Higher Education

Our Higher Education Practice is making a better future possible by planning and designing inspiring places where campus communities live, work, play, innovate, and learn. We believe that good design is transformative, and architecture can bring about positive outcomes for learning and research.

Committed to collaboration

We craft each project through inclusive thinking, offering creative approaches that yield inventive results. In this way, we create transformative places that are thoughtfully tailored to culture, pedagogy, and the campus experience. Each project has the potential to become a catalyst to advance an institution’s mission and to nurture and inspire future generations.

MIT's Schwarzman College of Computing serves as a dynamic, flexible, and inviting hub for education and research. Dave Burk © SOM

Part of an SOM-led master plan, this pair of residence halls at UCSB balances the need for quiet study with inclusive social spaces. © Bruce Damonte

The Wellesley College Science Complex transforms an outdated science center into an inviting, integrated, sustainable, and flexible village for teaching and learning. Dave Burk © SOM

Stony Brook University and SOM’s New York Climate Exchange will anchor the Center for Climate Solutions on Governors Island. © SOM | miysis

The University of California, Merced is the first public research institution to achieve carbon neutrality. © Dave Burk | SOM

Meet our experts

Carrie Byles

Managing Partner

Colin Koop

Design Partner

Douglas Voigt

Urban Design and Planning Partner

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Featured Projects + Stories

Each project requires its own unique design solution, rooted in the principles that guide our work: serving an institutional mission, supporting evolving academic needs, and contributing to a sustainable future.