Nicolas Charbonneau

Principal, Studio Director

Nic received his calling to Architecture during a study abroad trip to Italy. A visit to the 16th-century San Giorgio Maggiore basilica sparked an interest in the work of Andrea Palladio, and the Classical tradition of which he was exemplary. In the exquisitely refined palaces and churches of the Renaissance, Nic saw that classical architecture was deeply beautiful, in its forms and proportions as well as the nobility of its principles, and he resolved to pursue design and the building arts. After an internship with an architecture firm, Nic attended the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, and attained his Master of Architecture in 2009. Nic joined Harrison Design in 2015 as Director of the Sacred Architecture Studio in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has overseen all phases of design for a diverse group of projects, ranging from intricately detailed interior renovation projects to large-scale ecclesiastical and institutional projects. Nic is married and the father of six children.

John Parker Wilmeth

John Parker first dreamed of building churches while sitting in the gardens of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel at Thomas Aquinas College, his Alma Mater. While earning his Master of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame, he enjoyed designing churches in a variety of styles as a means to more fully understanding the deep symbolic meaning and rich history of sacred spaces of the Church. An additional year, earning him a Master of Urban Design, led to a richer understanding of the entirety of the human environemnt and its interaction with creation as a whole. At Harrison Design, he has assisted with several renovation projects, including the design of wood and marble liturgical furnishings, as well as schematic design and construction administration of several new builds.

Joshua Greene

While studying in Rome and Florence, Joshua first encountered the most exemplary sacred architecture of the Catholic Church, which instilled in him a desire to serve the Church directly through architecture. For his Master’s thesis at California Baptist University, Joshua choose a Catholic parish design project. After intensive study of Catholic architectural tradition and theology, he defended his thesis and won the ICAA Julia Morgan Award for Excellence in Classical Design. Following graduation Joshua spent half a year on a missionary pilgrimage with the Catholic Community of the Beatitudes, living at monasteries and traveling across Israel to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. He has architectural experience in California and Washington D.C. across a wide variety of building types from commercial and educational to higher-ed and sacred.

Michael Bursch

Michael fell in love with church architecture while visiting churches both home and abroad during his high school years. His degrees of architecture and theology from the University of Notre Dame gave him both the tools of architectural design and understanding the profound sacramentality of the built environment. His student design work and renderings have garnered him an Acanthus Award and a John Russell Pope Award from the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture. Michael has enjoyed working on all types of religious projects, seeking to create transcendent spaces that use the material world to point to the immaterial. At Harrison Design, he has assisted with schematic design for both renovations and new construction, as well as the design of liturgical furnishings.

Natalie Pratt

Natalie’s interest in architecture began at the University of Notre Dame, where her eyes were opened to the power of architecture to affect and uplift people. She graduated from Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Architecture with a concentration in furniture design, which allowed her to develop her design skills at the urban and architectural scale alongside the detail scale with her design and construction of wood furniture. Her education culminated in her thesis design of a pilgrimage church, which was awarded an ICAA Acanthus Award. After graduation, she came to Harrison Design, where she has assisted with a variety of church projects in different phases, which has allowed her to continue to follow her passion for sacred architecture.