Cambridge Seven Associates

Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. (C7A) is an American architecture firm founded in 1962 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The original seven partners, Lou Bakanowsky, Ivan Chermayeff, Peter Chermayeff, Alden Christie, Paul Dietrich, Tom Geismar, and Terry Rankine applied their diverse skills in architecture, planning, exhibit design, graphics, industrial design, and filmmaking to create a single design studio founded on the conviction that each assignment, at any scale, would be an opportunity to apply fresh thinking in search of creative solutions. The firm was founded upon the idea that the collaborative efforts of a varied group of designers and architects would be far more effective than those of any one individual. In writing about the firm, the architecture critic Robert Campbell stated, "From the start, the Seven set out to combine architecture with the other design arts - with exhibits, with graphics, and signage, with public art, with product design, with film, even with city planning. Most of their work is a collaboration among many disciplines..." The practice won the American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award in 1993, and was described by the AIA Committee on Design as "an influential and stimulating example, demonstrating new directions of professional practice."

Contents

• Museums and aquariums
• Exhibits
• Academic
• Civic
• Hospitality
• Commercial
• References

C7A’s current practice is led by principals Peter Kuttner, Ronald Baker, Stefanie Greenfield, Steve Imrich, Patricia Intrieri, Gary Johnson, Timothy Mansfield, Marc Rogers, and CFO José Silveira, who continue to apply the firm’s collaborative approach and carry forward the ideals that launched the firm more than fifty years ago. Cambridge Seven Associates has undertaken work in architecture, urban design, planning, exhibitions, graphic, and interior design. The firm has executed a diverse range of building types including academic, museum, exhibit, hospitality, transportation, retail, office, and aquarium facilities. C7A has practiced throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with an annual revenue of over US$26 million in 2014.