About

H3 is a collaborative community of professionals guided by three principals: Ariel Fausto, AIA, LEED AP; John Fontillas, AIA, LEED AP; and Daria Pizzetta, FAIA. They carry forward the legacy of the firm’s founder and renowned theater architect, Hugh Hardy, who established the predecessor of H3 in 1962. H3’s talented team continues to deliver a distinctive and successful approach to planning and design, fostering a dialogue among history, innovation, and contemporary use.

Our focus on public building types informs a design approach responsive to context. We honor the cultural heritage of a community, adapting our architecture with each project. Energy-efficient facilities and LEED-accredited professionals confirm our commitment to the built environment, its landscape, sustainability and renewal. Our restrained size permits tailored attention to a select number of clients. We keep our client relationships intentionally one-on-one, and encourage their involvement from a project’s beginning to end.

In 2017, H3 became the independent Performing Arts, Cultural and Academic Building Studio of Arquitectonica International Corporation benefitting from the firm’s global presence and design leadership.

Process

We are more than remainders from a previous firm resting on past laurels. We are a young firm emerging as innovators, winning new and challenging work based on architecture’s fundamental premise: collaboration.

We recognize that the best ideas can come from anyone, from the most senior designer to the newest intern, and we foster an environment where everyone feels comfortable to speak up and present an idea. We extend this notion of collaboration to our clients, consultants and builders, and have embraced technologies such as BIM that inherently bring together the various disciplines required to design and construct a building. The lines that separate architect, consultant and contractor are quickly fading, and architects must lead this collaborative effort or be left behind.

We accept that architecture is first and foremost a service industry. However, we believe that the client is not the only beneficiary to this service. Obviously, the client receives the benefit of our efforts, and in the end, it is the client’s needs and aspirations that must be met. But the process of architecture, the nature of discovery, and spirit of collaboration also benefit us as designers, as an office and as a constantly evolving profession. We approach each project as an opportunity for discovery.

If we feel the project or client has little or no interest following us down this path of discovery, we will often pass on the project. We have no interest in repeating ourselves or doing what has been done before, yet we do not feel compelled to reinvent the wheel. There is a balance between the fearlessness of innovation and the economy of repetition, and we believe that a project is best served by understanding the elasticity between these two forces.

Finally, architecture serves the community beyond our profession. We have an undeniable responsibility to engage the issues of sustainability and become the stewards of responsible growth. Not because it is fashionable. Not because it is mandated. But because it is right. We also believe that architecture serves the community beyond the basic notion of shelter and function. We focus on projects in the public realm because we believe that place-making builds communities. When architecture creates places to gather, whether evoking the open and welcoming spirit of a park, the contemplative nature of a museum or the united energy of a theater, then the discipline has achieved its primary goal.

We understand the potential in place-making, and how we service our clients, the profession and the community. We do not believe in a style of the moment or defying gravity. Instead we seek innovative ideas that are challenging, yet grounded in their context of place, time and culture.