Darin Jellison

Principal and President, Blackney Hayes

Everyone of a certain age with a passion for improving learning spaces for children has an “origin story” that describes the moment our architectural training and understanding of cognitive science joins forces with school leadership who understand that the built environment can help or hinder a school’s mission. For Mr. Jellison, that story began in 2004 in an unlikely place during the first days of designing a new public middle school in suburban Philadelphia.

“We would like to design our school so the students feel a sense of community” awakened the sense that not only can the idea of a school mean different things to different people, but that the school building itself plays an active role in shaping lives. And we need only to listen to the nuance from educators at each school and the science behind it. That simple act of listening before creating is now at the cultural heart of Blackney Hayes, the architecture and interior design firm Mr. Jellison now leads, and in the dozens of independent, public, and charter schools on which the firm has been privileged to collaborate.

Mr. Jellison received a B.Arch. from Cornell University, and practiced in Boston for several years before relocating to the Philadelphia area. He lives in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania where he spends his time admiring his family: teenage children Noah and Kate, and his wife Kristen, who is an Associate Dean in the College of Engineering at Lehigh University. He is recognized internationally as an architect and as a singer-songwriter, affiliated with Guilt By Association Records.

Events Darin Jellison has attended as a speaker: