spaces between the architecture.
When not at NPS, you can find Chris playing music or in the Arnold Arboretum.
Wentworth Institute of Technology, MArch, 2014
Architectural Designer
617-375-9300
Athena joined Next Phase Studios in late 2018. Athena has a Bachelor of Arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design where she earned the Design Excellence Award. Before coming to Next Phase Studios, she spent a summer studying at Technische Universität Berlin, Germany and working as a 3D fabricator and rapid prototypist.
While not in office, Athena can be found exploring the Boston either frequenting farmers markets or water coloring cityscapes.
Architectural Designer / BIM Technician
617-375-9300
Drew is currently studying Architecture at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He is president of the school’s AIAS chapter and a recipient of the Margaret Hickey Travel Award.
In school, Drew is exploring how different forms of communication can bring both green design and the design process to the forefront of the client-architect relationship.
In the office, he makes physical models, drafts, 3D models, renders, and is an avid sketcher. When out of the office, Drew loves to bike and explore, learn languages, travel, and cook.
Controller
617 375 9300
Anya is an Enrolled Agent with many years of experience in business accounting. She joined the Next Phase Studios team in 2015 as the company’s controller. Anya is also a founder and managing partner of Fox-Warren & vanBeuzekom, LLC, an integrated tax, accounting & consulting firm located in Stoneham, MA.
Anya leads an active life north of Boston, keeping up with her husband, three boys, dog Ruby (and cat Kira).
