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An inside look into our global architecture studio and architects working with state-of-the-art compliant computers.
Jon Pickard discussing highly competitive projects of landmark scale with employees.
Andrew Ostrowitz working meticulously on one of our miniature designs with a brush, wearing gloves
Architects rendering a design video and discussing a project at the workplace.
William D Chilton discussing the prospects of various designs pinned on a board with his colleagues.

Studio Profile

Pickard Chilton is a global architecture studio that designs innovative buildings and transformative environments that deliver value and inspire community. Founded in 1997, the New Haven, Connecticut-based, 50-person studio provides design services to public and private sector clients internationally. The studio is large enough to be entrusted with highly competitive projects of landmark scale yet small enough to offer visionary clients the gratifying experience of shared engagement in the realization of their ambitious goals.

The studio practices exclusively as a Design Architect and collaborates with experienced Executive Architects to meet the unique needs of each client. This practice model ensures that clients have access to the most highly qualified professionals for all aspects of design, project management, building technology, and construction administration. A collective belief that 1+1=3 enlivens our collaborations and gives weight to all voices involved in the design process. The intangible element in the equation is the relationships that add incomparable value to the process, the project, and ultimately our clients’ missions. This collaborative alchemy produces environments where occupants, innovation, and communities thrive.

19
Fortune 500 Clients
60
Cities across 6 continents where we have designed projects
301
Design and professional awards
Pickard Chilton team posing together outside Yale's Sterling Library in the summer 2020.

Culture

Pickard Chilton is a practice built on the belief that multiple voices in the design process create a richer and more successful project than those with a single author. The free exchange of ideas that defines our process does not exist by happenstance, but rather is actively cultivated through the building of deep connections with our clients and collaborators. In fact, in addition to—indeed in support of—designing environments, buildings, and cities, Pickard Chilton designs relationships. 

We collaborate with clients and communities to understand who they are and identify the issues they need to address, and we then make it possible for them to dream bigger. Pickard Chilton is dedicated to solving complex problems through a potent mix of creativity and pragmatism. When a client presents us with their architectural challenge, we engage them in a dialogue that informs us about how those issues are impacting their organization, community, or identity.

People

Process

We believe that design is a process of discovery. All aspects of the studio’s work are animated by the belief in the transformative power of research-driven design to deliver high-performance buildings that create measurable value for clients, produce an engaging and productive workplace, and build better communities.

With over 1,600 square feet of fabrication space in our New Haven studio, Pickard Chilton is committed to design by making. All design staff learns the craft of model-making guided by the latest technology and leading craftsmen in the field. Studio members work alongside two professional model designers to bring complex ideas to life. A critical aspect of our process, these physical models serve our clients while also providing invaluable perspective for the discovery of new design ideas and iterations.

Understanding our clients is foundational to how we practice. Our goal at the outset of every project is to answer more questions than are asked. For architecture to achieve that objective, it must be the product of more than an equation or a conversation; it depends on a relationship founded on trust, communication, and mutual respect. When these are established, we are able to uncover our client’s needs and understand the non-architectural issues that we can address with design. Only through mutual trust is it possible for us to appreciate these nuances that enliven and deepen our design response. The deeper our design response, the more resonant and effective the outcomes can be, creating unanticipated benefits that ripple outward to building occupants, our client, the community, and the profession.

Things used by the Pickard Chilton team to create miniatures for a design proposal laid out on a table.
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