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P R O F I L E
The Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Executive Education Center, Harvard Business School. / Goody Clancy
Change agent Ireland-raised David Spillane likes both the past and the future, kayaking in the sea, and doing whatever it takes to keep his firm nimble.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
David Spillane: Over the past 10 years, we’ve ex- panded geographically and our areas of special- ization have grown deeper. We’re working nation- ally with colleges and universities on science and technology facilities, business schools, student life buildings, makerspaces and innovation centers, and campus plans. In our preservation practice, we have worked on more than a dozen National His- toric Landmarks and are central to the federal gov- ernment’s single largest project this year, the trans- formation of St. Elizabeths Hospital to the new headquarters for Homeland Security. Our planning practice was recognized by the American Planning Association with its National Planning Excellence Award for a Firm in 2013, a very prestigious honor. Our organizational model has evolved, and that’s made a significant impact. We’re nimbler and bet- ter able to adapt and make better, faster decisions on issues – big and small. We used to operate en- tirely on a consensus-based model; today, we re- main highly collaborative, but it’s my job to ensure lack of consensus does not lead to inaction and missed opportunity. We’re also increasingly transparent within our firm See Q&A, page 4
L ike many of his colleagues, David Spillane, pres- ident of Goody Clancy (#7 Best Firm Architec- ture), a 75-person architecture, planning and pres- ervation firm, went to Boston to attend graduate school. Raised in Ireland, he arrived in Bean Town after working in Dublin and London. His roots are in architecture, but over the course of his career his practice evolved to focus on planning and urban de- sign. In 2000, he joined Boston-based Goody Clancy as director of planning and urban design, became a principal in 2007, and president in 2014. “As a leader of our planning practice, my work cen- tered on working with large groups of people to en- vision change, build a coalition for change, and ex- ecute change,” he says. A CONVERSATION WITH SPILLANE. The Zweig Letter: What are some of the most sig- nificant changes you have seen within the firm since you have been there?
David Spillane, President, Goody Clancy
THE ZWEIG LETTER October 10, 2016, ISSUE 1171
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