Bill Massie
Associate Professor
William E. Massie received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architectural Studies from Parsons School of Design, New York, NY. He subsequently received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture. Upon graduation, he worked for Robertson + McAnulty Architects and James Stewart Polshek and Partners. In 1993, he started his own company while simultaneously accepting a position in the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University where he was appointed as the Coordinator for Building Technologies Research.
From 2005 to 2017, Massie held the position of Architect-in-Residence / Head of Architecture Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Previously he was a tenured Professor of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and has taught at Columbia University, Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, Parsons School of Design in New York City, and Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. In 2017 he was the John G. Williams Visiting Professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas.
Massie’s work utilizes computer applications and digital information as a way of redefining “formal architectural construct” — a synthesis of ideas linked to construction in conjunction with the development of a theoretical position, all in support of an attempt to redefine architectural practice and making.
His research in computer applications in architectural construction has been recognized by Architecture Magazine in back-to-back Research Awards – “Virtual Model to Actual Construct” and “Augmented Reality in Architectural Construction” in association with Tony Webster, Steve Feiner and Ted Kreuger. Massie has also received Progressive Architecture awards from Architecture Magazine for the design of the “Big Belt House” located in Montana and for the design of “A House for a Photographer” in upstate New York. In December 2002, Esquire Magazine named Massie one of “The Best and The Brightest: The Next Revolution in Culture, Social Change, Business, and Science”. He has been an invited lecturer at over 50 national and international institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Shanghai Biennale, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
Massie was selected as the winner of the Museum of Modern Art’s Young Architects Program Competition for his project “Playa Urbana / Urban Beach” which was installed in the courtyard of the P.S. 1 Museum located in Long Island City, New York. His work has been exhibited at Parsons School of Design, MoMA/Qns and the Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China. A scaled model of the “Big Belt House” was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in New York City as part of their permanent collection and his work has been included in several exhibitions: “Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete” at The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., “P.S. 1 Young Architects Competition from 2000-2004” at KW – Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany, “08: An American House” at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and, most notably, the “Big Belt House” was included in the “re-opening” show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Most recently, Massie’s work was exhibited at Audubon Terrace in New York City when he received his highest distinction, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award in 2011.