Residential

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We design communities that feel like home

We design single and multi-family homes, neighborhoods, planned communities, transit oriented developments, and subdivisions in urban and suburban areas. Balancing carefully the needs of residents and our environment, we want to revitalize existing urban areas, reduce sprawl and land consumption, promote pedestrian activity, encourage efficient water and energy use, and build more livable, sustainable communities for people of all income levels.

Housing satisfies a universal human need, and in that mandate there is the challenge I relish: design solutions at a range of scales, from the individual eye and hand to the macro level of a city.

James Gray Senior Principal, Architecture

Inside a micro-unit

Researching living small and sharing more to help create affordable urban housing

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Aeron Hodges

As our urban living environment gets denser and denser over time, it's more important to find out where can people congregate, where can people take time off outside of their individual living units.

Back in April of this year, 2016, we started an international design competition, a call for entry to design a social space.

Fred Kramer

We felt that there was a mismatch between what was being offered to consumers and what the consumer really wanted. Given all of the students and younger people that we're wanting to keep in our communities, rather than the brain drain of having them move to other places that are less expensive, we attacked with some of our best and brightest young professionals the issue of urban-housing affordability.

The research group set out trying to solve the affordable housing crisis in cities like Boston by thinking "living small and sharing more" as the model.

We decided to host a competition to invite bigger voices, not just from within Stantec, within the city of Boston, but over the whole world. We challenged the designers from around the globe to answer the question of what is a successful social space for urban dwellers who is now living closer and closer to each other?

Billy Craig

The winner was going to be able to show their design, showcase their design on the show floor at ABX, which is the second largest gathering for the design and construction industry in the country.

And it's really important to note that, while we at the Boston Society of Architects and the ABX team can create this platform and this stage to showcase emerging professionals and a point of view on this evolving idea of social space, that we need support from the firms to be able to allow their employees to give the time and also to fund enterprises like this. We can provide a great platform but we can't always provide the funds to make this happen. Stantec has proven to be a phenomenal partner in that regard. They really empower their young professionals to be able to pursue things of interest to them that are also very relevant to the firm. And I think it benefits everybody.

Fred

It's incredibly valuable, at the end of the day, not only for Stantec, but for our clients. It's a wonderful way for people to engage with one another who have never worked together in the past. It's a wonderful way for us to glean from the work that the research teams do to be able to advise our clients.

Aeron

A lot of friends ask people on our team how we're able to achieve doing design research on top of day to day project work. It's only possible because the leadership from Stantec and the R&D fund has put a focus on promoting what's innovative about our practice. To me and to people on our team, it's a really important resource. I think to the architecture community and the greater community, it's a gift to everybody that's involved.

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City building: How to use place-making to get intensification right

Urban resurgence and intensification aren’t just for big cities Read More
We believe that a community’s potential is limitless
#3
Top 500 Firm
#3
Top 160 Firm
890+
Communities
6,000+
Projects

Engineering News Record ranked us third out of the Top 500 General Buildings, Multi-Family firms in 2020.
Building Design + Construction ranked us third out of the Top 160 Architecture and Architecture/Engineering Firms in 2020.
We served more than 890 communities in 2020.
We worked on more than 6,000 single and multi-family infrastructure, buildings, and environmental services projects in 2020.

Services


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Architecture We create spaces that are engaging and uplifting, that contribute to our collective sense of health and well-being, and encourage the sustainable stewardship of our communities.
Visioning. Brands. Experiences. We create tangible, experiential, and memorable places. Transformative experiences that enhance real estate values and bring people back to a place again and again.
Design Visualization Through design visualization, we help clients and stakeholders picture the building they’ll work in, the bridge they’ll drive over, and the neighborhood their kids will play in.
Buildings Engineering With decades of innovation and experience under our belts we’re engineering a promising future leveraging the best in building systems, technology, energy analysis, and sustainable performance.
Land Use Planning We provide responsible planning by creating careful and thoughtful options for right now as well as for the future that take into account site conditions, public input, client needs, and project requirements.
Public Participation We develop and execute communication and consultation plans that allow people affected by change to understand, influence, and accept it.
Urban Planning & Design Our plans help harness the forces reshaping North American communities. We create places that are authentic, green, walkable, connected and diverse.  
Land Development Engineering We transform land by taking into account physical site conditions, public expectations, fiscal requirements, and environmental constraints.
Landscape Architecture Whether it's an urban park, a restored wetland, an athletic complex, or a waterfront destination--through analysis, planning, and design, we create inspired landscapes that reflect context and user needs.
Surveying & Mapping Using tools like GPS, GIS, 3D laser scanners, and aerial photogrammetry we provide surveying and mapping to define land boundaries, earth’s physical features, and the built environment.
Interior Design As humans, we spend a significant portion of our daily lives inside. We believe our emotional and physical well-being is dramatically impacted by the places where we live, work, and play.

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    Work with passionate people who are experts in their field. Our teams love what they do and are driven by how their work makes an impact on the communities they serve.