PRACTICE
Building Ground Architecture is an architecture and design firm rooted in transformative solutions. Project types include adaptive reuse and new construction of residential, commercial and institutional spaces.
MISSION
We believe architecture should emerge from the ecological, cultural, and material conditions of a place. Architecture grows from the ground that sustains it—its landscapes, communities, economies, and histories. Through mass timber and other types of material focused construction, architecture reveals the transformation of forest into shelter, making visible the relationships between land, climate, labor, and habitation. Buildings are not isolated objects but living participants in larger cycles of growth, stewardship, and regeneration.
RESEARCH
The Pennsylvania Hardwood Mass Timber Research initiative explores how Pennsylvania's abundant hardwood forests can support a new generation of sustainable, affordable, and regionally sourced mass timber buildings. The research seeks to establish a direct connection between forest resources, advanced wood manufacturing, housing production, economic development, and climate resilience.
At its core, the work investigates how underutilized Pennsylvania hardwood species—particularly yellow poplar (tulip poplar)—can be engineered into high-performance mass timber products for multifamily housing, institutional buildings, and community development projects.
Traditional notions of figure-ground are rooted in two-dimensional representations that contrast positive built space with negative un-built space. Building Ground attempts to blur these boundaries with each project. Through thoughtfully integrating architecture, interior design, site planning and landscape design, beginning in the concept phase of each project and extending through construction, Building Ground Architecture lays the groundwork for innovation. Our fundamental interest is to design more robust environments that optimistically shape everyday life at all scales.
TEAM
Brad Groff, Principal
Brad is a licensed architect with 20 years experience in PA, NY, DC and DE. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and received his Bachelor of Architecture (2002) from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (2007). He is LEED Green Associate and a member of the AIA. Previously, Brad worked professionally at SHoP Architects and Ennead in New York, NY. Academically, he has taught or been a teaching assistant at Penn State University, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Parsons.
Zach Toth, Intern Architect
Zach is a recent graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, earning his Master’s in Architecture from WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. In 2022, he earned a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Pittsburgh, and was awarded multiple teaching assistantships during his coursework. While at WashU, Zach was a recipient of the CityStudioSTL fellowship, working to support urban streetscaping efforts in St. Louis’s Grand Center Arts District. Throughout his graduate coursework, he has maintained interests in the performing arts, digital fabrication, and regenerative design; and has had design work featured in local gallery and research exhibitions.
Jessica Adenuga, Intern Architect
Carnegie Mellon University