Vickie Alani

Vickie believes design is felt as much as it is seen. As both an architect and an interior designer, she views these disciplines as inseparable parts of one continuous experience. To Vickie, it’s a sensory journey that begins before you enter a space and stays with you long after you leave.

Born in Baghdad, Vickie immigrated with her family to England and later to the United States. Growing up, she witnessed firsthand what it takes to rebuild a life across borders and cultures, learning that progress is earned through patience, persistence, and showing up every day.

Art came first. Trained as a painter before earning degrees in fine arts and architecture, Vickie often says “the paintings kept getting bigger,” until space itself became the medium. Today, she is nationally and internationally recognized for her ability to integrate art, architecture, and interior design at every scale. Over a nearly 40-year career, she has worked across a wide range of project types, from academic and multi-family residential to hospitality and corporate/commercial. Whether restoring historic hotel landmarks, creating new seaside developments, or designing destination experiences that span entire city blocks, Vickie contributes regularly to the conversation around changing housing patterns and contemporary lifestyles.

As Managing Director of Perkins&Will’s Boston studio, Vickie leads by building people up. “My role is to create the conditions for good design to happen,” she says. What she calls transformational empathy means giving teams the confidence to take smart risks and stretch creatively. “When people feel supported and trusted, the work speaks for itself.”