WASHINGTON – Donald J. Tellalian, the principal architect of Boston’s Armenian Heritage Park, spoke on September 12 at St. Mary Armenian Church Cultural Hall with more than fifty community members in attendance.
In her introduction, the master of ceremonies, Mrs. Leda Zenian, said, “The Boston Armenian community, led by the Boston chapters of the Knights and Daughters of Vartan, accomplished an extraordinary project under the leadership of our guest, Donald Tellalian. They built a genocide memorial in the heart of Boston, diplomatically called “Armenian Heritage Park,” which was officially opened in 2012 by the foreign minister of the Republic of Armenia and the governor of Massachusetts. The whole project cost 6.5 million dollars. All Armenian organizations—namely more than 35 of them—worked together and raised the funds under the guidance of Barbara Chrakian Tellalian, the wife of our guest speaker, who is also present here with us.”
Donald J. Tellalian (AIA), recently retired, was the founding principal of Tellalian Associates Architects & Planners, LLC, a Boston based firm whose projects include several preeminent cultural, educational and historic institutions.
Among his many projects are the Museum of National Heritage, Lexington, Mass.; Harvard’s Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Mass. (working with the design architect Sir James Stirling, London); The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, Winchendon, Mass.; Ironworkers Local 7 Headquarters and Apprentice Training Facility, Boston, Mass., as well as the preservation/restoration of the Massachusetts Historical Society and Old State House, Boston, MA, for which he received the Bostonian Society’s John Hancock Award for Preservation of Boston’s Historic Heritage.
His professional and community service includes course lectures and design juries at the Boston Architectural College and Wentworth Institute of Technology and serving, for many years, on the Newton Historical Commission. He is the recipient of the Historic Newton Preservation Award. Don served as Parish Council Chair, Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Greater Boston, Cambridge and most recently as designer/architect of Armenian Heritage Park on The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston.
Born in Troy, NY, he graduated from Troy High School in 1954 and went on to Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with highest honors with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1959. As a Palmer Fellow, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Architecture from Princeton University in 1962. A recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in 1965, he pursued independent studies at the Universita degli Studi di Roma on the subject of Environments for Art, A Study of Museums and Exhibit throughout Italy.
