Our Legacy

Perkins Eastman claims a proud legacy, with roots reaching back more than a century when Co-Founder and Chairman Brad Perkins’ grandfather, Dwight Heald Perkins, started an architecture firm in 1897. Dwight later received commissions for the design of two universities in China. Brad’s father, Lawrence Bradford Perkins, would go on to form the global firm Perkins+Will. The third generation would look different, however, when Brad partnered with Mary-Jean Eastman to establish a new firm in 1981. Brad brought experience as a managing partner, and Mary-Jean possessed key skills in managing large projects with programmatically complex buildings. Mary-Jean’s ability to connect with public-sector and healthcare clients, many of whom were women, plus Brad’s acumen for building an international business, added up to a winning partnership that has enabled Perkins Eastman to grow into one of the largest and most respected design firms in the world. Mary-Jean and Brad’s singular focus across all practice areas was—and remains—to have a direct, positive impact on people’s lives and the planet. By offering architecture, interior design, planning, and strategic-consulting services, the firm has grown to more than 1,100 employees and 24 studios around the world. And because so many of our projects are now executed on grand scales, each of them requires many of our core areas of expertise to converge, producing an outcome that’s thoroughly Human by Design. Our design recognition, expertise, and geographic diversity have thus enabled us to work on fascinating assignments in more than 60 countries across five continents earning more than 800 awards along the way and still counting.  All the while, like their own partnership that seemed so novel 40 years ago, Mary-Jean and Brad have fostered a firm culture with a premium on diversity that starts at the top.

1980s

10 DESIGN AWARDS
40 STAFF 1981
7 STATES
6 COUNTRIES

1981 ATTIA & PERKINS

Brad Perkins + Mary-Jean Eastman

Brad Perkins and Mary-Jean Eastman originally met at Llewelyn-Davies International in the 1970s. Brad moved to Perkins + Will in 1977, and Mary-Jean followed a year later. While there, Brad served as the Managing Partner of the Eastern offices while Mary-Jean ran the major design studios. They partnered with Eli Attia to form Attia & Perkins in 1981, which is where the Perkins Eastman story begins.

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    Bradford Perkins

    Co-founder | Chairman

    Bradford Perkins, Co-founder | Chairman

    Brad’s career spans 50 years, and he’s directed major projects in all the firm’s key practice areas across 30 countries. He’s the author of 10 books, including the 2021 publication of The Architect’s Guide to Developing and Managing an International Practice, and he’s lectured at nearly two dozen colleges and universities. He currently serves on the faculty of Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

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    Mary-Jean Eastman

    Co-founder | Vice-Chair

    Mary-Jean Eastman, Co-founder | Vice-Chair

    Since co-founding the firm with Brad Perkins, Mary-Jean has held a career-long commitment to designing and building programmatically complex buildings. Over the past 25 years in particular, she’s largely focused on healthcare projects, enabling great advances in patient-centered care with pioneer clients like the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

1990s

56 DESIGN AWARDS
60 STAFF 1991
18 STATES
5 COUNTRIES

2000s

308 DESIGN AWARDS
395 STAFF 2001
042 STATES
018 COUNTRIES
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      Jeffrey Brand

      Principal | Executive Director
      Healthcare Practice Leader

      Jeffrey Brand, Principal | Executive Director
      Healthcare Practice Leader

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      Daniel Cinelli

      Principal

      Daniel Cinelli, Principal

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    • Francis Gunther

      Principal

      Francis Gunther, Principal

      A former leader in Healthcare

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      Stuart Lachs

      Principal
      Residential Practice Leader

      Stuart Lachs, Principal
      Residential Practice Leader

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      Mark van Summern

      Principal

      Mark van Summern, Principal

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      Jerry Walleck

      Principal
      Managing Principal | Chicago

      Jerry Walleck, Principal
      Managing Principal | Chicago

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    CLT Icon

    2001 Charlotte, NC

    Perkins Eastman merges with MedArc LLC, an architectural firm specializing in Healthcare, thus establishing a presence in Charlotte where we can better respond to growing needs in the Southeast. An additional merger shortly thereafter expanded the practice area to Healthcare Interiors, and in the ensuing 20 years, the Charlotte studio has added Higher Education, K-12 Education, Senior Living, and Commercial Mixed Use to its portfolio.

