WE CREATE TOGETHER

We believe the best design process is an ongoing, engaged conversation with our clients. So bring your experience, your opinions, and your questions. We’ll provide the Crayola markers. Oh wait, and a model and VR Goggles.

About Us

We are an award-winning architecture and interior design studio with offices in Boston and 25 years of expertise in architecture for the arts and entertainment. Our projects span a wide-range within this specialty area, including civic performing arts centers, new and renovated educational arts facilities, and the design of state-of-the-art entertainment venues.

A team of 27 talented and committed individuals, we design environments that create experiences with an engaging process, an eye for the theatrical, and a compelling vision.  We enjoy pushing creative boundaries and understand how to create social spaces where people love to be and can’t wait to return to.

Services

Feasibility Studies, Programming, Master Planning, Full-Service Architectural Design, Interior Design, Construction Administration.

Culture

Together, we are…

Fun. We laugh, daily. More than daily. It’s interspersed among diligent work.
Adventurous. Like hiking Mount Everest, walking across the desert, captaining a boat or starting on a road trip with no particular destination in mind.
Creative. We have fantastical ideas and are filled with a childlike obsession to create.
Tactical. We anticipate challenges, forecast solutions and untangle complications before obstacles become major headaches.
Collaborative. We work in a studio environment where all voices are heard, all ideas are tested and all hands are on deck.
Multicultural. Our staff is from Colombia, United Kingdom, Spain, Uganda, Vietnam, all united by their passion for design.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) at Wilson Butler Architects

We aim to create a welcoming work environment in which all employees are accepted, have their voices heard and valued, and have access to equal opportunities for growth and success, both professionally and personally, regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality, orientation, ability, age, etc.

The Client Experience

Together, we…

Embolden our clients to think differently.
Deepen our relationships with our clients to be an extension of their organization.
Believe in a holistic design approach by inviting open and thorough dialogue.
Encourage every client, and every consultant, to be as invested in the design as we are.

“They helped us imagine what we could not imagine on our own.”

– Kelley Shanley, President & CEO Broward Center for the Performing Arts

History and Legacy

We are part of history…

We don’t like to brag often but the roots of our studio reach back to Benjamin Thompson, a founding member of The Architects’ Collaborative (TAC) in Cambridge together with Walter Gropius.
WBA’s founding directors, Scott Wilson and Scott Butler, began careers working for Benjamin Thompson + Associates, a firm that emphasized buildings are about creating a “setting for an enriched way of life.” That approach is still honored today as we design facilities which meet each client’s unique requirements, respond to the individual physical context of each site, and celebrate the joy embodied in the arts.

 

Recent News

  • April 17, 2023

    The Boston Arts Academy Honored with a 2023 AIA Education Facility Design Award.

    The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) has recognized the Boston Arts Academy as a state-of-the-art design of school and learning center.

  • December 30, 2022

    Why we love designing for the Arts & Entertainment.

    As we wrap up a very significant year for our firm – we turned 25 in 2022 – we asked our team about their reasons behind their passion for architecture for the arts and entertainment. Whether it is taking in a painting class, relishing in a great conversation with local artists, or being brought to

  • September 05, 2022

    Launch Event: BSA Cultural Facilities Network, September 15, BSA Space

    As architects, it is our role to design places where communities can feel safe and welcome, where they can find joy, personal enrichment, and an expanded world view. These beliefs drive us to launch the new BSA Cultural Facilities Network*, a forum for practitioners and people interested in cultural spaces and how they shape our environment.