PRINCIPAL

Lawrence D McEwen brings over 40 years of experience in master planning, architecture, preservation, and the design of interior environments, to the opportunities presented by his clients.  His work has won professional awards in all these categories, across the United States and abroad, including proposed and realized multi-block master planning in Philadelphia, PA, Washington, DC, and San Francisco, CA, and at the unrealized US State Department-sponsored 34-building campus outside Kabul, Afghanistan.  His academic and educational work has extended across Pennsylvania, and he has designed private residences in 7 states.

His 27-year Chestnut Hill-based architectural practice has been recognized for both modern interventions and preservation at historically significant sites including Wyck, Druim Moir, Green Street Monthly Meeting, and St. Martin-in-the-Fields EC, where the firm has assisted organizations and individuals to achieve their aspirations and enhance connections with their respective communities.

In 35 years of teaching urban design, architecture, building systems, and interior design, first at Drexel U and now at Thomas Jefferson University East Fall’s Center for Architecture & the Built Environment, he has taught several generations of students, focusing on the interdependent relationship of built form and landscape, a design attitude consistent with the great physical strength and beauty of his Chestnut Hill place of residence. 

He has been involved continuously in community service since moving there in 1990, and continues to apply his professional expertise as a practicing architect and teacher, and the experience of 29 years on the Land Use Planning & Zoning Committee, collaborating with his fellow committee members and numerous applicants to find mutually beneficial solutions that have positively shaped all major development within the Community during that time.  For this work, and his leadership in the Community’s negotiations with Chestnut Hill College’s Sugarloaf Campus expansion, he received the 2011 Chestnut Hill Award, the Community Association’s highest award for volunteer service.

FOUNDING

In 1996, after 20 years of professional practice in Architecture, Master Planning, and Public Open Space design. Since then we have been responsible for the design and documentation of over $100 million of construction in 7 states and 2 countries on 2 continents.

PROJECT TYPES AND CLIENT GROUPS

  • Respectful, forward-looking interventions at historic sites

  • Private and public academic/educational institutions 

  • Community development/non-profit organizations

  • Corporate and research entities 

  • Libraries, both Public and Private 

  • Single and multi-family residential projects

SERVICES

A comprehensive range of architectural services, including:

  • Pre-Design: Programming, Existing Facilities Surveys, Site Evaluation, Budgeting, Master Planning, Feasibility Studies

  • Design: Open Space Design, New Building Design, Additions/Renovations and Restorations, Interior Architectural Design, Exhibit Design, Furniture Design, Graphics 

  • Construction: Administration, On-Site Project Representation, Record Drawings

  • Post-Occupancy: Post-Occupancy Evaluations, Facilities Management

RECOGNITION

 Our Work has been recognized for its value to the profession and to the public on a range of projects, exemplified by the following:

  • New Visions for Penn’s Landing, a volunteer effort to re-shape Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront, organized and sponsored by Penn Praxis and The Inquirer:

    Co-designer, along with Robert Brown, and Jose Alminana, FASLA, of the ‘winning vision’, as voted upon by the public attendants of the final presentation, of this 2003 event which has shaped the thinking for development there since that time. 

  • Wistar Conference Center Pavilion,

    People’s Choice Award, 2006 Philadelphia Chapter AIA Design Awards Program

  • The Education Place and Visitor Facilities at Wyck, an Historic House Museum and Garden, Design Awards: Honor Award, 2004 Pennsylvania Society of Architects Recognition Award, 2003 Philadelphia Chapter AIA.

  • Hopkins Terrace, St Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church,

    Preservation Recognition Award, 2017; Chestnut Hill Conservancy 

  • The Benchmark Middle School and Performing Arts Center, Honor Award in the 2004 Chesapeake Bay Chapter AIA Design Awards Program.

  • McCabe Library, Swarthmore College, 2002 Craftsmanship Award in the Construction Excellence Program from the General Building Contractors Association of Philadelphia. 

  • Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade, completed under Mr. McEwen’s direction, while at a previous firm, for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in 1993: numerous awards, including two AIA Honor Awards, the 1999 Rudy Bruner Gold Medal Award for Urban Excellence, and the Urban Land Institute 2001 Award for Excellence, Grand Prize.

  • Chestnut Hill Award, 2011, Mr. McEwen received the highest award for volunteer service given by the CH Community Association, for his involvements including Chair, Community negotiation to revise Chestnut Hill College’s Sugarloaf Campus Master Plan, 2009-11; additional contributions include: CHCA Board of Directors, VP of Physical Division 2014-16, 2020-present; Co-Chair, Development Review Committee, 2005-present; Land Use Planning & Zoning Committee, 1993-2022.