Peter Noonan pursues design excellence as an architect and teacher, thoughtfully shaping the communities he serves. He designs buildings with sophisticated craft, creating immersive, sensory-rich spaces while mentoring the next generation of accomplished architects.
For three decades, Peter Noonan has parlayed a passion for building craft, place-making and exceptional design into an interconnected career in architectural practice and teaching. His work shapes communities and impacts individuals, with over 70 completed projects and hundreds of students nurtured by his teaching.
Building Craft & Design Excellence
Noonan’s passion for paring strong architectural concepts with building craft, systems integration, and design excellence has been the cornerstone of his career in both the professional and university realms. As a principal at McInturff Architects, one of the region’s most highly respected architecture firms, Noonan plays a key leadership role in a very small practice recognized with hundreds of peer-reviewed design awards.
His early focus on bespoke residential projects evolved into overseeing larger, more complex community, commercial, and mixed-use developments. His projects earned over 90 peer-reviewed design awards at the regional and national levels, including accolades for design detailing and emerging talent early in his career. Noonan’s unwavering commitment to tectonic craft lies at the core of every project, driving each design with precision and artistry.
Igniting Design Excellence in Tomorrow’s Architects
Alongside his professional design achievements, Noonan significantly contributes to architectural design education. Appointed as Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland in 2007, and reappointed four times since, he consistently brings dedicated design excellence into the studio.
Noonan expertly led the Integrated Design Studio for a decade, with efforts praised during the 2007 and 2011 NAAB accreditation visits. The visiting team highlighted the program’s strength in “Integrated Building Practices, Technical Skills, and Knowledge” and commended the integration among students, faculty, professionals, and the community in developing sophisticated design solutions.
His design teaching emphasizes sustainability, integration, and building craft, with strong evidence of student competence through drawings, models, and multimedia formats.
Under Noonan’s mentorship, student designs won two AIA COTE Top Ten for Students competition awards. His Housing + Mass-Timber studio earned 1st place in the international ACSA Timber in the City Competition in 2019, placing again in 2024, a level of recognition no other design educator has achieved. As initiator and Director of the SCANDINAVIA: Culture & Place education abroad program since 2010, Noonan continues to expand learning beyond the classroom, offering students culturally immersive experiences around the world.
Design Inquiry and Teaching focused on a full engagement of all the senses
In his graduate seminar Sensing Architecture: Body & Place, Noonan fosters design considerations beyond just vision. This design inquiry led to a collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind, engaging visually impaired high school students from across the country. The program featured architect Chris Downey, a nationally recognized advocate for architecture for the blind.
Noonan’s innovative and inclusive teaching earned him the Outstanding Professional Track Faculty Teaching Award in 2012, 2016, and 2020. Noonan’s design process and built work continually strives for a full sensory engagement with the environment, beyond just the visual.
Peter Noonan impacts lives by crafting beautifully designed places, and teaching others in turn to design.