Forty-Six Years of Beautiful Places

OLSON LEWIS + Architects began in a North Shore living room on November 10, 1980. What started as a two-person practice has grown into a firm of architects, planners, and interior designers serving education, residential, hospitality, life sciences, and animal care clients across New England and beyond. This is the story of how a deliberate decision to skip Cambridge for Manchester-by-the-Sea turned into Beautiful Places.

The 1980s: Founding Olson Lewis Architects on Boston's North Shore

On November 10, 1980, John Olson left a secure position at a Cambridge firm and opened a two-person office in his Manchester-by-the-Sea living room. Randy Lewis, his classmate from Harvard's Graduate School of Design, joined as co-founder. They made a deliberate choice from the start: the world did not need another Cambridge architecture firm. The North Shore did. The early years of the practice were anchored by a single client, the Sonnabend family of Sonesta International Hotels, whose concept, commitment, and financial trust made the firm possible. By the close of the decade, the office held hotels in the Caribbean, a Greek-temple showroom in New Haven, and the first stones of a residential portfolio that would come to define the firm's coastal voice.

November 10, 1980 — A Firm Begins

1980

“John said when we began that the world didn’t need another Cambridge architecture firm.”

Randy Lewis — The North Shore Decision

1980

The First Office — John Olson’s Living Room

1980

John Olson and Randy Lewis — Harvard GSD Classmates

1980

Charrette Showroom — A Greek Temple in a Foundry

1982

Original Logo — Adapted from the Charrette Frieze

1982

Island Retreat, Key Largo — The First Residential Commission

1983

Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston — The Anchor Commission

1984

17 Elm Street — A Front Door of Its Own

1984

Harvard University Chemistry Labs — The First Life Sciences Commission

1986

The 1990s: Four Partners, Four Markets, and the Birth of Immersion

The 1990s is the decade the firm becomes itself. Arthur Dioli, who joined the practice in the early 1980s, is named partner. Chris Doktor follows. With four partners on the door, the firm files a new name: Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor Architects & Planners. The same decade opens two new practice areas. Brookwood School in Manchester-by-the-Sea becomes the firm's first independent school client and sets the foundation for what will become a defining Education practice. Randy Lewis takes a single early lab commission and grows it into the Life Sciences practice that, by the next decade, will hold names like Millennium, Alnylam, and the Broad Institute. Chris Doktor develops a planning methodology called Immersion, built on deep interviews with trustees, faculty, parents, students, and alumni. It will be taught at national conferences before the decade is out. International hospitality work, anchored by the Sonesta relationship, opens doors in Aruba, Curaçao, Bermuda, Anguilla, and Sanibel.

Bay State Architect to Design Hotels in Egypt — Boston Globe, 1990

1990

Brookwood School — The First Independent School Client

1992

Art Dioli — Named Partner

1994

Sonesta Beach Resort & Casino Opens — Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

1994

Mullen Advertising at Penguin Hall — A Lindeberg Estate Rebuilt

1995

Brighton District Courthouse — A 1927 Neoclassical Restoration

1996

Curaçao Marriott Beach Resort — Hospitality Goes International

1997

I believe that architecture should reflect the surrounding environment both built and natural. Every architectural project is an opportunity to heal the environment by continuing patterns in the architectural and natural landscape.

Chris Doktor, Architect

Chris Doktor — On Architecture and Place

1998

“OLD&D met with groups of students, faculty, administrators, trustees, and parents to get a sense of school culture from a broad range of the school’s constituencies. This resulted in a plan that has proven to embody the vision and needs of many effectively.”

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Jock Burns, Director of Finance and Operations, Pingree School

Pingree School Master Plan — South Hamilton, 1999

1999

It’s stylish, but not pretentious. It’s exactly the house we had hoped to create.

Seaside Escape client

Steve Dodge — Seaside Escape Client

1999

The 2000s: Twenty-Five Years and a Next Generation

The 2000s is the decade the firm reaches institutional maturity. By 2005, the practice holds nearly four million square feet of New England scientific architecture and interiors, and the 25th Anniversary book is published to mark the milestone. The Broad Institute opens in Cambridge the same year, completed by Randy Lewis as the capstone of his Life Sciences practice and the closing chapter of its founding era. Chris Doktor's Immersion Process, now a decade old, is being taught at state and national conferences and shaping master plans for some of New England's most respected independent schools. In Wellesley, Tenacre Country Day School begins what will become the firm's longest single-school relationship, a partnership running through 2025. Brookwood School returns for its Meeting House and a trademarked "science gymnasium." Belmont Day School's head Lenesa Leana describes a campus integrated into a cohesive community. By decade's end, Michele Brooks is taking the lead on a new generation of Life Sciences work, the first deliberate handoff in the firm's history.

Tenacre Country Day School — A Twenty-Five-Year Relationship Begins

2000

Manchester Yacht Club Rebuild — 2001

2001

Millennium Pharmaceuticals — From Auto Plant to Biotech Headquarters

2002

Tucks Point — A Civic Harbor Landmark Restored

2002

Cubist Pharmaceuticals — Lexington, 2003

2003

Windover Development — Wenham, 2003

2003

Chris Doktor — Named Partner

2003

Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor — Four Names on the Door

2003

Brookwood School Meeting House — The ‘Science Gymnasium’

2003

The Immersion Process — A National Methodology

2003

Belmont Day School — Building a Cohesive Community

2003

Open communication and connecting people together is reflected throughout. All parts of the campus are now integrated into a cohesive community.

