About

Janet founded her office, JHA – Janet Hurwitz Architects, over 30 years ago. Since that time she has completed more than 90 projects – 30 of those within Historic Districts in and around Boston.  Other projects are located throughout Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Colorado. Her work ranges from interior renovations to additions and new construction: focused on residential, but including commercial, educational, and health care.  Janet is responsible for all phases of architectural services including design, construction documents, construction administration, and presentations to public agencies.  “Context” is her unifying design philosophy – whether an addition to an historic structure, or a new building in woodlands.

Prior to starting JHA, Janet worked for Stull and Lee Inc. in Boston, and Louis Sauer Associates in Philadelphia. Her work for these offices included: Project Urban Designer for the relocated Orange Line from Back Bay Station to Forest Hills Station in Boston, MA, Project Architect for the Occupational Industrialization Center in Roxbury, MA, and Urban Designer and community process designer for the Fells Point Plan in Baltimore, MD. She later returned to Stull and Lee as a consultant acting as Project Urban Designer for the MBTA Light Rail Accessibility Study.

Janet has been a mayoral appointee on multiple Boston planning and development studies and served as Co Chair of the Architecture Committee for the Neighborhood Association of Back Bay, which presented her the Citizenship Award in 2006. Beyond her professional and civic work, she has been a guest juror at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Boston Architectural Center, and Roger Williams University. As a part-time lecturer at Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Public History, Janet developed and taught a course entitled “Context and Continuity: An International Look at Historic Preservation”

Janet has a BA from Washington University in St Louis, majoring in architecture, and Masters Degrees from Washington University School of Architecture as well as the George Warren Brown School of Social Work where she focused her graduate studies on user participation in planning and design. While there she received the Women in Architecture and Allied Arts Award as well as the American Institute of Architects Scholastic Award. Her article entitled “Participatory Planning in an Urban Neighborhood, Soulard, St Louis Missouri: A Case Study” was published in the DMG-DRS Journal: Design Research and Methods. Her work has been published in the Boston Globe, Design New England, Boston Home and Traditional Home.

Janet is a dedicated urbanite and raised her two sons in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.