News

Cunniffe Commons at the Ringling College of Art and Design was recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) with an AIA Maryland Excellence in Design Honor Award. The annual awards program recognizes excellence in architectural design by AIA Maryland members and AIA members working in Maryland.

Anchored by the region’s first four-year medical school, designed with Buro Happold as advisers, the Pearl district is a $1.5 billion mixed-use development. The project is the result of a public–private partnership led by Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology and includes design by CO Architects and Ayers Saint Gross.

Senior Architect and Planner Amber Wendland has been named to The Daily Record’s 2025 list of Influential Marylanders. Established in 2006, the Influential Marylander program honors individuals for significant contributions and leadership across many fields.

Ayers Saint Gross associate principal Matt Pearson speaks about the design for Bryant University's new upper-level residence hall.

An annual honor given by the ULI Baltimore District Council, the award recognizes individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to the built environment in the Baltimore region by positively impacting the community, promoting sustainable development, and improving the quality of life for residents.

Arizona University's Labriola National American Indian Data Center has been included in American Libraries magazine's 2025 Library Design Showcase. 

The state-of-the-art facility will enable UCF to graduate an additional 150 newly licensed eligible nurses annually to address the critical shortage and will feature the latest immersive modeling and simulation technology.

Our Summer 2025 Engage, Create, Enrich newsletter highlights some of our recent news, thought leadership, and projects.

The terrazzo installation at the center reflects the natural beauty of a woodland creek bed, integrating over 800 waterjet-cut brass leaves and hundreds of hand-cut local river rocks, ranging in diameter from 3 to 12 inches.

After an extraordinary 42-year career in architecture, including 32 years at Ayers Saint Gross, Architect and Principal Dan McKelvey is retiring.

Ayers Saint Gross signed the AIA Materials Pledge to formalize our commitment to support human health, social health and equity, ecosystem health, climate health, and a circular economy through our material specifications.

Associate Principal Elizabeth McLean is featured in an article highlighting the transformation of Arizona State University's Hayden Library.

Ayers Saint Gross earned a first-place prize in the category of XL Northeast Firms.

Comparing Campuses 2024: Water received a Pro First Place Award in the category of Data Visualization and Information Design.

President Joel Fidler is interviewed about his work and the design for Clark University's Center for Media Arts, Computing, and Design.

Ayers Saint Gross Principal Shannon Dowling has been honored with an ICON in Education Design Award from Learning by Design Magazine. The award program recognizes educators, architects, designers, and facility professionals whose work is "driven by the belief that improved learning environments lead to better learning."  

Our National Nurses Week newsletter highlights some of our recent and ongoing nursing and health sciences projects.

Partnering with UNC’s School of Nursing and local firm Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, interdisciplinary firm Ayers Saint Gross developed a renewed facility for the school’s top ranked program that will foster the careers of generations of nursing leaders.

We're excited to announce that the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center was named a finalist in the 2025 IIDA Interior Design Competition. This annual competition celebrates outstanding, innovative interior design and interior architecture around the world that honors innovation, creativity, and encourages new ideas and techniques in the design and furnishings of interior spaces.

Moon habitation, space robotics and exotic-material 3D printing are just a few of the technologies that will be developed in the Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center (AMAC), a new $80 million research and education facility opened today at The University of Texas at El Paso.

U.S. architecture studio Ayers Saint Gross has created a light-filled visitor center to serve as a gateway for the Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis. Ayers Saint Gross completed the Jack C Taylor Visitor Center, which welcomes one million annual visitors to the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Our Spring 2025 Engage, Create, Enrich newsletter highlights some of our recent and ongoing projects.

The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden has been named to Engineering News-Record's National "Best of the Best" Awards for 2024.

Award-winning interdisciplinary firm Ayers Saint Gross’ design for The University of North Carolina’s Carrington Hall recently broke ground, supporting UNC’s mission to provide a world-class center of teaching, research, and service for nursing students.

At Ayers Saint Gross, we are grateful for our creative and collaborative employee-owners who share their expertise to keep us growing and moving forward. This year, we would like to recognize the following individuals for their well-deserved promotions.  

The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden has been named the winner of the annual Building Museums Symposium's Buildy Award. This prestigious award program, which is hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) recognizes excellence in museum design and innovation across a diverse range of museum types and sizes. 

Principal Kevin Peterson speaks about how Bryant University's choice to expand through adaptive reuse could serve as a case study for other higher ed institutions.

A public-private partnership between American Campus Communities (ACC) and the University of Utah is set to break ground on a $155 million residence hall project on the university’s campus in Salt Lake City. The six-story community will offer 1,400 beds for first- and second-year students.

