Touloukian Touloukian Inc. is an award-winning architecture and urban design firm specializing in complex and diverse building types. Our work includes commercial, residential, cultural, institutional and historic projects ranging from new construction to adaptive re-use. We provide comprehensive design services from feasibility and permitting through construction administration to a range of clients including municipal and private entities, non-profit institutions, developers and individuals. Our design approach encompasses a clear narrative about each client's mission as well as the sustainable qualities of the site and the history of its place. The diversity of our professional experience is a strength and testament to our knowledge and leadership within the profession.

Our careful selection of material combinations and system technologies are the vehicle through which we explore the experiential and tangible qualities of a project. We navigate project constraints to promote values of simplicity that produce unique statements of creative selection, organization, and articulation. The visual and experiential result is a building bound to its place by a timeless architectural quality that unites our client’s identity with the character of the site.

We think of ourselves as executors, in that we deliver tasks on time through our ability to lead, listen and learn. We support our team’s creativity to inspire new ways of looking at problems by being innovative within a cost model and by working quickly and thoughtfully through each assignment. We deliver clear, well-crafted graphics and written descriptions, assembled into concise documentation, born from collaborative discussions, visioning exercises, market driven concepts, urban design strategies and design reviews.  

ASSOCIATE

Kate Ford, AIA, LEED AP, is a registered architect in Massachusetts and an Associate at Touloukian Touloukian Inc. Since joining TT Inc., Kate has worked on projects at scales ranging from single family homes to large mixed-use developments. She has a passion for digital fabrication, historic preservation, sustainability, and how these three can work together to make a successful project and community.

Mentorship is vital to the growth of a successful firm. We believe that our office flourishes only if everyone is learning and growing as a professional within the office. We value the continued education of each employee to become a complete architect who understands and contributes to the interdisciplinary exchange within the profession. We provide a work environment where communication within the office is transparent, respectful, and progressive.

We enjoy being a part of young professional’s growth and development in order to provide them with multi-faceted design and construction learning opportunities that promote well rounded training on the path to licensure. We aspire to be educators in academia, practice and to the community at large. Our objective is to create a comprehensive experience and 360 degree view of the profession. We believe training to become an architect encompasses not only design and technical skills, but also developing professional judgment and awareness to refine and understand each individual’s career goals.

As we grow and encounter a diversity of project types, our design resolution remains consistent with our commitment and care for the profession. Our dedication to socially and environmentally responsible design is embedded in all of our projects. We believe in the careful selection of materials and systems, thoughtful development of space planning and form, and creating scale appropriate modern projects that respect their context.

Our design thinking is guided by five principles which allow us to approach diverse tasks at all scales:
1. A clear project narrative illustrating our client’s mission

Our work strives to build on the success of our clients and to become a catalyst for their mission, prosperity and sustainability. We ask what makes our clients successful, and we work to deliver an individual approach and expanded role of architecture that brings them additional value and success. We believe in a flexible and adaptable framework that emphasizes our partnership with the client, team and community. This is fundamental to the program, economics and viability of a project. Our firm’s passion is towards the craft of timeless architecture that inspires urban spaces and the process and methods essential to it.

2. Our focus on interconnecting site properties and sustainable qualities within the natural cycle and built environment

We incorporate the natural cycle and built environments interconnected site properties as an obligation in our work. We seek out relationships between them that drive the resultant design. We envision buildings as evolving systems that connect with their climate and their uses. We design spaces that prepare for change and adaptability to set architecture in motion with the world around it. Performance based design is at the leading edge of our thinking. Our comprehensive process starts with the contextual relationship interwoven between our built environment, landscape and the natural cycle.

3. Conveying construction as a tectonic art

Our interdisciplinary approach to using standard parts, materials and connections in unique combinations and arrangements is a philosophy that allows us to create “custom” designs within a practical and cost-effective model. We research the practical aspects of materials and their assemblies relative to off site production, long-term value, and overall performance; but also the art, quality, and craft that comes with the magical combination of materials and their graceful connections. We are architects that take pleasure in detailing a project from the overall statement to the finer moments.

4. Uncovering the poetic identity with our sense of place

We aim to understand and express the history and culture unique to each site. We respect what makes each place different and we strive to include this in each architectural statement. We promote projects bound to their context by understanding and uncovering the poetic identity of a place. Sometimes this is through the creation of an expressive and forward-thinking historic reference and modern design identity.

5. Advancing the need for civic responsibility.

Our ultimate ambition is to enhance each communities quality of life, and to create sustainable places that are to be used and enjoyed for the civic good. We believe that great design can influence the way people live and respond to their environment, and also be a catalyst for making “things” around it better. Architecture should be enjoyed. The “ethos” of our architecture is the responsibility not only to our clients, but also to society as a whole in order to leave places better than when we found them for future generations to come.

Our commitment to design excellence has been nationally and locally recognized in the industry. In 2019, our firm was named Small Firm of the Year in Multi-Disciplinary Architecture by Architecture MasterPrize, along with Best New England Architecture and Design Firm by Build Magazine. In 2018, we were recognized by Architect Magazine in the Arch50 Top 50 Firms in Nation placing #8 overall, improving on our 2017 #30 placement and 2016 #32 placement. In 2017, we were short-listed for the 2017 World Architecture News – Practice of the Year and received an Honorable Mention for the 2017 American Architecture Prize – Professional Firm of the Year Award. In 2016, we were also named one of the Top Boston Housing Design Firms by Compass Quarterly, a featured insert in the New York Times.

