Alan Barker joined Open Architecture Office with a clear purpose: to build a practice where design excellence and development intelligence reinforce each other from the start.

As Partner, Alan brings deep expertise in residential development, client relationships, and the business of architecture. He understands how projects are structured and how deals are made, which makes him a valuable partner when a project is finding its shape.

He comes out of the Booth Hansen lineage of Chicago residential architecture, where he learned design under Larry Booth, and went on to serve as Principal and Residential Market Leader at Lamar Johnson Collaborative, leading residential, mixed-use, and large-scale development work in Chicago and across the country. This trajectory led him to OAO, where he can focus on the work and the people it serves, and build something of his own.

Alongside his development work, Alan is committed to public-facing community projects. He was the architect behind POPCourts! in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, a public space whose success helped shape the city's Public Open Plazas program, and work that OAO continues on Chicago's South and West sides today. It reaches people where they live and gather, and it is central to what OAO stands for.

Alan sees his role as a curator, elevating a team's ideas into a single coherent vision through close collaboration with the developers, owners, and civic partners who trust him to navigate complexity with clarity and care.

Alan holds a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. He brings to OAO not just a network but the discipline to turn relationships into projects and projects into work that matters.

Every great project starts with the right conversation, and that is where Alan begins.