Gary Haney

Gary Paul Haney FRIBA, FAIA (born April 16, 1955) is an American architect, a design partner in the firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Haney's approach draws heavily on environmental modeling techniques, deep materials research, and advanced building information modeling (BIM) technologies.

Buildings on which he was lead designer include the supertall Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait City and civic buildings in the United States including two Public Safety Answering Centers in New York City and the United States Census Bureau headquarters and the redesign of the National Museum of American History, both in Washington, D.C.

Born in Middletown, Ohio, Haney earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design in architecture from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he studied under Richard McCommons, helping him design and construct private residences.

He then became the first employee of the newly formed firm Alesia & Crewell before studying for a Master of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he participated in studios with Michael McKinnell and Gerhard Kallmann and graduated in 1981.

Haney joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a junior designer in the technical department and was certified as a registered architect in 1987.

He became a design partner with the firm in 1996.

The bulk of his career has been in applied design work.

Haney was lead architect with David Childs on the United States Embassy in Ottawa, Ontario, dedicated by President Clinton in October 1999.

The design had to be completely changed after the Oklahoma City bombing required a more secure building.

The building's glazed facade was eliminated, and some walls are four feet thick.

According to architecture critic Benjamin Forgey, Childs and Haney managed to build the structure "like a bunker, without making it look like one".

Haney led the $85 million renovation of the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The highly trafficked museum, with nearly 3 million visitors in 2005, was closed the following year for the renovation, which increased light by creating a five-story atrium and re-organized 300,000 square feet of exhibition space around the original Star-Spangled Banner.

The new U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters in Suitland, Maryland, officially opened in 2007, was designed to accommodate a workforce that fluctuates because of the periodic nature of the census, had to be constructed around operational structures, and was limited to eight stories by site regulations.

Essentially two buildings hewn from a central mass, it is 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) long.

The design uses laminated wood on the facade, seeking to make those inside feel as if they are in a woodland.

It reopened in November 2008.

The building won a Green Good Design award from the Chicago Athenaeum in 2009 and an Award of Excellence in Architecture from the Washington chapter of the AIA in 2012.

Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait City, completed in 2011, is an example of Haney and his team's use of building information modeling (BIM) technologies.

With 77 floors and 412 meters (1,351 ft) tall, it is the tallest building in Kuwait.

The building won a Merit Award from the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2013.

Other notable tall building projects underway, completed, or design-stage submissions by Haney include the Manhattan West Development, Zhong Hong Tower, Shum Yip Upperhills, Longgang Tian’an Cyber Park, International Gem Tower, Baccarat Hotel and Residences, New York, and Al Sharq Tower.

The renovation won an Award of Merit at the 2013 AIA Washington D.C. Design Awards.

Haney also serves as an educator and lecturer.

He has taught at MIT, Miami University, and Ball State University and became a faculty member in architectural practice at Northeastern University in September 2013 and is the current chair of the National Building Museum in Washington.