hMa is a progressive, design-oriented firm focused on the creation of exceptional buildings and cities.

hMa is an internationally recognized design firm that has designed and constructed buildings known for their memorable image, material and structural precision and spatial quality. They have designed buildings and spaces at numerous scales, from individual clients to educational institutions and private organizations to large public agencies overseeing the creation of public buildings and new neighborhoods. Their work is recognized with numerous awards and publications, and they have designed one of the most important communities in the world; the North Neighborhood of Battery park City in New York, the world's first sustainably designed high-rise neighborhood. New projects include a chapel in Greenwich Village, a Buddhist campus in upstate New York and a Community Center at Battery Park City.


hMa's expertise at building and urban design scales demonstrates the leadership and collaborative abilities needed to create both architectural and civic designs. Their firm believes in innovation and quality at every level, pursuing new solutions and technologies to meet the needs of creative institutions and individual clients. Their work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art and in numerous galleries and publications worldwide. Individual clients appreciate contemporary design, and have access to the firm’s resources including material research, sustainable design, and their unique approach to integrating landscape and dwelling. Their architectural vision has reached both arts and religious organizations, and their understanding of campuses and cities has led them to numerous educational clients and city agencies.

hMa’s work has received wide critical acclaim. The AIA NYChapter has given hMa twenty-two design awards. hMa has also been honored with six PA Design Awards, as well as MIT’s McDermott Award for Design Excellence, and an Award for Design Excellence for Hunts Point Community Center.

hMa is committed to sustainable design. Founded in 1987 the firm came to national prominence almost immediately with their winning design for the Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center. This building was an unprecedented, sustainably designed building featuring a solar panel array as the building entrance canopy, in addition to other sustainable features. hMa gives 2% of the firm’s profits to Nature Conservation groups as an offset to the firm’s construction projects. hMa are currently architects for a Platinum LEED Community Center at Battery Park City, with completion planned for 2011.

hanrahanMeyers’ portfolio of recently completed award-winning public projects includes WaveLine, a small multi-purpose performance pavilion in Queens, New York and Pratt Pavilion, a new campus center for Pratt Institute’s main campus in Brooklyn, New York. WaveLine was recognized for design excellence with an AIA NYChapter Design Award. Pratt Pavilion received a Design Award from the NY Architectural League, and was featured in the League’s ‘New York Designs’ lecture series in 2007. Phaidon Press will feature Pratt Pavilion in the upcoming Atlas of 21st Century Architecture.

second commission for the same client and is the rural counterpart to the urban loft.

Ecological FormBy integrating nature and minimalism into their work, hMa accomplishes the most with the least means:  extensive natural light, buildings set into topography, renewable energy sources and local materials .  hMa’s practice began when partners Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan came to international attention after designing the winning entry in the design competition for Chattanooga Nature Interpretive Center.  hMa’s winning entry was arguably the first ecologically designed museum in the world, and set the tone for their practice and their ongoing dialogue between nature, art, and minimalism.

Office Research

Research by hMa include investigations into sound and sound waves (WaveLine;  Ojai Festival Shell);  research into techniques for stone wall construction (Holley House);  research into vision and sight as they relate to formal constructions (See-Thru House);  research into light and shadow to coordinate the placement of architectural program in space (Queens Museum of Art;  Won Buddhist Retreat);  Research into the fabrication of sound waves into visual patterns in order to allow visitors to inhabit sound, visually (Battery Park City Community Center);  Research into the development of pre-stressed and failed materials in the design of a dwelling (Dune House);  Research into the use of pre-fabricated elements to create dwelling (Pre-Fab House).  The firm’s researches into these areas are in the process of being collected for hMa’s next book.

hMa is a certified WBE.