The 11Th Annual ARCHITECT 50

101 The 11th Annual ARCHITECT 50 The architect 50 attempts to answer a simple question: Who had the best year? In this latest installment of our annual ranking, after we crunched the data from 182 participating firms and ranked them in three categories (business, sustainability, and design), Lake|Flato Architects claimed the overall top spot. The Texas-based firm combined enviable design chops with a keen sensitivity to sustainability. Oh, and a dog-friendly studio culture. Lake|Flato wasn’t the only boutique firm to best the heavyweights. Turn the page to see who else rose through the rankings and made 2018 a year to remember. text by elizabeth evitts dickinson photos by robert g. gomez > For more coverage of the architect 50 visit bit.ly/Architect50. 102 Lake|Flato is best in show 103 2018 was a banner year for Lake|Flato Architects. The 108-person firm, based in San Antonio and Austin, won a COTE Top Ten Award for the Georgia Tech Krone Engineered Biosystems Building (see page 114 for this year’s COTE winners) and an AIA/ALA Library Building Award for the Austin Central Library. Founders Ted Flato, FAIA, and David Lake, FAIA, also received the O’Neil Ford Medal for Design Achievement from the Texas Society of Architects. That award recognized the firm’s 35 years of bringing regionally sensitive Modernism and sustainable design to the state, and it felt particularly poignant given that the architects first met at Ford’s firm before starting their own studio in 1984. “He was our mentor and he taught us well,” Lake says. From the start, “our principle passion has been to merge the built environment with the natural environment, and the contextual and cultural environments as well.” Opposite, Top Row: Partners Greg Papay, FAIA, Matt Morris, FAIA, Andrew Herdeg, FAIA, and Bob Harris, FAIA Opposite, Bottom Row: Partners David Lake, FAIA, and Ted Flato, FAIA Associate Partners Jonathan Smith, AIA, Todd Wascher, AIA, Associate Partners Joseph Benjamin, AIA, Robert Trinidad, JoBeth Thomas, Brandi Rickels, AIA, Steve Raike, AIA, and Ryan Jones, AIA Tenna Florian, AIA, Matt Wallace, AIA, and Bill Aylor, AIA All of which helps explain how Lake|Flato claimed the participants and citizens. “We set metrics for building Number One spot overall in this year’s ArchItect 50. The firm performance, building resiliency, and regenerative principles especially excelled in the sustainability and design categories. at the start, and it creates goal posts for us to aspire to in the “Gorgeous projects, inflected by a western U.S. regionalism,” design,” Lake says. “We listen to the potential users. We listen the design judges wrote about the firm’s portfolio. “Each feels to the land. We really want the best ideas and we have been rooted in its place.” That sensitivity to place also impressed incredibly fortunate to have owners who share our aspirations.” the sustainability judges, particularly in regard to the Marine That relationship with owners cultivates a rare commitment to Education Center at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, post-occupancy work. Lake|Flato has signed on to the AIA 2030 completed last year. Located along the Mississippi coast, Commitment, and “the only way to confirm that our buildings are the center’s previous buildings were destroyed by Hurricane meeting that high bar is post-occupancy,” Lake says. The firm Katrina, and the site was hit again in 2017 by Hurricane Nate. maintains a residential energy monitoring program that tracks The design team spent months consulting with biologists and performance of its projects, and it coaches occupants on how to site ecologists to find the location least damaging to nature best use their buildings after handing over the keys. yet most protected from natural disaster. The judges lauded The firm’s founders credit their outstanding year in part to a the “ecologically sensitive scheme that considered the holistic healthy studio culture, supported by strong employee benefits impact of the project upon place.” The center is expected and reflected by the low employee turnover in 2018 of just 4%. to consume 46% less energy than the national average for a Today, Lake and Flato continue to take cues from O’Neil Ford. similar collection of buildings. “What I’m loving is mentoring the future leaders and partners Lake|Flato projects begin with an integrated design of this studio, who are incredibly talented,” Lake says. “We get charrette that includes owners and users, as well as interested great joy in watching them progress and evolve.” 