We have received over 115 international, national and local design awards across 25 different projects since 2011. Recognition includes American Masterprizes; AIA New England and Local Honor Awards; Chicago Athenaeum International and American Architecture Awards; USGBC Market Leader Awards; AIA National Faith & Form Award; Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards; Architizer A+ Finalist, Dezeen Short List, and a Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award, amongst others. We are proud of the diverse range of awards our work has been recognized for, and we feel it is a testament to our ability to be successful in a variety of project types, materials and scales.

2024

2024 AIA New England Design Award, Honor Award
38 Newbury Street 7th Floor Interiors

2024 Architects Newspaper Best of Design Awards
38 Newbury Street 7th Floor Interiors, Best of Design Award - Commercial—Office (Small)

2024 Architecture MasterPrize
38 Newbury Street 7th Floor Interiors, Honorable Mention - Interior Design - Workplaces Interior

2024 Architecture MasterPrize
38 Newbury Street 7th Floor Interiors, Honorable Mention - Architectural Design - Restoration & Renovation

2023

2023 BSA Design Awards
Boylston Street Residences, Social, Technical, and Environmental Impact Award - Housing

2023 Architecture MasterPrize
Boylston Street Residences, Architectural Design - Residential Architecture - Multi Unit

2023 American Architecture Awards - The Chicago Athenaeum
Boylston Street Residences, Honorable Mention

2023 Architizer A+ Awards
Boylston Street Residences, Special Mention - Multi-Unit Housing - Low Rise

2022

2022 LIV Hospitality Design Awards
Boylston Street Residences, Honorable Mention - Architecture - Living Space

2022 American Architecture Awards - The Chicago Athenaeum
654 Main Street Residences, Honorable Mention

2022 Architecture MasterPrize
333 Tremont St, Architectural Design - High Rise Buildings

2021

2021 LIV Hospitality Design Awards
Vermont Residence, Winner - Private Residence

2021 Green GOOD DESIGN Award - The Chicago Athenaeum
Coleridge Residences - Green Architecture

2020

2020 PRISM Award - Best Multi-Unit For-Sale Community: Attached or Detached Homes
27 H Street Residences, Gold

2020 LIV Hospitality Design Awards
Lumen at Beacon Park - Architecture Eating Space

2020 Green GOOD DESIGN Award - The Chicago Athenaeum
Terminal B Adaptive Reuse - Green Architecture

2018 BSA Honor Award for Design Excellence
Lumen at Beacon Park

2018 BSA Hospitality Design, Honor Award
Lumen at Beacon Park

2018 Commerce Detroit Design Award
Lumen at Beacon Park

2018 AIA Detroit Honor Awards - Building Category
Lumen at Beacon Park

2018 Dezeen Awards
Lumen at Beacon Park, Hospitality Building - Longlist

2018 SBID Awards
Lumen at Beacon Park, Restaurant Design - Finalist

2018 Architizer A+ Awards
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Finalist - Interior Office Space <25,000sf

2018 American Architecture Award - The Chicago Athenaeum
Lumen at Beacon Park

2018 American Architecture Award - The Chicago Athenaeum
Fisher Hill Reservoir Park Gatehouse & Comfort Station

2018 Metal Architecture Design Awards
Lumen at Beacon Park, Judges Award

*2018 ASLA / BSLA Merit Award for Design
Fisher Hill Reservoir Park (with Klopfer Martin Design Group)

2018 AIA New Hampshire Awards
6 Industrial Way Office Park, Unbuilt Architecture

2016 AIA New England Design Excellence Awards - Historic Preservation + Adaptive Re-use
Fisher Hill Reservoir Park Gatehouse & Comfort Station, Merit Award

2016 AAP American Architecture Prize - Restoration & Renovation
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Gold Award

2016 AAP American Architecture Prize - Workplaces
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Bronze Award

2016 BSA Honor Award for Design Excellence
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Citation

2015

2015 Architect Newspaper Best of Design Award
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Renovation

2015 AIA / BSA Interior Architecture / Interior Design Awards
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Honor Award - "The Hobson"

2015 SBID Awards - Office Design
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Finalist

2015 American Architecture Award - The Chicago Athenaeum
Brighton Park Pavilion

2015 AIA New England Design Award
38 Newbury Street Office Suite, Merit Award - Interiors

2015 AIA New England Design Award - Special Projects
Farnham-Connolly State Park Pavilion, Merit Award

2008 - 2014

2014 ABC Excellence in Construction Awards
The Wyeth Residences, Green Award

2014 ABC Excellence in Construction Awards
The Wyeth Residences, Eagle Award

2014 BSA Small Firms / Small Projects
112 Fulton Street Residence

2013 Design Biennial Boston, Award
Riverside Park, organized by the Pinkcomma gallery, sponsored by the BSA

2011 AISC Certificate of Recognition for Steel Construction
Riverside Park

*2011 ASLA/BSLA Design Awards
Riverside Park, Merit Award (with Halvorson Design Partnership)

Touloukian Touloukian Inc.

67 Batterymarch Street, Suite 200

Boston, MA 02110

617-526-0884

info@ttarch.com