Kelly Ard is a partner at designLAB architects. Her work with mission-driven institutions centers primarily on arts, educational, and community-based projects, with a keen interest in place-based connections.

Kelly’s award-winning portfolio ranges from transformations of brutalist masterworks to arts, education, and cultural projects— each with a unique approach to animating human experience and enriching a sense of community. In addition to her built work, Kelly is a vocal and enthusiastic contributor to the broader professional dialogue on themes ranging from interior architecture to resiliency, mentorship, and education. Through her leadership roles at the Boston Society of Architects and American Institute of Architects, Kelly seeks to pivot the conversation toward more human-centric and socially-accountable design, while elevating design and beauty through her positions on regional and national design juries. Kelly is a graduate of the University of Florida School of Architecture, where she earned a Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture Pedagogy.

Kelly is an active member of her South Boston community, where she lives with her two boys, Lakin and Belden. She seeks a thoughtful integration of work and life, as summarized in her 2020 ArchitectureBoston article, “Our Work, Our Selves”: If we embrace it as personal, we no longer have the option of maintaining the status quo, and we will be compelled to be transformational. We must choose to be optimists, and give a little bit of our personal selves to the future world; it will certainly be better for it.

kelly@designlabarch.com