Lenesa Leana — Belmont Day School Head

2004

Turner Hill Clubhouse — A 19th-Century Mansion Reimagined

2004

The architecture must fit into the environment. It needs to be contextual, it needs to look like the architect has never been there and the architecture always has.

John Olson — Design Manifesto

2005

The Broad Institute — A Life Sciences Bridge to the Next Generation

2005

The 25th Anniversary Book — A Quarter Century in Print

2005

Anika Therapeutics — The Next Generation Takes the Lead

2007

The 2010s: The Rebrand, the Beauport, and a Firm Built for Fifty Years

The 2010s opens with the firm's most consequential identity decision since its founding. At the 30th Anniversary, the four-name lockup Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor Architects & Planners is retired. In its place: OLSON LEWIS + Architects, anchored by a new Column Mark and a deliberate "+" signaling a firm larger than any one generation of its partners. In Gloucester, the Beauport Hotel opens in 2016 as John Olson's capstone hospitality project. In Cambridge and along Route 128, the Life Sciences practice deepens with Foundation Medicine, Cubist, Translate Bio, and internationally with Anika Therapeutics in Italy. The Education studio reaches full stride at Shore Country Day School's Larry A. Griffin Center, the Derby Academy Innovation Center, and master plans at Pingree and Tenacre. Singing Beach Club brings hospitality home to Manchester-by-the-Sea. By decade's end, OL+ is no longer the firm it was when the rebrand began. It is the firm it chose to become.

Foundation Medicine — Genomics and Precision Medicine

2011

OLSON LEWIS + Architects — The 2012 Rebrand

2012

The Column Mark — A New Logo for OLSON LEWIS + Architects

2012

Cubist Pharmaceuticals — A Life Sciences Continuity

2012

Shore Center for Creativity — The Heartbeat of a Campus

2013

It is like an art room for non art teachers. You can do anything in here.

Adam Norcott — Derby Academy

2014

Derby Academy Innovation Center — A Decade Defined

2014

I've been working in the Life Science Biotech Industry since 1997 and have been involved with countless construction projects with my level of responsibilities maturing over the same time period. It was nine years ago when I was first introduced to OLSON LEWIS + and I've been working with them ever since. As a project owner I need a creative team of experienced professionals that deliver solutions to ensure our objectives are met and our facilities remain world-class. From site surveys to space planning, from construction documents to occupancy OLSON LEWIS + has continuously delivered our projects as designed and have become a trusted resource.

Jeff Higgins — Enanta Pharmaceuticals

2015

Cubist Pharmaceuticals has had a twenty-year relationship with OLSON LEWIS+ Architects, starting with our first building in Cambridge MA. It is important to us that the final designs incorporate functionality and comfort, qualities that OL+ has continuously delivered, initially in Cambridge, then in our Lexington lab and administration buildings, both totaling over 400,000 sq ft. It's great to work with an architect/design team who listens and understands the clients design style and company culture.

Stephen Naugler — Cubist Pharmaceuticals

2016

The Community Spaces are so special — they met and exceeded our vision and expectations. The project has a creative feel, yet it functions beyond our expectations. Every inch is usable! Our new facility has that "wow factor" with a balance of functionality. The space they designed had the flexibility we didn't know we needed!

Larry Griffin & Bobbi Whiting — Shore Country Day

2016

Beauport Hotel — John Olson’s Capstone

2016

Maple Cove Cottage by the Sea — The Coastal Vernacular Refined

2016

Tenacre STEM & Science Center — A Continuing Partnership

2016

Randy Lewis Retires — Founding Partner

2016

Anika Therapeutics Italy — Life Sciences Goes Global

2017

Pingree School Master Plan — A Multi-Decade Relationship

2017

Translate Bio — The Next Wave of the Cambridge Corridor

2018

Crosswater — Art Dioli at Full Stride

2018

Seth Morrissey Named Associate and Lab Planner

2018

Michele Brooks Named Principal and Director of Life Sciences

2018

Coastal Collaboration — A Home Designed With Its Owners

2019

Singing Beach Club — Hospitality Comes Home

2019

The 2020s: The Animal Care Studio Joins, a Pandemic Reshapes the Practice, and the Next Generation Steps Forward

The 2020s opens with a pandemic year that pushes architecture outdoors and the next generation of leadership into the room. John Harden joins as the first partner of the rebrand era, signaling the practice's expansion into multi-family residential work. In 2021, the Blue Sky Animal Care Architects joins OL+ as the firm's fifth practice area, bringing with it years of veterinary architecture work and a debut commission at Angell Animal Medical Center, the most prestigious name in New England veterinary medicine. The Life Sciences practice continues its global reach with Sanofi, deepens its longest client relationships with Enanta and Anika, and reaches Finland by way of Vaisala. The Petmedic relationship builds out 20+ storefront locations down the east coast in a single year and becomes the Animal Care Studio's Sonesta-Hotels moment. The firm feels more like a national practice. The decade continues the Brooks School thread at twenty-one years and the Tenacre thread at twenty-five. By 2025, OL+ is the firm John Olson and Randy Lewis built, the firm Art Dioli and Chris Doktor bridged, and the firm the next generation has already begun to lead.