Brian O’Brian
Brian has been on a determined path to discover and create Architecture since his youth. Born in Montana, and raised in the Midwest, Brian then moved East, and received his professional degree in 2000 from the New Jersey School of Architecture at NJIT, graduating with honours. He worked for numerous architects in New York City prior to co-founding the O’Brian Muehleisen Architecture Studio, OMAS:WORKS, in 2006 with Carl Muehleisen. Brian relocated from New York to Toronto in June 2010, extending the reach of the practice. In January of 2019, Brian renamed the practice, and continues his dedication to the architecture he loves, and to the clients who make that architecture possible.
Brian is a licensed Architect in the Province of Ontario (OAA), and the States of New York and Utah. He is a member of both the American Institute of Architects and the Toronto Society of Architects. He is also an on again off again sessional lecturer at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

THE OFFICE

Arshad Ahmady
Arshad is an Architect Apprentice with a Bachelor of Architectural Science from Toronto Metropolitan (formerly Ryerson) University. Within the discourse of architecture, his interest is in an architectural language that manifests regionality, sensibility, and dynamism.  He is an enthusiast of architecture that pays homage to the process and the methodology that translates thoughts and concepts into the material world.  Throughout his professional work, he has been involved in a wide range of residential, commercial, and industrial projects.

Samantha Chan Samantha is an Architect Apprentice with a Masters of Architecture from the University of British Columbia. With a keen interest in the manifestation of the theories that lie behind Architecture, Samantha brings with her a distinct approach to all aspects of the Work that incorporates curiosity and critical problem solving.

Andrew Caldwell
Andrew is an Architect Apprentice with a Master of Architecture from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand completed in 2017. He has been a New Zealand Registered Architect since June 2022. His interests in architecture include the reflection of clients' personal identity and diversity in the work and, further, the reflection of society's diversity in architecture and its workforce. Through his architectural career so far, he has worked on a wide range of residential, commercial, and education projects.

Tristan Sito
Tristan is an Apprentice Architect with a Masters of Architecture from McGill University. With an interest in how architecture can be expressed through storytelling, Tristan’s approach brings an exploration in visual representation and process. Tristan’s past professional experience includes residential, commercial, and exhibition design.

Jing Peng Jing is an Architect Apprentice with a Bachelors in Architectural Design and Philosophy and a Masters of Architecture, both from the University of Toronto. She has a diverse skill set, including a meticulous attention to drawing and modelling, both digitally and manually. She has a passion for craftsmanship, sustainability and community-centered and -led design, placing people's well being, health and security, along with the natural environment, at the centre of her focus. Jing brings to the office a respect for both the people who build and who inhabit our work.

Past Contributors to the Work include:
Chris Lam, Jessica Hanzelkova, Ilya Skok, Suhaib Arnaout, Sam Shahsavani, Parastoo Najafi, Didier Beaudoin, Jade Kwong, Hamza Vora, Matthew Blunderfield, Claire Lubell, Andrew Choptiany, Gillian Tyrrell

The Office is always prepared to begin a new Work. Of primary interest is the intent of the client to make something beautiful, something interesting.
With work reaching from Toronto and New York to Thunder Bay, San Diego, and Costa Rica, the Office is keen on having Work built wherever invited.
The Office may be in Toronto, but the Work is where the Work is.

If you’d like to learn how to begin, or to simply discuss what you’re interested in doing, please contact Brian by email or telephone, or refer to The Next One for information on a Work Guidance Meeting, a detailed take on the process.

NEW WORK

We are accustomed to thinking of Architecture as form - as the objects we inhabit. And as our standard course of engagement with buildings from around the world, our perception of architecture through photographs - as beautiful as those photographs may be - tends to further this illusion.
But the foundation of Architecture is the articulation of space that responds to, as well as conducts, the humanity within it.
That articulation is defined by form.
That form is described by its details, and is defined by light.
Architecture is the intangible and poetic relationship that space can have with the people who occupy that space.
It is the sublime.

ARCHITECTURE IS

The intention of this Office is to actively search for the creation of Architecture; that search is irrespective of program.
While the Office has extensive experience in residential work, and believes strongly in the primary position the house has in both family and in architecture, Brian’s history includes other programs that are equally interesting, such as stores, offices, furniture, and municipal work. They all require attention be provided to different aspects of living, but those are aspects of the for-what, and the by-what-means; they aren’t aspects of the Architecture itself. All of them provide for the use of something by someone.
Architecture is informed by program, but program isn’t architecture.

ARCHITECTURE ISN’T

The Office is continually seeking to grow its interest in the service of architecture, which inherently means serving architecture to our clients. We make architecture for the people who hire us, and for the people who engage our work.
There is an obedience that comes with this. There are rules and constraints. There are property lines, setbacks and budgets. All are important.
But there’s also necessarily a defiance as ways to push through and around the rules are sought - to abide some, bend some, break some, and invent new ones.
Above all, the Service of Architecture relies on the thoughtful presentation of what is possible to the Clients who invite the Office to join them in their pursuit.

IN SERVICE OF ARCHITECTURE