ARCHITECTUREFIRM is a collaboration of architects and designers in Richmond, Virginia and Brooklyn, New York, led by Danny MacNelly, Katie MacNelly, and Adam Ruffin, specialized in hospitality, single and multi-family residential, and contemporary art spaces. We strive to create architecture that is simple, beautiful, and economical of both means and gestures. We believe that architecture should be integral with its place and that the best buildings allow people to fully experience the light and nature of that place. Our chief pursuit is a timeless expression of building that is appropriate to its users and their purpose, that blends progressive technology with elemental form.

In our work, the nature of place and the understanding of light are paramount and the expression of experience is critical. Plan and form making support the experience of each site and are meant to be reductive and clarifying, reducing distraction and clarifying our place in the world. 

As southerners with our feet planted firmly in both the South and the global cultural hub of New York City, we believe in the combinations that make places unique. The South is a habitat that hums with creativity and heat with a rootedness that ties experience to the earth. We feel this deeply in our lives and in our work and are proud to share these buildings, in this place, with the world. 

Unlike flying or astral projection, walking through walls is a totally earth-related craft, but a lot more interesting than pot making or driftwood lamps. I got started at a picnic up in Bowstring in the northern part of the state. A fellow walked through a brick wall right there in the park. I said, “Say, I want to try that.” Stone walls are best, then brick and wood. Wooden walls with fiberglass insulation and steel doors aren’t so good. They won’t hurt you. If your wall walking is done properly, both you and the wall are left intact. It is just that they aren’t pleasant somehow. The worst things are wire fences, maybe it’s the molecular structure of the alloy or just the amount of give in a fence, I don’t know, but I’ve torn my jacket and lost my hat in a lot of fences. The best approach to a wall is, first, two hands placed flat against the surface; it’s a matter of concentration and just the right pressure. You will feel the dry, cool inner wall with your fingers, then there is a moment of total darkness before you step through on the other side.