Jim Moore, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is a Principal in Boston, where he leads a growing practice designing Arts, Community, and Education projects in cities and college campuses across the country.
Moore has a solid reputation as one of HGA’s top project leaders. He joined the firm in 2009 in Minneapolis, taking the lead on such high-profile projects as Northrop Auditorium Revitalization at the University of Minnesota, Tri-Faith Initiative Masterplan, Wheaton College Conservatory, and Schilling Math and Science Center at Saint Paul Academy and Summit School.
Currently, he is directing the Performing Arts District masterplan at San Diego State University and transforming the Jacobs Music Center into a premier concert hall for the San Diego Symphony.
In the following, Jim discusses the personal and professional energy he gains working with creative clients and team members engaged in the collective experience of the arts.
You recently transferred from the Minneapolis office to Boston. Is Boston a bit of a homecoming for you?
Yes, I grew up in the Berkshires, west of Boston. It is a landscape immersed with endless opportunities to experience concerts, dance performances and plays, or take in any number of museums. I’m really enjoying returning to where I first was inspired by the strong and rich sense of place that comes out of the interaction between making art in a natural landscape.
What excites you about your new role?
I’m really compelled by the opportunity to re-enter a dialogue with these communities and institutions, with a new curiosity, process, and approach that I’ve refined through my collaborations at HGA. I’m inspired by the ability to grow a studio and leverage the exceptional talent here to continue to elevate our work in this deeply layered setting.
Can arts and cultural facilities bring people together?
At no time in my life has the deep interdependence of the arts and community gathering been felt so strongly as in the last handful of years. I’m a strong believer in the power of design as an agent for positive change. Helping communities build environments for gathering is fundamental to what our studio does, and it is what drives our best work. A lot of people think that architecture is about building walls, but the true power of what we do is removing barriers for our clients.
Do you have a favorite experience attending a performance or cultural event?
The strongest memories I hold related to performances are those with indelible connections between the performers and audience. As a design professional, that connection is only deepened when the space or landscape joins into that dialogue.
There is one experience I’ll always remember during the prelude to an Easter Vigil Mass I attended at St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota. It’s an immense, reinforced concrete space with wonderful smaller moments of finer materials and detail. As the monks processed into the darkened nave, chanting low and resonantly, they were each carrying a candle. At first you only noticed the candles glinting through small apertures in the aisles, but once the monks turned into the nave, the light from the candles seemed to flash throughout the room, instantly reflecting upon dozens of small gold-leafed surfaces, as if they each were a light.
The immersion of being in communion with that family, their music and light was truly sublime.
What are you looking forward to?
I’m always looking forward to the next project as an opportunity to do our greatest work. Most immediately, I’m looking forward to the completion of a transformative space that we’ve designed for the San Diego Symphony, an exceptional organization that is growing in innovative and inspiring ways. Our project is a collaboration borne through their challenge to elevate their craft and share their art with the community in ways that promise broader, deeper, and more resilient engagement.
