Profile
We design beautiful, responsive, and meaningful environments to enrich people’s lives and shape a sustainable future.
Our firm
We are architects, planners, sustainability specialists, and interior designers who believe design has the power to address complex societal challenges. We work across diverse typologies and scales with tested design strategies that support wellbeing and advance environmental goals. We harness our combined expertise to discover opportunities, inspire hope, and uplift communities so that we all can share a more equitable and sustainable world.
People are at the center of everything we do. Our approach begins with consideration and respect for everyone who is affected by a project. This responsibility demands that we work in open and honest dialogue with others—acting with the utmost care for the resources invested in our projects.
We have worked with historic institutions to preserve their legacy and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, partnered with educators and community advocates to create healthy and inclusive spaces for learning, and collaborated with families to make their homes places of comfort and grace. No matter the project, we are committed to serving our clients while honoring our responsibility to local communities and the larger world.
Practice
Our award-winning firm serves clients with the highest level of professionalism through informed and responsive design. Central to our practice is a collaborative environment that brings together a highly skilled team of architects with in-house directors for sustainability, interior design, and historic preservation. Our design processes are focused on community engagement and creative discovery. We create cohesive and integrated projects by combining technical insight with careful attention to context, scale, and materiality.
Founded in 1998 as Murphy, Burnham & Buttrick Architects, we earn our clients’ trust through consistency, integrity, and dependability. We also celebrate community members as partners in shaping the built environment. Whether we are advancing the generational benefits of quality education through good design, the preservation of iconic landmarks for future generations, or the strategic reimagination of old buildings for new uses, we believe that our work can critically engage history and forge a sustainable future.
Sustainability
MBB is at the forefront of sustainable design, implementing precedent setting work at a variety of scales, from the first green roof on a New York City public school to the City’s largest geothermal plant at St. Patrick’s Cathedral which won a 2019 AIA National COTE Top Ten Award—architecture’s highest award for sustainable design.
Climate change is the greatest threat our world currently faces. As architects and citizens, we feel an imperative to do everything we can to transform our industry so that we can protect our planet and make communities more equitable. By using standards like LEED and Passive House, we ensure that completed projects perform to their intended level and that our work represents the highest levels of sustainability and resiliency, minimizing climate impact and maximizing the well-being of building users and the broader community.
MBB participates on the AIA|NY Committee on the Environment and is one of just 200 American firms that have signed onto the AIA’s 2030 Commitment—a call for all new buildings, developments, and major renovations to be carbon neutral by 2030.
MBB Leadership, left to right: Sara Grant, Taylor Aikin, Mary Burnham, Jeffrey Murphy, Maricela Salas
Leadership
We are a women-owned architecture firm led by partners Mary Burnham, Jeffrey Murphy, Sara Grant, and Taylor Aikin; and associate partner Maricela Salas. Their leadership has nurtured and advanced MBB’s founding vision from 1998: serving clients with the highest level of professionalism through responsive design. MBB combines the production capabilities of a large firm with the personal attention only a small firm can offer. Every project team works under the close supervision of a partner from the earliest phases through the completion of design and construction.
Our leadership team is deeply committed to fostering a diverse and equitable workplace and profession. They provide opportunities for designers and architects to learn and benefit from each other, advancing individuals along their career paths while raising the quality of architecture within our firm. The success of this model has been consistently demonstrated through our award-winning work and through the professional achievements of our team.