Hans C. Herrmann, AIA, ASLA, NCARB, LEED AP
Hans grew up as a traveler, with his father an architect by trade, working in Germany and later Saudi Arabia, and finally in the U.S. Virgin Islands before his family settled down on the shores of the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York. After graduating from Clemson University in South Carolina with his Master of Architecture ( 2003) he moved to New York City where he practiced with Ike Kligerman Barkley doing custom residential design projects from Martha's Vinyard to San Francisco, West Bloomfield, MI, to Alys Beach and Miami Florida. More recently he lived in Starkville, Mississippi where he taught at Mississippi State University as a professor of architecture while simultaneously earning his Master of Landscape Architecture (2017). In both his practice and teaching he has been fortunate to explore design at the highest of levels, receiving state, national, and international awards and recognitions from organizations such as the American Institute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, culminating in a portion of his design work being exhibited at the AIA National Headquarters Octagon Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, NY.
In the spring of 2019 as part of his practice-focused teaching and scholarship, he helped to establish a non-profit organization, the Design Leadership Foundation (DLF), whose mission was to support historically underrepresented, first-generation, and financially disadvantaged students of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design. SHM Architects emerged as a leading contributor and advocate of the organization's philanthropic and professional mentorship goals. Working closely with SHM's senior leadership on DLF initiatives, Hans soon found himself able to also work with them as a part of their professional design team. Bringing landscape design into the firm's collaborative multi-disciplinary approach first as a consultant, he eventually left teaching to join SHM full-time as the landscape studio head and Associate Principal in 2024.
As an educator, his research focused on issues of professional collaboration and the benefits and efficiencies of interdisciplinary design thinking. These areas of focus carry directly into his practice where he's focused on the critical and poetic union of design and construction. Joining SHM to bring an expanded suite of services under one umbrella was an easy decision. As a licensed landscape architect and architect, Hans strives to help clients bring unity to their vision for the home by bridging the many facets of the projects' realization effort while always focusing on desire as a key aspect of custom residential design.
Outside of design, he enjoys tinkering with his vintage Porsche and restoring vehicles such as his 1964 Vespa Allstate. If he's not at work or spending time with his wife and daughter, you can find him at a local car and coffee event or track day, pushing his car to the limit of his nerve.