HiP Awards > People > HiP Designer for Social Impact

Photography by VDT Staff.

Principal, design devotee, and public transit evangelist—Matt Gamache is part of a new generation of leadership at Valerio Dewalt Train. Matt builds strategic partnerships to broaden and diversify dialogue within the profession and to benefit the communities we serve. Leveraging VDT’s status as a legacy firm, these partnerships offer mentorship and shared opportunity to younger, minority-led firms. We also break new ground in collaboration with global design partners to elevate design at every turn. Matt embodies the theory that we can do far greater work in collaboration than we can in competition. A persistent advocate, Matt instigates work that creates value in historically underserved neighborhoods throughout Chicago. These projects have been proving grounds to demonstrate radical modes of earnest community engagement. Leading on projects like Westgate and the Ford Calumet Environmental Center, Matt’s generous listening and expansive vision infuses projects that are mission-oriented from the beginning. Just as impactful, his approach crystallizes meaning in workplace projects like University Research Park, where mission is initially more subtle. Matt’s approach transcends typology, bringing inclusion and design excellence to community-rooted residential projects, sustainable cultural spaces, and urban workplaces alike. The power of design in Matt’s work comes through as much in the way he works, collaborates, listens, and leads, as it does in his prodigious collection of sketches and completed projects. Matt’s most lasting influence will be the way his approach is reshaping our processes and relationships for a world and industry that is not done changing.