The Architect’s Newspaper acknowledges the work of national leaders in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry through our awards programs. Whether through the realization of captivating projects (recognized through our Best of Design Awards) or the creation of unique items (realized through our Best of Products Awards), AN supports the AEC industry as a trusted source for news, products, developments, trends, and updates.
With our Best of Practice Award, AN tips our hat to North American firms excelling at every level of the AEC industry. Honoring firms of all sizes working in all regions, the award offers a snapshot of what practice looks like today.
AN convened a group of leading minds to assess the entries and select the winners for this year’s Best of Practice Awards. The jury chose winners and honorable mentions according to relevant criteria. The winners demonstrate that the establishment of a successful company is as valuable as the creation of a singular building or the production of a popular product. Scroll on to see the winning firms!
The Best of Practice Awards Jury:
Chris T. Cornelius
Principal & Founder
Sam Alison-Mayne
Co-Founder
DK Osseo-Asare
Cofounding Principal
Coren Sharples
Principal
Melissa Shin
Founding Partner
Victor “Trey” Trahan III
Founder & CEO
Aaron Seward
Editor in Chief
Samuel Medina
Contributing Editor
Categories:
Architect (Large Firm) – Midwest
Winner
“Ross Barney Architects should be recognized for the firm’s long-standing commitment to collaborative and inclusive civic engagement and for using design as a tool to empower communities and to bring greater equity and accessibility to the public realm.” —Coren Sharples
Honorable Mention
Architect (Large Firm) – Northeast
Winner
Leers Weinzapfel Associates (LWA)
“With a clear focus on the cultural and historical context of each project, LWA’s body of work demonstrates that a project’s unique location should result in a building that is responsive. Not defined by style, but more so by a building’s performance, the work seems particularly adept at navigating various typologies.” —Trey Trahan
Honorable Mentions
Architect (Large Firm) – Southeast
Winner
“HASTINGS Architecture leads by example through proactive investment in sustainability, converting Nashville’s former city library into their office and supporting young designers through registration. The result is a resonant architecture rooted in place.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Honorable Mention
Oppenheim Architecture + Design
Architect (Large Firm) – Southwest
Winner
“It’s rare for a firm to take on the project diversity of EDR’s portfolio and retain a sense of resonance across scales. Perhaps it’s the environmental extremes we face in New Orleans or the spectacular cuisine…..whatever the case the work of EDR manifests something particular to their homebase.” —Trey Trahan
Architect (Large Firm) – West
Winner
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (EYRC)
“EYRC has set an extremely high standard for practice through its expansive portfolio of quality work, a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and an investment in staff organized initiatives in order to maintain an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability.” —Melissa Shin
Honorable Mention
Architect (New Firm) – West
Winner
“Emerging practice archemy.LA offers an outsized dedication to diversity and community, pioneering a contemporary ‘turnkey,’ design-build approach to deliver residential worlds, designed for life, to a broader public.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Architect (Small Firm) – Midwest
Winner
“I was impressed by how the firm has managed to scale up but remain true to their roots—the integration of art, architecture and fabrication. In doing so they’ve transformed a challenge into an asset that defines their brand.” —Coren Sharples
Honorable Mention
Architect (Small Firm) – Northeast
Winner
“The virtuosic work of Young Projects engages with innovative material research, complex geometric form, and provocative aesthetic inquiries. Their projects capture a wide range, from the scale of a table to a resort, showing a commitment to the practice of architecture that eliminates any preconceived notions of what a small practice can achieve.” —Melissa Shin
Honorable Mentions
Architect (Small Firm) – Southeast
Winner
“Katherine Hogan Architects reinvents conventions of architecture to challenge how society’s injustices are structured into the built environment, including exploring an expanded mode of practice that includes roles as contractor, owner and developer.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Honorable Mention
Architect (Small Firm) – Southwest
Winner
“Marlon and his firm continue to leave a lasting impact on the built environment of Northwest Arkansas. His work continues to be novel, thoughtful, and provocative despite working within constraints that would normally diminish a project—they always find a way to deliver projects that are unexpected and clever.” —Trey Trahan
Honorable Mention
Architect (Small Firm) – West
Winner
“Kevin Daly Architects unanimously raises the standard for practice, championing architecture at the highest level of design and execution. The firm approaches the industry with a criticality and curiosity that stems from expertise, and is leading the conversation about housing and construction methodologies. This practice displays a continual commitment to innovation, new avenues of collaboration, and professional mentorship, establishing a new precedent by which architects should engage with the profession and society at large.” —Melissa Shin
Honorable Mentions
Architect (XL Firm) – Northeast
Winner
“SGA synthesizes their sustainable architecture, design, and planning expertise into a novel building technology framework that accelerates the impact of new innovation on society by means of flexible life science lab facilities that are designed to evolve.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Honorable Mention
Architect (XL Firm) – Midwest
Winner
“Among the world’s global firms of impressive staffing size, Cannon stands out as a firm that is delivering thoughtful solutions across a wide range of typologies.” —Trey Trahan
Architect (XL Firm) – Southwest
Winner
“CallisonRTKL advocates for architecture to operate as an agent for positive social, cultural, and environmental transformation, using a human-centered design jointly with clients to address complex global challenges of climate and equity through the future-proofing of place.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Architect (XL Firm) – West
Winner
“Miller Hull has been committed to sustainable design long before it was fashionable or marketable. They deserve to be recognized for their prescient vision and leadership in what is now recognized as one of the most critical aspects of practice.” —Coren Sharples
Honorable Mention
Landscape Architect – Northeast
Winner
“Mikyoung Kim Design crafts restorative landscapes, visionary and resplendent, from Seoul’s Cheonggye River to Miami’s Bal Harbour, in the service of resilient place-making, while working to realize landmark projects for gender and racial inclusion and spatial justice.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Honorable Mention
Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects
Landscape Architect – Southwest
Winner
“OJB excels at creating vibrant and active parks and landscapes. Their work invigorates the communities in which they build—leveraging ecology, play, and beautiful materiality to create spaces that become places.” —Trey Trahan
Landscape Architect – West
Winner
“Surfacedesign combines landscape architecture and urban design into a transdisciplinary practice that seeks to connect natural and built environments through hybrid forms of urbanism informed by listening to both users and site.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Honorable Mention
Lighting Designer – Northeast
Winner
“I’m drawn to the artistry and experimentation that FMS deploys in their work. They embrace nuance, materiality, and scale to provide lighting designs that evoke an atmosphere.” —Trey Trahan
Honorable Mention
MEP Engineer – Northeast
Winner
“JFK&M responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with their rapid response to design and engineer, in mere months, adaptive infrastructure to equip healthcare facilities with improved indoor air quality systems, including in underserved communities of the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.” —DK Osseo-Assare
Honorable Mention
Structural Engineer – Northeast
Winner
Schlaich Bergermann Partner LP (SBP)
“SBP is one of the most innovative engineers working globally, full stop. In today’s climate crisis reality they are doing far more with far less than ever before—and their solutions have a simple elegance to them that allows them to stand the test of time.” —Trey Trahan
Honorable Mention
Structural Engineer – Southwest
Winner
“Studio NYL navigates scale shifts with fidelity and confidence—they provide whimsical solutions for pavilions and art projects while leading with bravado on larger projects. It’s impressive to see such capability across the spectrum of typologies and scales.” —Trey Trahan
