Sierra Bainbridge, Beyond the Building

Sierra Bainbridge is the senior director at MASS Design Group. Sierra began work with MASS in 2008, focusing on landscape architecture, and joined full time in 2009 to finalize design and oversee construction implementation of the Butaro Hospital, MASS’s first project. Currently Sierra directs the ongoing design and implementation of MASS’s planning and architectural projects and is overseeing the Kayanja Center (an academic facility supporting rural health care delivery and research in Uganda), a number of African Conservation Schools in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, and Rwanda, and the Butaro Hospital Expansion Plan, among others. Completed projects she has overseen while at MASS include the Butaro Hospital, the Umubano Primary School, the Butaro Doctors’ Housing, and the Butaro Ambulatory Cancer Center.

Prior to joining MASS, Sierra worked for four years at James Corner Field Operations, primarily in design and oversight of implementation of Section 1 of the New York City High Line. Sierra has taught graduate level studios at various universities and from 2010-2012, Sierra served as Head of the Architecture Department at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Rwanda. At KIST, Sierra was instrumental in shaping the current curriculum. She is invited to speak regularly, including the keynote address at the Healthcare Design Conference, serving as a Sasaki Distinguished Visiting Critic at the Boston Architectural College, and lecturing at the Carter 'Lectures In African Studies' series, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, University of Toronto, and the American Institute of Architects, among others. Select features of Sierra’s work with MASS Design Group include A+U Magazine, Lotus, Mark Magazine, and Detail.

Sierra received her Bachelors of Arts in Art and Architectural History from Smith College and her Masters of Landscape Architecture and Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.