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    2001 Chicago, IL

    Perkins Eastman acquires the nationally ranked Senior Living architectural and consulting group from the Chicago firm OWP/P to form the core of a new office in the Midwest.

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    2001 Perkins Eastman establishes its first local green committee, a grassroots network that continues to grow in offices across the firm.

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    2001: Building Type Basics for Elementary and Secondary Schools, First Edition, by Brad Perkins

    2001: Brooklyn Supreme & Family Courthouse featured in The New York Times

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    2001 MedArc LLC

    2001 OWP/P Senior Living Group

    2002 Van Summern Group

    2002 Roesch Landscape

  • Timeline 37
    Azerbaijan • Bermuda • Croatia • Czech Republic • Dominican Republic • Ecuador • Great Britain • India • Korea • Qatar • Russia • Senegal • Tanzania • Thailand • Turkey • United Arab Emirates • Ukraine • Vietnam
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    2003: NYC OCME DNA Forensics Biology Lab in the Wall Street Journal: “DNA Paves Way for Crime-Lab Makeovers”

    2003: The Architect’s Guide to Design-Build Services by Brad Perkins (with G. William Quatman II FAIA Esq., Jonathan N. Stark FAIA, and Ranjit Dhar FRAIC)

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    2004: Building Type Basics for Senior Living, First Edition, by Brad Perkins

    2004: China Travels with Perkins Eastman in Architectural Record

     

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    2004 Healthcare Interiors Inc

  • 2005: Building Type Basics for Elementary and Secondary Schools, Chinese Edition, by Brad Perkins

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    2005 Akol Architects

    2005 Larsen Schein Ginsberg Snyder

    2006 Urbanomics

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    2005 Shanghai, China

    After operating for 10 years in China, Perkins Eastman establishes a full-service Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise office in Shanghai. Since that date, the firm has completed 140 million sf of buildings in China.

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    2006 The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum is the first Perkins Eastman project to receive LEED certification, followed shortly after by the Felician Sisters Convent and High School in Coraopolis, PA

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    2007: International Practice for Architects, First Edition, by Brad Perkins

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    2007 Basler Mosa Design Group

    2007 Liebman Melting Partnership

  • Boston

    2007 Boston, MA

    The Boston studio opened to expand Perkins Eastman’s presence and better serve its client base in Northern New England and the Senior Living practice area in particular. The initial Senior Living, Mixed-Use/Residential and Higher Education sectors were later supplemented by K-12 Education when we merged with the Design Partnership of Cambridge in 2016 and Workplace/Interiors with the addition of Packard Design in 2018.

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    2007 Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    As part of the merger with Basler Mosa Design Group, this was our first studio established in the Middle-East/North Africa (MENA) region as Perkins Eastman embarked on the large Park Hyatt resort on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.  The firm has since been recognized among the Top Ten in the Middle East. It provides crucial local management support for MENA-region projects across many practice areas, including Master Planning, Mixed Use, Residential, and Hospitality. That support means that even if a project is being designed in a U.S. studio, the firm can hold client meetings in the local time zone on that project, such as Kuwait University in Kuwait City, and in Saudi Arabia, Aramco’s New Community in South Dhahran and Dallah Hospital in Riyadh.

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    2008: Building Type Basics for Elementary and Secondary Schools, Second Edition, by Brad Perkins

    2008: Building Type Basics for Senior Living, Chinese Edition, by Brad Perkins

    2008: Architect’s Essentials of Starting, Assessing and Transitioning a Design Firm, by Brad Perkins (with Peter Piven)

    2008: Concordia International School Shanghai in Architectural Record

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    2008 Mumbai, India

    The firm establishes a full-service office in Mumbai to serve a wide variety of K-12, Higher Education, Healthcare, Science & Technology, Urban Design, Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial Mixed-Use clients in the South Asian region.

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    2008 Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Perkins Eastman retains an existing group to form the core of an office serving the firm’s growing roster of clients in South America, integrating local professionals with established firmwide practice-area leaders to develop projects in this region of 100 million residents between Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. The office also provides collaborative project support to the firm’s North American locations.

2010s

326 DESIGN AWARDS
500 STAFF 2011
046 STATES
035 COUNTRIES

2020s

100+ DESIGN AWARDS
1,100+ STAFF
46 STATES
8 (and counting) COUNTRIES