Pioneer Information
This practice, consisting of partners Sidney Shurcliff, Vincent Merrill, and Douglas Footit, was a successor firm to the original office established by Shurcliff’s father Arthur Asahel Shurcliff in 1904. Sidney Shurcliff began working in his father’s firm in 1930 following his graduation from Harvard University and became a partner three years later, forming Shurcliff & Shurcliff. In 1954, when his father retired, Shurcliff partnered with Merrill to form Shurcliff & Merrill. Douglas Footit became a partner in 1968. After his addition to the firm, the office never exceeded three partners and three draftsmen, even after venturing into new areas of practice in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The firm relied upon traditional business practices supported by personal relationships and referrals. Its name reverted to Shurcliff & Merrill in 1977.
The firm’s work, mainly focused in New England, involved both new commissions and ongoing projects inherited from earlier versions of the firm. Shurcliff & Merrill began working on campus planning projects at Chatham College in Pittsburgh in 1964, and the work was continued by Shurcliff, Merrill & Footit into the 1970s. The last major project a Shurcliff firm was involved with at Mount Holyoke College, a commission Shurcliff inherited from his father, was the renovation of the 1904 Garden (1971). Also that year they designed a roof garden for the 39th floor of architect Edward Barnes’ New England Merchants Bank in Boston, and three years later the firm redesigned the summit of Bussey Hill at Arnold Arboretum in Boston, adding seating.
