Please join us virtually on Thursday, March 12 at 7PM when Dean Marchetto sits down with Bob Foster for our next episode of Hoboken Talks! This online program will be livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.

Dean Marchetto is the founding principal of Marchetto Higgins Stieve Architects (MHS), a Hoboken-based practice he established in 1981. A licensed architect and planner, he is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, recognized for a career defined by sustained design leadership and a lasting imprint on the built environment of New Jersey’s urban communities.

He graduated magna cum laude from the New York Institute of Technology in 1977 with a Bachelor of Architecture, receiving both the Gold Medal for highest academic achievement in architecture and the Alumni Award for student service. He continued his studies at the American Academy of Rome before beginning his professional apprenticeship at Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects in New York – a firm that, coincidently, later designed Hoboken’s W Hotel.

Marchetto launched his practice as a sole proprietor from his Hoboken ground floor flat at a pivotal moment in the city’s early-1980s redevelopment, when new privately funded residential construction remained uncommon. From the outset, his work sought to reconcile contemporary architectural expression with the scale, texture, and historic continuity of Hoboken’s streetscape.

Over more than four decades of continuous practice, he has played a meaningful role in shaping the city’s architectural trajectory while guiding the firm’s evolution into a multidisciplinary practice of more than 60 professionals. Today, the firm’s work extends across New Jersey and includes complex mixed-use developments and high-rise towers reaching up to 70 stories.

Central to Marchetto’s philosophy is the conviction that enduring architecture emerges from a careful dialogue between past and present. His work is distinguished by a disciplined attention to context, proportion, and urban continuity, coupled with a willingness to introduce a contemporary language where it enriches the relationship between new and old. This integration of heritage and innovation has become a defining characteristic of both his practice and Hoboken’s broader urban transformation.

We’re looking forward to this episode to learn more about Dean’s work and Hoboken architecture. Please tune in on March 12th!