― Our History

Making the world a better, more beautiful place for over eight decades.

Our firm was founded in Chicago in 1935. Since then, we’ve collected and preserved thousands of paper sketches, plans, photographs, notes, and even hand-drawn doodles from some of our greatest designers. We invite you to take an unprecedented tour of our archives through a curated digital museum experience.  

Hear from several of our colleagues who have been a part of our firm for more than a decade about what brought them here, their proudest accomplishments, and what they see is in store for the future.

Discover how we collocated an elementary, middle, and high school all on one campus to create a future-ready education village in Perry, Ohio.

We revisit our first project in Mexico—The National Center for Agricultural Education, Research, and Extension—a campus that integrates the architectural heritage and natural landscape of Chapingo.

Explore one of our earliest science and technology projects—a mid-century lab that coincided with our firm’s 25th anniversary. 

Learn about our first projects and hear from Ralph Johnson, Principal and Global Design Director, about the early history of our firm.

Architect Bill Brubaker had one of the longest tenures in our firm’s history. Explore a selection of his work and illustrative sketches from our archives.