OUR PRACTICE

We are Bill McIlroy and Nancy Shapero, partners in Shapero / McIlroy Design, based in Jamaica Plain, Boston. Bill is an architect and urban designer and Nancy is a landscape architect. In more than twenty-five years of collaboration we have designed and built projects ranging from houses and gardens, to buildings and landscapes for small institutions, to urban design plans. The defining theme of our practice is the exploration of the relationship between buildings and landscapes and the people who inhabit them.

Our approach to each project includes an investigation of the site's qualities, context, and history. Listening carefully to our clients' requirements and budget, we develop a vision through sketching and model making. This active process results in a design that accommodates the activities and objects of our clients' lives.

We're inspired by the industrial and rural building traditions of the New England region, including brick mill buildings and factory towns, Shaker dwellings, the agricultural landscape, and the watery environment of the coastline.