Sean A. Gallagher is a Principal and the Director of Sustainable Design at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as well as adjunct faculty at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

His past work includes the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the U.S. Massena Land Port of Entry, and Microsoft’s “The Square” project.

Most recently, Sean led the biofiltration system design for CanalCafé, which received the prestigious Golden Lion Award for Best National Participation at the 2025 Venice Biennale. He also served as Design Director for the David Rubenstein Forum in Chicago, which was named the 2022 Best Tall Tower Worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).

Currently, he is leading the design of several groundbreaking projects:

– The Pardee School of Global Studies in Boston, the first mass timber tower in a major U.S. city

– Renazca, an eight-city-block urban renewal initiative that introduces a micro-forest to the center of Madrid

Sean believes that a denser, carbon-neutral urban fabric is essential to shaping a more sustainable future. He views this future through the lens of his upbringing in a small Appalachian mountain community, where he was raised by ecologists who instilled in him a deep respect for nature and its systems. Over the past 25 years, he has drawn on that foundation to develop innovative ways of integrating natural systems into the urban environment.