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35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China

These architecture firms are leading the way in United States and beyond.

Architizer Editors Architizer Editors

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With so many architecture firms to choose from, it’s challenging for clients to identify the industry leaders that will be an ideal fit for their project needs. Fortunately, Architizer is able to provide guidance on the top design firms in United States based on more than a decade of data and industry knowledge.

How are these architecture Firms ranked?

The following ranking has been created according to key statistics that demonstrate each Firm’s level of architectural excellence. The following metrics have been accumulated to establish each architecture Firm’s ranking, in order of priority:

  • The number of A+Awards won (2013 to 2022)
  • The number of projects selected as “Project of the Day” (2009 to 2022)
  • The number of projects uploaded to Architizer (2009 to 2022)
  • The number of projects selected as “Featured Project” (2009 to 2022)
  • The number of A+Awards finalists (2013 to 2022)

Each of these metrics is explained in more detail at the foot of this article. This ranking list will be updated annually, taking into account new achievements of United States architecture firms throughout the year.

Without further ado, here are the 35 best architecture firms in United States:

10. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is a global architecture practice dedicated to clients that represent the most forward-thinking companies and institutions around the world – visionaries that believe that value is not just producing return on investment but also in contributing to our urban environment and communities. Our portfolio spans more than 40 countries, and includes a wide range of projects from office and residential buildings to civic and cultural spaces to educational facilities.

Some of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates achieve 10th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 3
A+Awards Finalist 12
Featured Projects 30
Total Projects 161

9. Miguel de Guzmán

Architect and Architectura Photographer. His work is commisioned by most important spanish Architecture Offices. He has been a proffesor in the Graphic Ideation Department at CEU Architecture School and the Photography Department of Istituto Europeo di Design in Madrid. Since 2008 Imagen Subliminal is the broadcast platform for the work of Miguel de Guzmán as architectural photographer and videographer. AWARDS As an Architect, he has been awarded with the Dionisio Hernadez Gil Prize for the Diocesan Priest House in Plasencia (work done together with Andres Jaque and Enrique Krahe), and was selected for the 2005 Spanish Architecture Bienal As a Photographer he has been finalist in ABC Journal Art Awards 2000, El Mundo Photography awards 2001.

Some of Miguel de Guzmán’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Miguel de Guzmán achieve 9th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Finalist 3
Featured Projects 44
Total Projects 57

8. Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl Architects is a 30-person innovative architecture and urban design office working globally as one office from three locations: New York City, Rhinebeck, NY and Beijing. Steven Holl leads the office with partners Chris McVoy, Noah Yaffe and Roberto Bannura.
Steven Holl Architects is recognized for the ability to shape space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to catalyze the unique qualities of each project to create a concept-driven design at multiple scales, from minimal dwellings, to university works, to new hybrid models of urbanism. The firm has realized architectural works around the world, with extensive experience in the arts, campus and educational facilities, and residential work, as well as mix use and office design, public works, and master planning.

Some of Steven Holl Architects’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Steven Holl Architects achieve 8th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 9
A+Awards Finalist 11
Featured Projects 39
Total Projects 42

7. Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl Architects is a 30-person innovative architecture and urban design office working globally as one office from three locations: New York City, Rhinebeck, NY and Beijing. Steven Holl leads the office with partners Chris McVoy, Noah Yaffe and Roberto Bannura.
Steven Holl Architects is recognized for the ability to shape space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to catalyze the unique qualities of each project to create a concept-driven design at multiple scales, from minimal dwellings, to university works, to new hybrid models of urbanism. The firm has realized architectural works around the world, with extensive experience in the arts, campus and educational facilities, and residential work, as well as mix use and office design, public works, and master planning.

Some of Steven Holl Architects’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Steven Holl Architects achieve 7th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 9
A+Awards Finalist 11
Featured Projects 39
Total Projects 42

6. OMA

OMA is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA’s buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. AMO, a research and design studio, works in areas beyond architecture that today have an increasing influence on architecture itself: media, politics, renewable energy, technology, publishing, fashion.
OMA is led by nine partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten, Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha and…

Some of OMA’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped OMA achieve 6th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 4
A+Awards Finalist 4
Featured Projects 44
Total Projects 61

5. Gensler

© Blackstation

© Blackstation

Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 50+ locations and more than 6,000 professionals networked across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Founded in 1965, the firm serves more than 3,300 active clients in virtually every industry. Gensler designers strive to make the places people live, work, and play more inspiring, more resilient, and more impactful.

Some of Gensler’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Gensler achieve 5th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 6
A+Awards Finalist 23
Featured Projects 36
Total Projects 156

4. L’Observatoire International

L’Observatoire International is a lighting design firm, founded in 1993 by Hervé Descottes.
As architectural lighting designers, our role is to leverage light as a medium through which architectural intentions can be heightened and spaces transformed. With light as our tool, we reveal the aesthetic qualities of a space and accentuate the experience of an environment, creating a bespoke ambiance.

Some of L’Observatoire International’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped L'Observatoire International achieve 4th place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 14
A+Awards Finalist 20
Featured Projects 41
Total Projects 53

3. BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

BIG is a Copenhagen, London and New York based group of architects, designers and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. BIG has created a reputation for completing buildings that are programmatically and technically innovative as they are cost and resource conscious. In our architectural production we demonstrate a high sensitivity to the particular demands of contexts and mixed use programs. By practicing ’programmatic alchemy’, BIG often mixes conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping into new forms of symbiotic architecture. The Mountain which was completed in 2008, counts as one of the first realized examples of this practice.

