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History of the Firm   Begun in 1990 by John Hayden, the firm has produced hundreds of projects, employed many, and provided internship for over 20 young intern architects. John's 40 years of practice has included architecture, historic adaptive reuse projects, interior design projects, town planning, and urban design.

Preservation & Adaptive Reuse   For over a decade the firm has been located in historic Newtown Borough, a settlement founded by William Penn in 1684. The result has been the firm's acquired expertise in renovation of historic structures and adaptive reuse. When a general practice firm, five years in a row the firm’s work received a local or state preservation award. Our most notable preservation project is the Stocking Works - a certified historic rehabilitation with the National Park Service that transformed the industrial building into modern offices. The project was honored by the PA Historical and Museum Commission and local awards.

Educational Design   Having been a facility architect for a community college, K-12 school district, and a national preschool consortium the firm has extensive experience in educational projects. Services have included ADA compliance studies, facility programing, facility documentation, facility planning, renovation design, library design, and new building design.

Approach   We favor dichotomous compositions over singular vocabulary solutions. This approach is to set up contrasting form vocabularies as counterpoints to each other. Then, to place them in close proximity or intertwine them to create a composition of interest. This varied vocabulary develops naturally from the proposed program (differing uses articulated), building context (new in an old context), or construction technology (modern in a traditional structure). When applied to historic structures we refer to "preservation through respectful contrast" where new elements are distinctive from the original building.

Project Types  We design architectonic elements. We do integrated projects where the furniture and lighting design is integral with the interior and building design. At the other end of the spectrum, urban design projects have included the design of small towns and the redevelopment of large areas of existing cities.

Ambition   We strive to make an enduring creative contribution through our built work and make our children proud of us.