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Mission

Margaret Sullivan Studio collaborates with forward-thinking civic and cultural organizations. We envision, program, and design social impact, social justice, and educational institutions for the future.

We create conditions for communities to flourish.

Margaret Sullivan Studio uses design to empower public libraries and other mission-driven institutions to realize their fullest potential. We create experiences and advance places that contribute to community improvement and individual enlightenment.

Our country’s public spaces and institutions can strengthen communities and enable social cohesion with intentional design and innovation. Our strategies foster cultural identity and community gathering, broadening experiences and learning for all!

We help clients envision their preferred future.

Our Studio provides strategic planning, master facilities planning, architecture and interior design, organizational development, and community engagement services. 

We continually evolve our design process and grow our understanding so that we are able to transform visions into tangible realities. Our ideas help move the public library industry towards a community-centered model through the utilization of participatory, service, and human-centered design.  Our work empowers clients to catalyze their communities! 

We are national experts.

Our Studio connects innovators, futurists, and contemporary library service ideas to librarians and community leaders, and we continue to revolutionize the industry by introducing impact-driven techniques to public space and experience design. We devise new methodologies and design strategies to reflect the Aspen Institute’s “People, Places and Platforms” and American Library Association’s “Libraries Transform” approach. 

Since the firm’s establishment in 2014, Margaret Sullivan Studio has worked with over forty public library systems to define their 21st century library. These organizations include New York Public Library, Richland (SC) Library, D.C. Public Library, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, New Haven Free Public Library, Salt Lake City Public Library, and Memphis Public Library. 

We uphold our clients’ values.

Our team ensures the realization of strategic goals by applying an iterative design process and collaborating with experts. We serve as liaison, steward, translator, and integrator to uphold our clients’ goals. We facilitate communication among multi-disciplinary practitioners to maintain a culture of inquiry for powerful results. 

Team
Margaret Sullivan
Lyna Vuong
Suzy Goldberg
Emily Buttner
Jordi Prieto
Margaret Sullivan,

Principal
Margaret Sullivan is a national thought leader in assisting public libraries envision their preferred future. Since founding her firm Margaret Sullivan Studio in 2014, she has worked with the country’s leading library systems including the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, New York Public Library, DC Public Library, Richland (SC) Library, Salt Lake City Public Library and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library on a variety of projects including Strategic Planning, Master Facilities Planning, Visioning, Programming, Architecture & Interior Design and Staff Workshops. She is a national leader in effective Community Engagement, conducting meaningful dialogue to foster community goals. She leads a studio of designers who skillfully collaborate with stakeholders and the design team to represent a holistic understanding of the institution’s service model and is a leader in translating these design goals into physical spaces. Prior to establishing her own firm, Margaret worked for prestigious architecture firms including H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture as Director of Interior Design. In 2017, Margaret was named one of Interior Design Magazine’s Rising Stars. margaret@margaretsullivanllc.com
Lyna Vuong,

Interior Designer
Lyna has worked with Margaret for over fifteen years designing community-based projects. Lyna is a certified interior designer and is skilled at bringing ideas to life through designing and creating environments that enhance the project’s goals. She approaches each project with a keen eye for detail and craft; whether the goals are sophisticated or playful, Lyna’s approach to interiors captures the essence of place and uses interior design to enhance the project goals and user experience.

Lyna holds a master’s degree in food studies from New York University; her focus includes food advocacy and the examination of food systems and its effects on our communities, health, and environment. She explores the intersection of design and food, and the ways that issues can be creatively addressed to create impactful experiences that advance equity among communities. Lyna is fluent in conversational Mandarin and is also a trained health-supportive chef.

