Ethos
Macy Architecture realizes innovative approaches to housing at the creative intersection of DESIGN, FINANCE, POLITICS, and TECHNOLOGY.
Macy Architecture's Four Elements of Housing Design
1. DESIGN
Based on social and historical research, Macy Architecture’s innovative housing typologies consistently reach toward the goals of social cohesion, density, and urban life quality.
2. FINANCE
At Macy Architecture we believe that “form follows finance;” rather than working at cross-purposes to the economics of a project, the financing mechanisms and constraints are a prime determinant in a housing project’s typology and design.
3. POLITICS
Macy Architecture is expert at navigating community concerns and the challenging entitlement processes common in the Bay Area, and beyond, to create an entitlement path that acknowledges and uses these forces to our project's advantage.
4. TECHNOLOGY
Macy Architecture has extensive knowledge and deep experience that facilitates cost-effective construction solutions for our projects, and always pursues innovation, where appropriate, to increase a project’s capacity.
OUR APPROACH
Macy Architecture directly engages the financial and political contexts of its projects. All housing design begins with a thorough investigation that integrates typology, and Building and Planning Codes, with the financial priorities of each project and developer to determine a site’s optimal development capacity. This work is documented in a unique format that we call a Development Capacity Analysis.
Macy architecture is an award winning design practice that specializes in programmatic, spatial, and typological innovations that are grounded in social and historical research, as well as a command of Building Codes.
Macy Architecture prides itself in our knowledge of planning code which allows us to use it as a tool to advance our clients’ goals, rather than as a constraint to react to. In 2016 Macy architecture achieved entitlement for San Francisco’s first market-rate housing project to utilize the State Bonus Density Law to increase density.
Macy Architecture has extensive knowledge and deep experience that facilitates cost-effective construction solutions for our projects, and always pursues innovation, where appropriate, to increase a project’s capacity.