Stuart Emmons, FAIA
Stuart Emmons is a national leader in designing and implementing modular housing. As an architect and community leader, he demonstrates that innovation in housing is essential to making transformational progress in addressing our housing crisis.
Stuart Emmons has been innovating in housing since 2008, after 20 years in architecture and planning. His unique background, knowledge, experiences and determination, have given him the tools to help make a significant impact on our housing crisis. He is doing this directly through his projects: standardized units and factory designs, and tangentially as a Modular Building Institute Board Member, working with architects and modular manufacturers, and giving talks and writing articles nationwide.
In 2025, Emmons was elevated to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. From the AIA website: 'AIA Fellows are recognized for their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society. ... Less than 3% of AIA members hold the prestigious FAIA designation.'
Prior to Architecture, Emmons was a journeyman furniture maker and trained in manufacturing. Emmons holds a Bachelors of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and a Masters of Architecture degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Emmons is a board member of the Modular Building Institute.
Emmons AIA Video
Emmons 2025 AIA Awards remarks
Roots
Stuart Emmons’ early career in furniture manufacturing turned out to be the perfect foundation for his future as an innovator in housing. He became an expert in standardized products and manufacturing techniques. This background gives him the experience in manufacturing methodology to design innovative solutions that are efficient to manufacture.
This hands-on experience reemerged in 2017 - 2022: Emmons was employed in two modular manufacturing plants where he oversaw first-hand modular housing manufacturing. His architectural designs for standardized modular housing units have been enhanced by Emmons’ foundation in manufacturing. And, Emmons’ forward-thinking plans for component and volumetric modular housing manufacturing plants, featuring rapid module fabrication, have been made possible by Emmons’ manufacturing background.
Emmons’ passion for architecture and planning started at a very early age. But his path to architecture was ‘derailed’ by the Crafts Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, where artisans and designers (and Emmons) sought to design and also make the things they designed. Full control of the product was the goal.
Emmons became a master craftsman in wood, and later a trade union journeyman cabinetmaker in the early 1980s. In London, this interest evolved into furniture production, and design for manufacturing efficiencies, to allow his designs to be affordable for more people. Prior to going to architecture school, Emmons had his own woodworking business that designed and made some early versions of KD furniture that focused on a kit of parts that were easy to assemble.
Stuart Emmons was selected to be VP Strategic Development at the modular housing start-up Blokable in 2017, and designed and built prototypes for modular affordable housing. In 2022, in partnership with Silver Creek Industries, a leading modular housing manufacturer in Southern California, he worked hands-on in the factory while coordinating with architects, engineers and manufacturers. Aside from his modular housing projects, Emmons has also researched manufacturing plants across the country in an effort to find the most efficient way to design and build factory-built housing.
Community
Homelessness Emmons has had a career-long passion to address homelessness, feeling a pressing responsibility to not leave this issue for the next generation to solve. It started in Santa Monica when Emmons designed a shelter for homeless women. The residents’ stories shocked him. Then on a journey through designing shelters and housing for people without homes throughout his career. During the 2016 Portland City Council campaign, Emmons rode his bike across Portland stopping to talk to over a hundred people living outside, to better understand why people were there, and gaining valuable insights into how to end homelessness. Emmons now is focusing on housing innovation to get people housed.
Schools Stuart Emmons started out as a parent volunteer for an after-school program for his son Will. Loving working with students and teachers, Emmons started doing volunteer work for the entire school, and was appointed to the school’s foundation board. With an eye to equity outcomes and avoiding homelessness, Emmons started planning programs in schools with low graduation rates, with a special focus on arts programs. Elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and the school district: Emmons’ contribution to schools in Portland is significant. At his son’s graduation, Emmons was honored with the highest parent volunteer award, the Hal Hart Award.
Preservation Memorial Coliseum was scheduled to be razed in 2009 and replaced by a low cost minor league stadium. After a contentious public presentation run by the Mayor and city power brokers, Stuart Emmons and his colleague Brian Libby founded Friends of Memorial Coliseum. The building was a mid-century masterwork designed by SOM. Through a massive flurry of community education, articles, flyers, testimonies, social media posts, websites, and speaking engagements led by Emmons and Libby, The Portland community learned about why this architectural gem needed to be saved. Our strategy worked, the building was saved, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation classified the Coliseum as a ‘National Treasure’ in 2017. Memorial Coliseum's renovation was just opened in December 2025.
Politics Homelessness in Portland, Oregon was getting far worse. No one seemed to have solutions or even prioritize the issue. As an architect, Emmons needed to follow the lead of political leaders, but leadership was not focused on homelessness - and Emmons had concrete ideas to address the issue. So, in 2016, Emmons ran for Portland City Council - a five person Council running a major US city with a population over 630,000. For 6 months during the political campaign, Emmons spoke about homelessness and the need for housing with citizens across the City, practically every night, helping to open eyes, enlighten, and energize. Emmons came within 750 votes of winning a Council seat. Emmons’ campaign resulted in homelessness and housing issues becoming far more of an on-going priority in the community.
