The best design solutions come from diverse design teams.
Creative synergy happens when people from different walks of life collaborate on equal footing. When underrepresented voices are heard—and valued.
We’re on a mission to diversify the design profession and create a more just, equitable, and inclusive world. Because when it comes to excellence in design, there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all.
There’s more to it than “diversity and inclusion.”
Setting a goal to achieve diversity and inclusion is a good first step. But collectively, we have to do more. We have to go further.
Our clients, colleagues, and communities deserve to partner with a design firm that stands by them—that advocates for them—every step of the way. They expect an unwavering commitment to social justice and equity, and to more inclusive engagement.
By actively engaging diverse groups, we ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute to a project meaningfully and with purpose.
We’re working hard to become a firm that truly and completely reflects the diversity of our clients and communities around the world. To serve as a model of social justice and equity in our profession. Our culture welcomes everyone just as they are—because inclusion drives creativity, and engagement spurs innovation. We’re committed to meaningful change, and together, we can be the change we want to see.
Our Justice, Equity, Engagement, Diversity, and Inclusion (J.E.D.I.) program is rooted in an ethos that celebrates differences, encourages participation, and ensures everyone is treated fairly.
No matter your age, background, culture, ethnicity, gender identity, language, physical ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, size, or socioeconomic status, you belong here. Your voice matters.
–Gabrielle Bullock, Principal, Chief Diversity Officer
It’s one thing to say we’re going to do something. It’s another thing to actually do it. That’s why we established the design industry’s first J.E.D.I. Council—to ensure we hold ourselves to account.
Led by our Chief Diversity Director Gabrielle Bullock, the Council is made up of a rotating cross-section of diverse staff from around the world. It’s responsible for maintaining a culture and set of business best practices that celebrate human differences in everything we do.
Scroll through the photos on the right to meet our J.E.D.I. Council members.
Our commitment to diversity in architecture, design, and construction (AEC) doesn’t end with our firm. Real change happens at scale. Our focus on working with diverse partners ensures hands-on collaboration with disadvantaged and minority-owned providers and manufacturers, including women-owned and LGBTQIA+ businesses, at the earliest stages of a project. This kind of strategic partnership—we call it CoCreate—catalyzes economic growth and accelerates entrepreneurial innovation in the communities we serve. And, it gives talented—yet often unsung—local business leaders a chance to shine.
By teaming with entrepreneurs who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC); as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+); as women; and/or as individuals living with a disability; we can amplify the diversity of the AEC workforce, enrich the design experience, and give the communities in which we work a meaningful economic boost.
Launched in 2021, the Equity in Design Mentorship Program with the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) aims to promote a more inclusive design culture. Originally conceived by students and Perkins&Will professionals at the GSD’s 2019 Black in Design Conference, the mentorship program fills a critical educational and career gap in the design profession by fostering meaningful and lasting relationships starting as early as high school.
—Whytne Stevens, GSD student, organizing member of the Equity in Design Mentorship Program
This national fellowship for African American and other under-represented students stems from a partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and our late colleague Phil Freelon. Introduced in 2016, the Phil Freelon Fellowship provides expanded academic opportunities to students of color, and helps fill the profession’s talent pipeline with more diverse designers.
–Aria Griffin, the first Phil Freelon Fellow
The Nagle-Johnson Family Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD)—established in 2018 by our firm’s Global Design Director, Ralph Johnson, and his wife Kathleen—provides financial aid to under-represented GSD students with the aim of expanding their academic and career prospects.
-Jonathan Boyce, 2020-2021 Nagle-Johnson Family Fellow
The Cornell Future Architect Award is a merit-based award that gives under-represented high school students the opportunity to attend Cornell’s Introduction to Architecture Program, at no cost. The program introduces students to the rigors of a bachelor of architecture degree program and helps them prepare a competitive portfolio. The award was established in 2016.
Launched in 2023, the awards support our commitment to reconciliation in Canada. Matched by the national charity Indspire, the annual scholarships are awarded to two students enrolled in the Bachelor and Master programs at Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture. Recipients are also awarded an internship in our Vancouver or Calgary studio.
The world won’t change if people don’t come together to talk about the issues that matter. Having respectful dialogues about uncomfortable topics is—we feel—one of the most important things we can do.
In August 2020, as the U.S. was reeling in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Black men and women, we hosted a global conversation on race and equity in design. Moderated by Dahmahlee Lawrence, an architect in our New York studio, the discussion focused on the historically negative impacts of architecture on Black communities in the U.S.—and on what we can do now to effect positive change. Click on the video to the left to watch the recording.