Marc McQuade, AIA, brings over two decades of experience collaborating with leading figures in architecture on a wide range of projects across geographies, typologies, and scales. In 2024, he founded Architecture Background Office (ABO), an architecture, interiors, and decorative arts firm dedicated to creating people-focused spaces. With a belief that well-conceived and responsibly built architecture provides the background for positive shifts in the world, ABO is grounded in the pursuit of buildings that are beautiful, comfortable, and productive.
Before establishing ABO, Marc was Associate Principal at Adjaye Associates, where he co-led the New York office. Over fourteen years, he oversaw the design and execution of numerous significant projects throughout North America, spanning buildings, interiors, exhibitions, competitions, and furniture. Notable projects include: 130 William, an 800-foot residential tower in Lower Manhattan; the Princeton University Art Museum, a 144,000-square-foot arts complex; Richard Avedon: Murals and Portraits at Gagosian Gallery; The Webster retail flagship in Los Angeles; the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; Sugar Hill, an affordable housing, preschool, and children’s museum in Harlem; Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, a traveling exhibition; and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park in Detroit.
Born in New York and raised between there and the Bay Area, Marc is a dual citizen of the United States and Switzerland. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley, and after several years with Mäder + Partner in Switzerland, received a Master of Architecture from Princeton University School of Architecture, where he was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal for leadership and service.
Marc is currently a Design Critic in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was the Fall 2024 Gensler Visiting Critic at Cornell University and has taught design studios at Princeton University and the University of Toronto. He frequently serves on design juries and public panels. He is the editor of Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture, a founding editor of Pidgin magazine, and co-editor of Landform Building: Architecture’s New Terrain with Stan Allen.
He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.