Chris McVoy

Chris McVoy (born 1964) is an American architect based in New York. He is a design partner at O'Neill McVoy Architects, the architectural firm in Brooklyn he co-founded with architect Beth O'Neill. For over two decades, he was senior partner at Steven Holl Architects and is partner emeritus.

McVoy's work has focused on the design and construction of cultural and educational buildings, as well as the integration of new structures into sites of cultural and historical significance. Among the projects for which he served as partner in charge with Steven Holl Architects are the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Bloch Building (2007), the University of Iowa Visual Arts Building (2016), the REACH expansion of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2019), and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston campus extension (2020). His projects at O'Neill McVoy include the Bronx Children's Museum (2022) and Church Hill Community Hybrid (2021).

Education and career McVoy was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1964. He earned a BA in architecture from the University of Virginia in 1986 and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University in 1992.

After graduating, he worked with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects for a year. In 1994, he joined Steven Holl Architects (SHA) and was named the firm's first partner in 2000. Architecture historian Barry Bergdoll called the work "transformative," stating that "Holl, McVoy and their associates bypassed a literal interpretation of the brief…to reimagine the very relationship of the institution's functions to the landscape and the adjacent city fabric." Curvilinear carve-outs in structure bring daylight deep into the building and create a staircase-wrapped atrium that provides ventilation and anchors movement. The designers built lounge areas into circulation routes to encourage interaction and collaboration.

In the 2010s, the firm created a nearly 500,000 square foot expansion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston which included the Glassell School of Art (2018) and Kinder Museum Building (2020), together with underground passageways linking multiple buildings. The Kinder Museum offers 184,000 square feet of modern and contemporary art galleries with a film theater, restaurant, café and conference center. Its design centralizes natural light with a translucent glass tube façade together with a diffused-light roof treatment that emulates clouds. The roof and ribbon staircase are noted for their hidden-structure design which create a "floating" appearance. —as well as the Campbell Sports Center at Columbia University (2013) and Hunters Point Community Library (2019).

Projects at O'Neill McVoy Architects In 2021, O'Neill McVoy designed a four-story, multi-use building complex in Richmond's Church Hill North neighborhood, housing a culinary school together with affordable residential units and commercial space in a 50,000 square foot structure. An O'Neill McVoy residential project, Clinton Hill Courtyard House (2016), was honored by the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) and The Architect's Newspaper.

Recognition for SHA projects for which McVoy served as partner in charge include: a Barrier-Free America Award from Paralyzed Veterans of America (2022) and an AIANY Design Honor Award (2020) for the Kennedy Center REACH; AIANY (2020) and SARA (2019) honors for the Hunters Point Community Library; Architizer and AIANY (2018) honors for the Institute for Contemporary Art, VCU; and a "Best of the Year in Education" Interior Design Magazine (2016) award and AIANY honor for the University of Iowa Visual Arts Building.

In 2025, McVoy received a MacDowell fellowship for architecture-design.

Selected projects