Object Projects

Led by partners Sarah Hirschman1 and Ann Worth,2 Object Projects is a California-based architecture studio focused on strengthening social infrastructure3 through design. 

About

Object Projects works with community-centered organizations that have ambitious long-term goals. We often find value in attenuating the design process, delaying the making of conclusions in service of getting to know a place, a community, or an institution. Many of our deliverables aren’t obviously architectural at the outset, as we coordinate community listening sessions, document institutional rituals, and produce reports for fundraising4 or civic outreach. We employ this incremental approach as a means to test assumptions, build community support, and hone sensitive design strategies.

Our work ranges widely in scale. We see large strategic planning efforts and small object-scale assignments as equally impactful avenues for connection.5


  1. b. 1983, New York City, USA; California License #36104.
  2. b. 1982, Brussels, BE; California License #37948.
  3. By social infrastructure we mean the organizations, places, programs, and people (and their various entanglements!) who support the building and maintaining of a community.
  4. Understanding the mechanisms of private and public financing can give architects agency to act opportunistically (in the best way possible) and help fund both design and execution. We find ourselves partnering with our clients as they embark on grant writing and capital campaigns to share ambitious visions, another way we build out the community around any given project.
  5. Our ongoing project, Current Objects, brings together and provides a platform for architects who create objects in the course of their research and design practices. While each object is small in scale (less than 36 inches in any dimension), in its collective, the project represents a broader take on the interests and activities of the architect, delivering ideas about craft, methods of fabrication, material properties and economies, etc.


Sarah Hirschman
Oakland-based Partner Sarah Hirschman has designed commercial, residential, and hospitality projects in California, Utah, and New York. She teaches architecture at Northeastern’s Mills College campus in Oakland. She previously taught at UC Berkeley, the BAC, and MIT, and was the 2017–18 LeFevre Emerging Practitioner Fellow at the Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University. 

Sarah received her M.Arch. from MIT, and an M.A. in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University.
Ann Worth

Based in San Diego, Partner Ann Worth has a passion for projects centered around art and community. She was previously Design Director and Associate at Luce et Studio. 

Ann sits on the board of the MIT Architecture Alumni Group, where she leads an alumni mentoring initiative. In addition, Ann has previously taught architecture at Woodbury University. She holds a B.A. from Williams College, where she majored in Political Science and French, and a Master of Architecture from MIT.
Alicia Moreira

Associate Alicia Moreira is a San Francisco–based designer. She holds a Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley, where she was awarded the Branner Traveling Fellowship for her research, Territorial Tendencies, and the Watson Prize for her thesis, Other Sand Stories. She received a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Maryland. Alicia has worked previously with ORO Editions, NEMESTUDIO, Room One Thousand, and the Berkeley Center for New Media.

Object Projects is a signatory to the US Architects Declare statement, excerpted below:

US architects declare climate, justice, and biodiversity emergency. We commit to:
  • Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action among our clients, collaborators, and supply chains. Advocate for the rapid systemic changes required to address the climate and biodiversity crises, as well as the policies, funding priorities, and implementation frameworks that support these changes.
  • Act to address the disproportionate impact of these crises on disadvantaged communities and ensure that all mitigation and adaptation efforts address the needs of all people. Employ just labor practices, so that people of all backgrounds can participate in decision-making about the future of the designed environment.
  • Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon modeling, and post-occupancy evaluation as part of our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use. Adopt regenerative design principles.
  • Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a less carbon intensive alternative to demolition and new construction whenever there is a viable choice.
  • Advocate for detailed disclosure of material provenance and environmental impact by extractors, manufacturers, and distributors, to accelerate the shift to low-carbon, non-toxic, and ethically produced materials. Eliminate waste and support a rapid transition to circular economies.
  • Invest in research and technology development, guided by systems thinking, to further these goals, and share tools, data, and strategies on an open source basis.
  • Establish climate change mitigation, biodiversity protection, and positive social impact as the key measures of our sector's success. Work to redirect the mentality of the building sector away from maximizing short-term returns toward durable investment for the long term. Set clearly articulated climate mitigation goals for every project and communicate them to our clients. Change the structure of awards programs to make these criteria the basis for recognition in architecture.


OP is a Federally Certified Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB).