Architecture elevates the everyday through contours of space and material animated by light for heightened awareness of time and nature.
Beth O’Neill and Chris McVoy formed O’Neill McVoy Architects in 2012 to make transformative architecture by catalyzing the latent potentials of a project – the special qualities of site, the client’s aspirations, and cultural exigencies. The studio’s award-winning built work and theoretical proposals include residential, commercial and institutional buildings realized in collaboration with private and public clients.
Methodology
‘Scenious’ is the intelligence and intuition of a whole operation or group of people… let’s forget the idea of ‘genius’ for a little while, let’s think about the whole ecology of ideas that give rise to good new throughs and good new work. Brian Eno
...there are no rules here; we’re trying to accomplish something. Thomas Edison
Aims
SPACE > object
FLOW > stasis
‘THISNESS’ > image
MATERIAL > surface
Architecture without NATURE is meaningless
Priorities
- Resistance: Pursue modes of development that foreground the COMMUNAL, instead of private, financially driven models
- Mini-utopias: Focus idealism for a specific PLACE (not universal)
- Ecological: Address climate change
Beth O’Neill runs the practice, bringing 25 years of experience realizing ambitious residential and commercial projects in the New York area. Prior to starting OM, O’Neill was a project architect completing ambitious residential and commercial projects with New York-based offices WORKac, PM Wheelwright Associates, and Rogers Marvel Architects, where she was an associate for eight years. O’Neill, a graduate of Smith College, Parsons School of Design and Columbia University, is a registered architect and professor of undergraduate architecture at Pratt Institute.
Chris McVoy co-pilots studio. He is Senior Partner of Steven Holl Architects where he has led with Steven Holl several internationally recognized, award-winning cultural and university projects including Museum of Fine Arts Houston Campus Expansion, The REACH Expansion of the Kennedy Center, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Bloch Building, VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art, The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, and Columbia University’s Campbell Sports Center. McVoy holds a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.
Ruso Margishvili joined O’Neill McVoy Architects in 2013 after graduating from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Master of Architecture program. Ruso was promoted to Associate in 2016 and serves as Project Architect for OM’s cultural and institutional projects. She previously worked in architecture firms in Tbilisi, Georgia where she grew up. Ruso holds a B. Arch from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
Irmak Ciftci joined O'Neill McVoy Architects in 2021 as a Designer. She studied architecture at Pratt Institute, where she received a B.Arch and was a research assistant for Pratt's Interdisciplinary Technology Lab, providing ion fabrication and material experimentation. Prior to joining OM, Irmak worked in small firms in New York and Turkey.