Some of BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group achieve 3rd place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 23
A+Awards Finalist 5
Featured Projects 41
Total Projects 74

2. Imagen Subliminal

Photo Credit: Miguel de Guzman

Photo Credit: Miguel de Guzman

Architectural Photography + Film
MIGUEL DE GUZMAN + ROCÍO ROMERO
Architect and Architectural Photographer.
“Imagen Subliminal Architectural Photography + Film was founded by architect and architectural photographer Miguel de Guzmán. The firm, comprised of Miguel de Guzman and Rocío Romero, is a New York and Madrid-based practice whose work is commissioned by many internationally renowned architecture, construction, and real estate firms.
Imagen Subliminal’s photographs have been published worldwide in print magazines such as Architect, Dwell, El Croquis, Arquitectura Viva, A+U Japan, Domus, Casabella, Mark, C3, and many other books and newspapers. The practice also collaborates with online media as Archdaily, Dezeen, Designboom, and Divisare.
Miguel de Guzmán:
His work is commisioned by most important spanish Architecture Offices.

Some of Imagen Subliminal’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Imagen Subliminal achieve 2nd place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 1
A+Awards Finalist 4
Featured Projects 65
Total Projects 124

1. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an influential collective of architects, designers, engineers and planners, responsible for some of the world’s most technically and environmentally advanced buildings, and significant public spaces. From a strategic regional plan to a single piece of furniture, SOM’s designs anticipate change in the way we live, work and communicate, and have brought lasting value to communities around the world. The firm’s approach is highly collaborative, and its interdisciplinary team is engaged on a wide range of international projects, with creative studios based across the globe.

Some of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)’s most prominent projects include:

The following statistics helped Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) achieve 1st place in the 35 Best Architecture Firms in United States & China:

A+Awards Winner 17
A+Awards Finalist 38
Featured Projects 49
Total Projects 102

Other Architecture Firms to Consider

Several other renowned architecture Firms can be found just outside the Top 35, each of which is worth considering for their experience in delivering high quality, large-scale projects across typologies. They include: Studio Gang, Cosentini Associates, Cosentini Associates, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, DeSimone Consulting Engineers, Perkins and Will, schlaich bergermann partner, schlaich bergermann partner, MAD Architects, Salter, Feldman Architecture, IwamotoScott Architecture, James Corner Field Operations, James Corner Field Operations, Feinknopf, Cerami & Associates, Inc., NADAAA, Tim Griffith Photographer, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, seele, HOK, CannonDesign, ZGF Architects, People’s Architecture Office, Ennead Architects, HLB Lighting Design, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA], Woods Bagot, Form4 Architecture, Baumschlager Eberle Architekten, Miró Rivera Architects, Signum Architecture, Crossboundaries, Atelier Alter Architects, Lukstudio, line+, X+LIVING, The Design Institute Of Landscape & Architecture China Academy Of Art CO.,LTD, CLOU architects, GOA (Group of Architects), Challenge Design, CPLUS, The Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University Co., Ltd., SAN, AIM Architecture, ASPECT Studios, OPEN Architecture, aoe, West-line Studio, Atelier tao+c, gad, DAGA Architects, Trace Architecture Office, META-Project, Martha Schwartz Partners, LINEHOUSE, Kris Lin International Design, DL Atelier, Golucci Interior Architects, LWK + PARTNERS

Why Should I Trust Architizer’s Ranking?

With more than 30,000 architecture firms and over 130,000 projects within its database, Architizer is proud to host the world’s largest online community of architects and building product manufacturers. Its celebrated A+Awards program is also the largest celebration of architecture and building products, with more than 400 jurors and hundreds of thousands of public votes helping to recognize the world’s best architecture each year.

Architizer also powers firm directories for a number of AIA (American Institute of Architects) Chapters nationwide, including the official directory of architecture firms for AIA New York.

An example of a project page on Architizer with Project Award Badges highlighted

A Guide to Project Awards

The blue “”+”” badge denotes that a project has won a prestigious A+Award as described above. Hovering over the badge reveals details of the award, including award category, year, and whether the project won the jury or popular choice award.

The orange Project of the Day and yellow Featured Project badges are awarded by Architizer’s Editorial team, and are selected based on a number of factors. The following factors increase a project’s likelihood of being featured or awarded Project of the Day status:

  • Project completed within the last 3 years
  • A well written, concise project description of at least 3 paragraphs
  • Architectural design with a high level of both functional and aesthetic value
  • High quality, in focus photographs
  • At least 8 photographs of both the interior and exterior of the building
  • Inclusion of architectural drawings and renderings
  • Inclusion of construction photographs

There are 7 Projects of the Day each week and a further 31 Featured Projects. Each Project of the Day is published on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Stories, while each Featured Project is published on Facebook. Each Project of the Day also features in Architizer’s Weekly Projects Newsletter and shared with 170,000 subscribers.

We’re constantly look for the world’s best architects to join our community. If you would like to understand more about this ranking list and learn how your Firm can achieve a presence on it, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at editorial@architizer.com.

Architizer Editors Author: Architizer Editors
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