About us

Marvel Architects is a solutions-driven design practice, Marvel Architects integrates context and nature into every project. Marvel architects meets each design challenge by listening to its surroundings.

About Us

The Firm
Approach

Marvel Architects is a solutions-driven design practice that integrates context and nature into every project, meeting each design challenge by listening to its surroundings. The result is a thoughtful design that inspires users to remember what was there before and to marvel at what it has become. With offices in New York and San Juan, Marvel is an international firm dedicated to creativity and diversity. From affordable housing and cultural institutions to high-end residential and hospitality, Marvel sees every project as an opportunity to create spaces of engagement.

Current projects include solar deployments in Puerto Rico, a new regional theater of national importance in Arkansas, and the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a destination for technology and entrepreneurship.

For 20+ years, Marvel has successfully navigated the business of architecture and earned an award-winning reputation for designing at the intersection of public and private space. From the New Jersey Institute of Technology to St. Ann’s Warehouse, the team has pioneered an entrepreneurial approach to architecture and place-making that has been recognized by over 125 industry design awards including the AIA’s highest honors.

Marvel Architects is dedicated to innovation, resilience, sustainability and human-scaled design. We design for people, and our collaborative process and iterative strategy is what makes our designs so uniquely context-responsive. We believe that architecture and design can legibly define the human relationship with its environment. Integration of landscape and public spaces is key to Marvel’s design philosophy. Our foremost intent is to integrate natural, social, economic, and civic components into our work. We focus on prioritizing the people who will enjoy, occupy and use our designs and keep their health, safety, productivity and joy at the fore during design.

Concept-Based Design.

Marvel engages in a thorough discovery process that results in distinct concepts for each project. From attending design charrettes to gleaning public and historic documents, to exploring augmented reality simulations, our concepts are well vetted and result in contextually-sensitive design.

Collaborative Approach.

Marvel relies on broad interdisciplinary teams to develop ideas that are the basis of design. Our collaborative, horizontal structure expands naturally to engage consultants and clients in the process, as well as future users who will be most affected by its creation.

We Design Options.

Options ensure that the best ideas come to the surface, providing an efficient way to arrive at design solutions. We believe that by illustrating a robust range of possibilities, we give our clients the opportunity to imagine alternative potential realities for their goals.

Sustainability

Sustainable practices are integral to our overall design approach with the consistent goal of making healthy, lasting and efficient buildings and cities.

Technology of Tomorrow

Marvel employs a team of technologists and creatives who provide the cutting-edge tools of today that allow us to envision the cities of tomorrow. From drone photography to augmented and virtual reality, we like to make our ideas tangible for everyone from the start.

Our Offices
Awards

NEW YORK & SAN JUAN

The Office of Marvel Marchand Architects (A unit of Marvel Architects) carries a tradition of more than 50 years in the design of iconic buildings and urban spaces across Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. From the award-winning restorations of the Vanderbilt and La Concha hotels in San Juan, to the Federal Building in Charlotte Amalie, the office has been known for its outstanding sense of place and timeless design.

Now with offices in New York and San Juan, Marvel is an international firm dedicated to creativity and diversity, offering complete design services in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban design. Current projects include solar deployments in Puerto Rico, a new regional theater of national importance in Arkansas, and the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a destination for technology and entrepreneurship.

In 2013 Marvel Architects LLC partnership was formed with Lissa So, Guido Hartray, and Jonathan Marvel. They started collaborating with Marvel Marchand Architects in San Juan and were officially joined as one firm based in two cities in 2015, adding Jose Marchand Sifre as a partner.