Recent article published: Ingrained (a personal story about rice, its history, family and identity). Peddler Journal, Issue Three
Recent proud moment: Running along 26,000 people in the Brooklyn Half Marathon— the country’s largest!
lyna@margaretsullivanllc.com
Suzy Goldberg,

Design Intern
Suzy is a graduate from Kenyon College with a degree in sociology and a passion for urban studies and design. Her undergraduate coursework as a sociology major, studio art minor, and environmental studies concentrator has allowed her to examine contemporary issues through several different lenses. Last year, Suzy held an internship at the Urban Design Forum, a nonprofit in New York City, where she conducted research on the city's homelessness crisis, as well as the ways in which urban design impacts public health. More recently, she participated in UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design’s Summer Institute in City Planning, where she partook in discussions with planning professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area regarding institutional, political, social, economic, and environmental policy and design challenges. Her ultimate goal is to advocate for sustainable and equitable design within constantly shifting landscapes. As a Design Intern, she tries to view each project through an imaginative and multidisciplinary lens.

Fun fact: Suzy and her friend have a lifelong goal to cook a dish with someone in all 50 states and then write a cookbook about it. suzy@margaretsullivanllc.com
Emily Buttner,

Intern Interior Designer
Emily Buttner earned her BFA in Interior Design from Pratt Institute. During her time in school she found that her passion in design was research-based investigations into the intersection of design, social justice, art, and theory. She also studied Urban Design in Copenhagen where she learned about the unique Scandinavian approach to creating democratic and sustainable urban spaces. Emily has a diverse educational background in fine art, interior design, urban design, and liberal arts. She believes that this multidisciplinary approach is important to creating equity in urban environments. Her interests are in artists and designers who work radically in their field and are able to break down barriers, which is her goal as a designer. Outside of design, Emily is a film buff who also loves books and reading after she worked in an art and design library for years. In her spare time, she makes art in different mediums, from weaving and knitting to printing and painting emily@margaretsullivanllc.com
Jordi Prieto,

Intern
Jordi joins MSS this summer as an SYEP intern through the PENCIL program. Jordi is a senior at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School where he excels in art and environmental science. He has an interest in the arts like photography and graphic design and looks up to many contemporary artists that drive his enthusiasm for the arts. Jordi finds it fascinating how artists use different mediums to vividly depict socio-economic issues over changing cultural and political landscapes. Jordi is considering a career in environmental engineering or the arts as he explores colleges to apply to. He aspires to create community through eco-friendly spaces that will not only have a positive impact on the environment but also the human experience.

Fun fact: Jordi is an open-minded music enthusiast who listens to all kinds of music from R&B and oldies, to grindcore, alternative, indie rock, and other genres. In his spare time, he loves to scour thrift stores to collect vinyl records even though he doesn’t own a record player— yet.
jprieto2603@gmail.com
Collaborators

We partner with national leaders and experts to collaborate and create customized processes and solutions to meet each project's goals.

Arch Nexus

Architecture Salt Lake City, UT archnexus.com

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Architecture San Francisco, CA bcj.com

Boudreaux

Architecture Columbia, SC https://www.boudreauxgroup.com/

Cannon Design

Architecture New York, NY cannondesign.com

HR&A

Economic Development New York, NY https://www.hraadvisors.com/

McMillan Pazdan Smith

Architecture Greenville, SC archnexus.com

Mitchell Giurgola

Architecture New York, NY mitchellgiurgola.com

Simpson Coulter Studio

Architecture Las Vegas, NV simpsoncoulter.com

WGM Architects

Architecture Annapolis, MD wgm-arch.com

Einwiller Kuehl

Landscape Architecture Oakland, CA einwillerkuehl.com

Danielle Milam

Urban Planner, Community Developer, Organizational Innovator Las Vegas, NV

Karp Strategies

Community Planning, Urban Planning, Strategy Consulting New York, NY https://www.karpstrategies.com/

LGA Architecture

Architecture Las Vegas, NV https://lgaarchitecture.com/

KME Architects

Architecture Las Vegas, NV https://www.kmearchitects.com/

Maureen Sullivan

Library Organization Development Consultant East Haddam, CT

Patrick Quattlebaum

Service Design & Strategy Atlanta, GA thisisharmonic.com

PGAL Architecture

Architecture Houston, TX https://www.pgal.com/about-pgal/locations

Roberta Phillips

Chief Executive Officer, Prince George's County Memorial Library District Prince George's County, Maryland