SH_Arc is a design oriented firm who believes in creating solutions through design and not sticking design onto solutions. We foster intensive collaboration and dialogue with our clients, site and program. Balancing these forces is essential to the success of our works. Through this process we create meaningful space and structures intimately connected to function and context, craft and detail, living and building, that elevates them to a high level of beauty and practicality.
Insistence on team commitment, principal involvement, careful management and outstanding client services insures achieving project budget and schedule objectives.
Since its 2001 reinception SH_ARC's strong body of work has earned the firm unique recognition within the design community. The team has been the recipient of numerous awards recognizing its wide range of design accomplishments.
Born in South Carolina in 1952, Scott Hughes is the firm's principal partner. In his pursuit of clear design solutions no stone is left unturned through sketching and intense work with staff and clients. He was the first designer certified under the Foreign Missions Act of 1982 soon after opening his own firm in 1981 in Washington, DC. This recognition resulted in meaningful professional collaborations with Robert Venturi and Philip Johnson. Scott received his initial education at the University of Virginia. In 1995, 13 years into his own practice, he took an educational sabbatical at the Southern California Institute of Architecture/SCI-Arc. He is now a member of the school's board. He has appeared on HGTV's Dreambuilders and the Documentary film Mr. Gehry Goes to Washington
Born in New York in 1970, John Umbanhowar, LEED AP, is a managing partner of the firm. John's approach to design, with clients and overseeing the office is a combined dose of intensity and levity that contribute to successfully distinct work and relationships. Before joining SH_Arc, John founded the award-winning firm, Design Bureau, in 1998. He has designed award winning furniture and continues to pursue mass produced designs within the office. John received his MArch from Southern California Institute of Architecture/ SCI-Arc in Los Angeles
John Benavente, Bryan Winters, Ted Butcher, Louann Prestegard, Jacqueline Hernandez, Chris Craver
The diversity and experience of the SH_Arc team enhances our continuously expanding ability to enrich the environment with thoughtful, daring and precise concepts and designs.