
Today, Michael Murphy, co-founding principal of the Boston- and Kigali, Rwanda–based MASS Design Group transitioned away from his role as president and chief executive officer of the award-winning firm to focus on launching "new initiatives," according to the firm. Members of MASS senior leadership—senior principals and managing directors Christian Benimana, Patricia Gruits, AIA, and co-founding principal and chief design officer Alan Ricks, AIA—continue at the helm of the organization, and Murphy will remain on the MASS board of directors.
"I will continue to steward MASS’s mission as a board member and I’m really excited about the next chapter of my career and new opportunities," Murphy tells ARCHITECT. "I plan to spend this year embracing my new position as the Thomas Ventulett Chair at Georgia Tech, writing long-delayed projects as part of the Dial Fellowship with the Emerson Collective, and launching a new venture that will address the financial barriers to a more purposeful and impactful built environment. From Butaro to Montgomery to Poughkeepsie, so much value has been created from the projects we have carried out. The question of who benefits from and who owns that value is what I hope to work on answering next."
Although the change is effective immediately, Murphy will remain on MASS staff through Dec. 1 to assist with the transition. "Someone told me once the most successful thing you can do is build an organization you can leave behind that outlasts you," Murphy says. "Founding MASS so many years ago was nerve racking. I never imagined an organization of this scale and stability. I couldn’t think of a better time to leave than at the height of its success.”

“Michael believes that architecture can improve our lives and we can demand that our built environment makes a radically positive impact in society," said Ricks in the same announcement. "As idealistic graduate students we made that belief a reality in projects across the country and around the world. I am grateful for the opportunities Michael created, which allowed us to demonstrate the power of architecture in creating a more just and beautiful world.”
Benimana and Gruits will cover responsibilities for Africa and for North America, respectively.
“Since the founding of MASS, we have demonstrated that it is possible for architecture and design to actively contribute in solving global challenges," Benimana, who joined MASS as a Global Health Corps design fellow in 2010, tells ARCHITECT. "The possibility of scaling this type of work and achieving an even greater positive impact, across many more communities and hopefully through time and into the future, is embraced by the next generation of leadership at MASS.”


Gruits joined MASS's Boston studio in 2013 as a director. "MASS has grown and changed dramatically in the last 12 years in size and geography, complexity of projects, services we provide, and how we deliver them," she tells ARCHITECT. "We now have an opportunity to evolve and diversify our leadership to adapt to how we work today and who we want to be. As Michael embraces his new role, we want to express our gratitude for his vision and continued dedication to MASS and its success."
Since Murphy and Ricks founded the organization in 2008, the interdisciplinary practice has grown to include a staff of more than 250 people and a portfolio of more than 60 projects around the world, including some $250 million of projects currently under construction or slated for construction. The organization has received many accolades since its founding, including the 2022 American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award, AIA's 2021 AIA Collaborative Achievement Award. Some of the firm's renowned work includes the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.; the Butaro Oncology Support Centre in Butaro, Rwanda; the Kigali Genocide Memorial—African Center for Peace in Kigali; the GHESKIO Tuberculosis Hospital in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti; and the Pepper Place Market in Birmingham, Ala.
"The first, longest, and biggest project at MASS is the design of our practice," firm leadership told ARCHITECT in a 2022 feature. "It was always our hope to create a place for people to build careers doing mission-based work, and we are proud to be building the largest, most diverse nonprofit architecture and design firm in the world."

This is a breaking news story and will continue to be updated.
Read more: To see more work from MASS Design Group, visit ARCHITECT's MASS firm page. You can also read more about the organization's 2022 AIA Architecture Firm Award win, AIA's highest honor for an architecture firm. You can also learn more about the firm's history in ARCHITECT's profile MASS In Context, which appeared in the May 2017 issue of ARCHITECT.