104 Design rank 00 ↑00 Biggest mOVers: Places gaineD cOmPareD tO 2018 ranking emPlOyees grOss reVenue ◀ 1–10 ▶ less tHan 1 milliOn; ◀◀ 11–99 ▶▶ 1–9.9 milliOn; sustainaBility rank 00 00 Business rank ◀◀◀ 100–499 x+50+50+50 ▶▶▶ 10–99.9 milliOn; 00 Overall rank ◀◀◀◀ 500–999 Firm Name ▶▶▶▶ 100–999.9 milliOn; ◀◀◀◀◀ 1,000+ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶▶ ▶▶▶▶▶ 1 BilliOn+ 3 2 7 24 11 ↑12 ↑40 ↑14 11 70 1 121 35 10 13 18 18 47 x+95+1 74+94 x+96+65+1002 x+0+88+833 x+76+4 83+93 x+87+77+885 Lake|Flato Architects BNIM Hastings Adrian Smith + Gordon Skidmore, Owings & ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ Gill Architecture Merrill ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ 35 52 81 21 60 ↑11 x+71+82+992 29 4 7 x+66+91+97 x+59+97+983 4 x+78+74+959 69 x+64+83+7 2797 6 7 8 9 10 The Miller Hull HDR Architecture WRNS Studio Perkins and Will Touloukian Touloukian Partnership ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ 12 15 16 20 38 ↑68 ↑21 66 32 64 22 32 59 42 36 21 29 x+85+81+7411 12 x+82+84+75 x+7813 +74+85 x+79+80+14 80 x+71+82+8715 Olson Kundig Gensler LMN Architects Leers Weinzapfel ZGF Architects ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ Associates ◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶ 10 81 14 17 65 ↑24 ↑19 ↑46 40 120 8 18 31 104 48 62 20 15 x+87+65+8216 17 x+59+83+96 x+82+67+8518 x+7819 +77+80 x+5920 +86+88 Eskew+Dumez+Ripple Bruner/Cott & Richärd+Bauer CannonDesign Leddy Maytum Stacy ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ Associates Architecture ◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ Architects ◀◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ 74 33 43 31 32 x+60+78+966 45 21 81 x+72+72+87 x+6451 16 +86+80 x+73+77+8050 46 x+72+77+8046 47 21 22 23 24 25 Mithun DLR Group Steinberg Hart HGA Architects and Payette ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ Engineers ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ 105 Biggest movers in % Women Designers 2017 2018 % Change Biggest movers in % minoritY Designers 2017 2018 % Change EwingCole 20.0 45.0 100+ Hastings 2.0 8.4 100+ Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture 30.0 42.0 40.0 The S/L/A/M Collaborative 7.0 12.0 71.4 RATIO Architects 27.3 35.2 28.8 LMN Architects 15.0 25.0 66.7 WRNS Studio 34.0 43.0 26.5 SRG Partnership 9.0 15.0 66.7 Solomon Cordwell Buenz 32.0 40.0 25.0 BNIM 7.5 12.0 60.0 Shepley Bulfinch 48.0 59.0 22.9 BAR Architects 22.0 35.0 59.1 Ballinger 32.0 39.0 21.9 MSR Design 6.5 9.3 43.1 Opsis Architecture 39.0 46.0 17.9 Hord Coplan Macht 14.8 21.0 41.9 SmithGroup 39.0 45.3 16.2 Shepley Bulfinch 20.0 27.0 35.0 CO Architects 40.0 46.0 15.0 GGLO 18.0 23.5 30.6 54 62 4 73 109 ↑18 25 41 16 50 106 85 25 22 5 32 x+526 +79+87 x+6627 +76+92 x+94+71+6128 x+5929 +84+87 x+4830 +81+95 EYP LPA MASS Design Group Ayers Saint Gross SmithGroup ◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ 48 43 34 87 91 x+66+66+9214 111 x+6615 107 +66+92 x+72+76+59 54 74 x+57+88+8339 11 x+5745 8 +91+81 31 32 33 34 35 Hacker SRG Partnership William Rawn Mahlum Architects Clark Nexsen ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ Associates, Architects ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ 134 74 47 118 43 ↑24 29 2 23 53 46 56 10 32 52 57 x+44+99+8536 37 x+60+76+87 x+66+75+8038 x+48+81+9539 x+6640 +75+80 EHDD Sasaki Bora Architects HOK Stantec ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ 78 52 120 1 56 ↑15 17 76 24 124 12 39 124 145 61 43 x+59+72+8941 42 x+66+65+87 x+48+43 81+95 x+100+44 +0+5 x+ x+5+79+7645 Hennebery Eddy Archimania Opsis Architecture Trahan Architects HKS Architects ◀◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ 102 8 35 6 80 ↑19 x+53+84+8336 21 118 101 x+89+67+58 x+71+70+7467 88 x+89121 127 +64+57 x+59+84+7662 25 46 47 48 49 50 Page NADAAA Arrowstreet Lorcan O’Herlihy David Baker ◀◀◀◀ | ▶▶▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶▶ Architects Architects ◀◀ | ▶▶ ◀◀ | ▶▶ 106 1 Trahan Architects is best in Design If you had to describe the work of New Orleans– our commitment to ecology,” Trahan says. With Alliance, based Trahan Architects according to only one essential which won a 2019 R+D Award (see our July 2019 issue), element, it would be materiality. Take the Alliance “we found, through the use of technology, that we could Theatre in Atlanta, where Trahan partnered with sculptor very cost-effectively build these shaped pieces consistent Matthias Pliessnig on the overhaul of a historic 650-seat with the placement of each strand in the digital model.” auditorium. The interior of undulating ribbons fabricated Material, Trahan says, is critical to that process. from steam-bent white oak inspired a “wow” from “Buildings should become more harmonious with their the design judges, who lauded the firm’s “dramatic, context over time and the environmental conditions sumptuous, and well-detailed” projects that offer should result in a patination that is rich and touches us “beautiful, compelling spaces to dwell within.” The firm’s in an emotional way,” he says.

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