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Christopher McCready focuses on creating high quality learning environments for higher education and K-12 clients.

Christopher McCready, AIA, is the Director of SOM Education Lab and has been associated with the Education Lab since its inception. Based in SOM’s New York office, Mr. McCready has experience in the United States and overseas.

Since joining SOM in 1988, Mr. McCready has managed education projects on a wide variety of scales, from the feasibility and planning stages all the way through design and construction. He works with public and private institutions and is an expert with the full range of building types found on today’s campuses. As both an architect and a planner, Mr. McCready has a broad perspective on how accomplishing the goals of an individual project can serve the needs of an institution as a whole.

In his work for education clients, Mr. McCready optimizes the conditions for teaching and learning by implementing high quality lighting, air, acoustics, and technology, as well as providing inviting and useful informal spaces that extend learning beyond the classroom.

Mr. McCready believes that great design emerges from the exchange of ideas between the design team, the client, and all of the client’s constituents including students, faculty and staff. Every project should improve the aesthetic and functional organization of the campus as a whole and support the institution's unique program, site and mission.

Mr. McCready helped organize expert panels to participate in visionary symposia for several education projects. He has lectured at various education design forums. His projects have been published widely and regularly receive awards and recognition.