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Goody: Very few who were already established — Sally Harkness was one, but I didn't know her. And there weren't many even in my own peer group — perhaps three or four women in my class of 40 at Harvard. There were people who assumed that women couldn't possibly be serious. But I have had one great blessing — it never occurred to me that anybody might not think women were just fine. So I was never intimidated. I was a good student at Harvard, and I was accepted for that. Had I been mediocre, I might have had a harder time. I also had some wonderful teachers, Serge Chermayeff among them. He led the first-year studio, combining architecture, planning, and landscape architecture. I think it was there that I began to see architecture more as narrative than as sculpture — as something shaped by and for the lives of its users.

Barnes: When people leave design school, they often enter a "brave new world," unlike what they were led to expect. Without the benefit of role models, it must have been even more difficult for you to translate your education into a working life.

Goody: Shortly after I graduated, I married Marvin Goody, who was then a professor of architecture at MIT. I had the opportunity to work in what was at that time a six-person office that Marvin had opened five years earlier. John Clancy had just been made a partner, and I had them both as very supportive mentors. The firm did a variety of work, including houses and some additions. I was lucky to be in a young practice. I grew as the office grew, so the commissions got larger as I became more mature.

Barnes: It's extraordinary to think of the evolution of that firm. You have been involved in its management and growth over the course of your entire professional life. It's not a leap to think of it as another creation, a work of art in a sense.

Goody: And considered that way, also a source of pride and affection. Our firm was always very family-like. Anyone who worked there was a person, not a body. We have different personalities, but many shared values. And one of the fundamental shared values of the firm from the beginning was a support of civic involvement by our staff.

Barnes: One of the things I noticed first when I came to Boston to live and work was how involved architects were in civic activities — in fact, architects were often helping to create them.

Goody: It is amazing. Boston architects clearly compete with one another, yet there's a strong camaraderie among the group. One of the things I love about Boston is that it's a size that allows you to feel that you can make a difference. And I suspect that contributes to the vitality of civic life here.

Barnes: Your own work has shaped the city in many ways. Are there projects that you feel really pushed the limits or somehow managed to achieve something different?

Goody: I've done a number of housing developments, primarily mixed-income. My goal has always been to make subsidized housing look as "normal" as possible. So at Harbor Point, for example, we went to great lengths to find forms and colors and details that bespoke the traditions of the neighborhood, so that the new place looked like it belonged, and the residents felt like they belonged. And we tried to have variety — we kept a third of the existing buildings, so that the development didn't look like it all came from one hand at
one moment.

Barnes: You recently completed your tenure as chair of the Boston Civic Design Commission, a position that you held for 10 years. As much as anyone, you have had the role of caretaker of Boston's urban aesthetic. What would you say the biggest challenges are?

Goody: I think the role of the BCDC is to do more than judge the proportions of the windows; it has to be allowed to talk about overall mass and density in relation to the surroundings. Its role is to evaluate the impact of a project on the public realm, whether the public realm is the sidewalk, the street, the nearby park, or the skyline.

Barnes: Your own buildings are part of the cityscape. You can turn a corner and see your own work every day. What's next?

Goody: I think every architect always wants the next building to be the best one. And that's my goal. Those of us who build in the area in which we live have lots of opportunities to study what we've created: I got this right, but I got that wrong, and if only I had... But this is an exciting time in Boston, because there is a new appreciation of good, interesting, innovative design and more of an opportunity to push the edges of the envelope.

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Rebecca G. Barnes, FAIA is the director of strategic growth at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She served as chief planner for the City of Boston from 2001 to2005. A past president of the Boston Society of Architects, she was also a Loeb Fellow.

A longer version of this interview appeared in the January/ February 2006 issue of ArchitectureBoston. This abbreviated version is reprinted with permission of the publisher, the Boston Society of Architects.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Koch Biology Building, MIT, Cambridge Massachusetts, by Goody Clancy. Photo: Steve Rosenthal Koch Biology Building. Photo: Steve Rosenthal Koch Biology Building, ground floor plan. Image: Goody, Clancy & Associates Extra Large Image Koch Biology Building, typical floor plan. Image: Goody, Clancy & Associates Extra Large Image New undercroft/ commons of Trinity Church, Boston. Photo: Raffaela Sirtoli Schnell The Barker Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo: Steve Rosenthal A vision for the entire Massachusetts Turnpike air rights corridor through Boston. Image: Goody, Clancy & Associates UrbanRiver Visions, Massachusetts, by Goody Clancy. Image: Goody, Clancy & Associates   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.