Founded in 2017 by Nina Murrell, AIA, LEED AP to build on more than 20 years of award-winning cultural and educational facility planning and design leadership, MODA partners with mission-driven organizations and businesses to create meaningful, transformative places for education, work, community and culture.
As sole practitioner, Nina Murrell ensures every client has personalized attention from start to finish and every design reflects her clients' unique goals and aspirations. Her clients rave about her ability to listen and truly understand their wishes - and her ability to translate those wishes into functional, beautiful, and inspiring places.
It is Nina's ability to truly hear what her clients are describing that sets her apart from other architects. This skill makes her an excellent partner for turning amorphous, hard-to-describe ideas into designs and beloved places for living, working, and learning.
MODA | Murrell Office for Development and Architecture LLC is located in Austin, Texas and is HUB / WBE Certified by the City of Austin and Texas Comptroller.
Let's turn air
into solid.
A Rice University graduate and Fulbright Scholar practicing architecture since 1996, Nina Murrell's roles prior to founding MODA include New England Market Sector Leader in Education+Culture for SMRT and Design Director / Southcentral Regional Education+Culture Leader for Gensler. In these and earlier roles with Lord Aeck & Sargent, Stanley Beaman & Sears, and Harrison Kornberg, Nina managed and designed large, complex projects for universities, museums, private schools, and independent school districts. The relationships she grew with clients and colleagues in those roles are cherished to this day - and she keeps in touch!
Her published research on audience engagement and the roles of cultural facilities in their communities combined with her involvement in several cultural / educational facility associations to give her the pulse on trends in programs, space use, visitor experience design. The insight she provides her clients is additionally influenced by her leadership roles in commercial real estate associations, empowering her clients to fine tune organizational market positioning while planning for corresponding program and facilities growth.
Nina is a certified facilitator, recognized for her success in shepherding diverse+divergent groups to consensus and shared vision. While catalyzing stakeholder contributions, she leads with a collaborative 'what if' approach that helps her clients try on opportunities for mission-advancing program and spatial synergies that delight visitors, support staff satisfaction and productivity, and optimize construction budgets.