Tessa Kelly and Chris Parkinson lead ARCADE, a community-driven design practice based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and Troy, New York. Our work interweaves architecture, landscape, urbanism, research, happenings, and art.
ARCADE took shape after we founded The Mastheads, a public design project enabled by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014. That grant brought us back to our native Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, and expanded our conception of the role of architect. To create The Mastheads, we acted as designers, general contractors, fundraisers, graphic designers, community organizers, gallerists, education consultants, researchers, historians, and collaborators with partners across the municipal, educational, and academic landscape of the area.
Ten years later, we continue to be architects as community organizers. We ground our projects in local history and heritage, and produce architecture and associated programming that is participatory, celebratory, and that connects us to stories of the past while building a vision for the future. We create work that engages with the urban fabric of our post-industrial cities, and also build projects that are anchored in an understanding of the natural environments that surround them.
Tessa grew up in Pittsfield, MA and received a B.A. from Williams College and an M.Arch degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has taught at the Yale School of Architecture, Williams College, and the Princeton School of Architecture. She is currently working on a doctoral degree in Built Ecologies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy. Chris grew up in Williamstown, MA and received a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.Arch degree from the Yale School of Architecture. He has taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and currently teaches in the studio art department at Williams College.
Our in-house team includes architects Laura Quan and Taelinn Lamontagne. Current collaborators include poet Sarah Trudgeon, community organizers Tony Jackson and Marvin Purry, landscape architect Zenobia Meckley, and gardener and genealogist Twink Williams Burns. Past collaborators have included literary scholar Jeff Lawrence, urban planner Tanushri Kumar, community organizer Alisa Costa, building scientist Mae-Ling Lokko, architect Zac Culbreth, and horticulturalist Dorthe Hviid.
Institutional partners and clients include Williams College, MASS MoCA, The Clark, Roots Rising, Multicultural BRIDGE, Hoosic River Revival, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Williamstown Rural Lands, Habitat for Humanity, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and Hancock Shaker Village.
Contact Us:
INFO@group-au.com
