Elizabeth Whittaker
Design Critic in Architecture
Department of Architecture
Elizabeth Whittaker is the founder and principal of MERGE architects, based in Boston since 2003. She received her Masters in Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her work explores the power of invention through extreme collaboration at multiple scales including private residential, multi-family housing, commercial, institutional, and furniture design. The office works side-by-side with teams of fabricators, artists, craftsmen and engineers to produce an architecture that combines both the art of making with a larger agenda: to re-define the urban and social boundaries in and around the city. Many of the projects have been published both nationally and internationally and have received multiple awards including seven AIA/BSA awards, and a citation for the 2005 international competition for the Harbor Park Pavilion in Boston, MA. Elizabeth has served as the Director-at-Large on the Boston Society of Architects Board of Directors for two years. She has recently been nominated for the National American Institute of Architects, Young Architect's Award and has received numerous awards during her graduate studies at Harvard including the Araldo A. Cossutta / Core Prize, the Faculty Design Award, and the John E. Thayer Award for overall academic achievement. Elizabeth has lectured both nationally and internationally and has taught design studios in several Architecture programs including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, and the Boston Architectural College.