Features
The 25 – Jean Carroon
As a principal at the Boston-based design firm Goody Clancy, architect Jean Carroon has been responsible for a variety of projects ranging from single buildings to whole-campus master plans, leading the restoration of more than a dozen National Historic Landmarks, and working on campuses such as Harvard, Yale, and the University of Virginia.
Throughout her career, Carroon has focused on the opportunities inherent in the stewardship and creative reuse of existing buildings to shape a healthy, resilient world. Her acute understanding of history, her knowledge of building technology, and her commitment to transforming places redefines their relevance, utility, and flexibility while sustaining and enhancing their essential beauty and value.
“I love the stories that live within heritage places and the stewardship required to remember these stories, while helping create room for stories yet to be written,” she says. “My work moves between the past and the future, which is an amazing responsibility and honor.”
One of her favorite stories is the transformation of the University of Virginia’s New Cabell Hall from the most disliked building on campus to a LEED Gold-certified popular gathering space for studying and socializing between classes.
The hall, at the end of the campus that comprises part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, wraps the back of an older building and is the primary point of connection between the historic core and a newer area.
The project, winner of the Virginia U.S. Green Building Council’s People’s Choice Award, transformed an unused courtyard into gathering spaces that connect to different floors. It now includes seating for outdoor classes, a balcony, a terrace, and a café.
Inside, the hall is now filled with natural light and houses collaboration hubs that serve as study and meeting spaces and offer views of adjacent buildings and the newly reclaimed courtyard.
“An estimated 9,000 students pass through it every day,” Carroon says, adding this is “amazing because this was a building that was slated for demolition, which we were able to transform instead.”
Carroon, who was named a LEED Fellow of the Green Building Certification Institute, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and was appointed to the National Register of Peer Professionals by the commissioner of the United States Public Building Services, has won numerous awards. They include the Harley J. McKee Award from the Association for Preservation Technology International, the Clem Labine Award for Fostering Humane Values in the Built Environment, and the Paul E. Tsongas Profile in Preservation Award.
“I love the challenge and joy of renewing buildings, but what I do, as a preservation architect, is never about one individual,” Carroon says. “The stewardship of buildings and places typically involves hundreds of people, including community advocates, architects, conservators, engineers, owners, contractors, craftspeople, and operation staff. It is this community that is the most satisfying part of my life. The community that loves heritage and believes in taking care of heritage, and by extension the planet and the people on it, lifts my heart every day.”
