Principal, Perkins Eastman
A talented and visionary design leader, Nick Leahy designs, manages, and directs the projects for the Civic & Cultural studio at Perkins Eastman, a global design and architecture firm with offices in 17 locations around the world. He has designed across several industry sectors and has worked at virtually every scale of project from large-scale urban planning to small scale exhibits. His work has been recognized with numerous awards.
Nick’s projects are distinguished by their critical balance of place, program, and craft and his use of appropriate technology. Key to his design methodology is to investigate each site’s relationship to its environment, history, and its intended use. His designs for civic buildings, performing arts centers, museums, and institutional facilities can be found across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Projects of particular note include: the design and construction of the TKTS Booth in Times Square, the world’s largest publicly accessible all-glass structural building; the winning international design competition entry for the Shanghai World Expo Public Events Center; Tenement Museum, which tells the story of U.S. immigration through the extant building fabric of tenement buildings in NYC’s Lower East Side; American Museum of Natural History, including the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins and Butterfly Conservatory; and University of Connecticut Stamford branch, where he designed the world’s then-largest cable-truss curtainwall to transform an abandoned, inward-looking department store into a lively downtown satellite campus.
