Founded in 1989, Charles Rose Architects is a national, mid-sized practice with expertise in planning, architecture, interiors and landscape design. The firm is a leader in zero-carbon, net-zero energy and sustainable design. Our clients include universities, corporations, schools, museums, non-profit organizations and private individuals.
The winner of numerous national awards and national design competitions, CRA expanded its scope of work as it grew to include state and federal government projects; contemporary offices for corporations and biotech startups; and projects for design excellence programs sponsored by the U.S. General Services Administration, the City of New York and others. In January 2021, the Walton Family Foundation selected Charles Rose Architects for its Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program, which taps innovative design firms to help foster sustainable growth in the fast-growing region.
Charles Rose Architects was an early leader in sustainable and zero-carbon design and in May 2012 completed the zero-carbon, net-zero energy John W. Olver Transit Center, which was commissioned by the Federal Transit Administration and State of Massachusetts. The intermodal transit center, in Greenfield, Ma., is a combined Amtrak station, interstate transit hub and county office building that was the first of its kind in New England, producing on-site, through sustainable sources, all the energy it consumes in a year.
The firm has completed projects ranging from an artist-residency retreat in Florida to university student centers in South Dakota and Massachusetts to corporate campuses and retreats to private penthouses in New York City or a hilltop performing arts center in Vermont. The projects consistently express twin ambitions: to make spaces that foster human interaction, collaboration, and creativity; and to carry out environmental stewardship.