Ayers Saint Gross, Kevin Daly Architects, and CMG Landscape Architecture recently completed new housing for UC Berkeley graduate students to help meet pent up demand. xučyun ruwway Graduate Student Apartments has 286 units which can house a total 761 students.

Today, officials from UTEP and Sundt Construction held a "topping out" ceremony to celebrate a major construction milestone for Texas Western Hall, the newest learning complex on campus. The event honored the efforts of Sundt construction workers, engineers and architects from Ayers Saint Gross whose work has contributed to Texas Western Hall.

2024 marked a great year for Ayers Saint Gross, as we continued to work with mission-driven clients to create places for shared knowledge and culture around the world.

The Architect's Newspaper included National Aquarium Harbor Wetland in its roundup of 10 notable landscape architecture projects from 2024.

For more than a decade, Ayers Saint Gross has held periodic Collaboration Day events to help employees build connections, share ideas, and have fun. This year’s event, which took place in October, was the first in-person Collaboration Day since 2019, with employees traveling from around the country to Baltimore for two days of workshops and networking.

The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden is featured as the World Building of the Week on world-architects.com.

“Harbor Wetland is an example of how to marry science and art,” said Amelle Schultz, ASLA, PLA, a principal and landscape architect with Ayers Saint Gross. “It leaves no doubt that landscape architecture is a STEM discipline.”

Veteran architect Joel Fidler was recently named the new president of the city-based firm, replacing Luanne Greene, who has held the role since 2016. Fidler, 49, had been a principal and vice president at Ayers Saint Gross prior to his promotion. He will begin as president on Jan. 1.

Joel Fidler, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has been named the new president of interdisciplinary design firm Ayers Saint Gross. Having served as a principal and vice president, and with more than 25 years of experience leading architectural projects, Joel will continue the firm’s long tradition of design excellence for mission-driven clients around the world.  

As the front door to one of the nation’s oldest botanical gardens in continuous operation, the new Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s most important job was to get out of the way and let the 79-acre campus filled with historic architecture and some of the rarest plants on the planet “do the talking.”

Opened in August, the 929-square-metre Harbor Wetland artfully extends the museum's program into the public realm, creating a community space that doubles as a free outdoor exhibition.

Two Ayers Saint Gross projects received 2024 Excellence in Design Awards, with the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center earning the top award of the year.

Veteran architect Adam Gross will retire this fall after a 40-year career at Ayers Saint Gross. Gross joined the firm in 1984 and has helped it grow from eight employees to more than 190 today.

After four decades of groundbreaking work and forward-thinking design, Principal Adam Gross, FAIA, will retire from Ayers Saint Gross this fall. Since his earliest days with the firm, Adam has served as a creative leader, bringing endless energy and commitment to his work.

The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center, which opened in 2023, represents a bold, transformative vision for the Missouri Botanical Garden and its mission.

Ayers Saint Gross principals Dennis Lynch and Cooper Melton and Sustainability Director Allison Wilson were all recently featured in a special report from The Chronicle of Higher Education titled, “Campus Housing for Tomorrow: How to Plan for Student and Institutional Success.”

National Aquarium Harbor Wetland, a floating wetland exhibit that serves as a model for sustainable urban development, has been featured in design outlets around the world, including The Architect's Newspaper, Domus, and Gooood.

Building Design + Construction wrote about the National Aquarium Harbor Wetland, giving credit to Ayers Saint Gross as the designer. Ayers Saint Gross worked with the National Aquarium to design the sustainable, high-performing floating wetland intended to restore natural habitats and improve biodiversity and water quality.

Texas State University hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, Aug. 16, to mark the start of construction on the university’s new STEM classroom building. The 168,000-square-foot building is expected to be operational by fall 2026.

National Aquarium Harbor Wetland was featured in Bloomberg's City Lab. Designed by Baltimore-based architecture firm Ayers Saint Gross, the floating structure is among the largest and most ambitious efforts to clean up urban waterways by tapping the filtering properties of native shrubs and grasses.

Dubbed “The Ridge,” this housing integrates two primary needs highlighted during the university’s master planning: a lack of graduate housing on Emory’s core campus and a space for Emory graduate students to gather and support community building.

Principal Amelle Schultz spoke to Architect's Newspaper about the opening of National Aquarium Harbor Wetland. “We think this approach can be replicated at many other compromised waterfronts to improve environmental health in urban conditions. It’s a great way of connecting people to water, and educating the public about water and ecological issues.”

Earl Purdue, longtime leader of our health sciences studio, is retiring from the firm after more than three decades of service.

Innovation districts can attract and develop talent, nurture startups, create economic opportunities, and address societal challenges in health, climate, and equity. Ayers Saint Gross planned districts, including The Pearl and Cortex Innovation Community, are included in this report on how innovation districts can be successful.