The United States has long been at the forefront of modern architecture, home to some of the world’s most influential designers and groundbreaking works. From the pioneering innovations of the Chicago School, which gave birth to the skyscraper, to the organic visions of Frank Lloyd Wright and the sleek modernism of Mies van der Rohe, American architecture has consistently shaped global design trends. Today, the country continues to inspire through its diverse architectural landscape, where each top architecture and design firm in the USA contributes to redefining how we live, work, and connect. These firms are behind some of the best architectural projects in the USA—spanning cultural institutions, educational campuses, urban spaces, and sustainable residential developments—that blend innovation with context and community. The following list highlights 50 leading firms whose work not only honors the rich architectural legacy of the nation but also pushes the boundaries of creativity, resilience, and design excellence.
1. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John O. Merrill.
2. CannonDesign: CannonDesign is a global architecture, engineering and consulting practice that provides services for a range of project types, including hospitals and medical centers, corporate headquarters and residential buildings. We’re a different kind of design firm, where strategy, experience, architecture, engineering and social good converge to create meaningful impact. Recognized multiple times by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies in the world, we’re proud to be pushing the boundaries of what’s possible through design.
3. Gensler: Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $1.785 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S.
4. Perkins&Will: Perkins&Will is a global design practice founded in 1935. Since 1986, the group has been a subsidiary of Lebanon-based Dar Al-Handasah. Guided by our philosophy of Living Design—which emphasizes poetics and beauty, conceptual clarity, innovation, technology, community, resilience, and well-being—we collaborate with clients and communities across nearly every continent to shape environments where people can live, learn, work, play, and heal. With more than 2,500 professionals in 30 studios worldwide, we offer interdisciplinary expertise spanning architecture, interior design, branded environments, urban design, and landscape architecture. Our partnerships with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Portland, Nelson\Nygaard, and Pierre-Yves Rochon (PYR), along with our membership in the Sidara Collaborative, connect us to a global network of designers, engineers, planners, and consultants dedicated to advancing a healthier, more inclusive, and regenerative future through design.
5. Steven Holl Architects: Steven Holl Architects is a globally recognized architecture and urban design practice with studios in New York, the Hudson Valley, and Beijing. Founded in 1977 by Steven Holl, and now led with principal Dimitra Tsachrelia and partners Noah Yaffe, Roberto Bannura, and Olaf Schmidt, the firm is renowned for its innovative use of space and light, combined with a profound sensitivity to context. Guided by strong conceptual frameworks, its work spans a wide range of scales and typologies—from intimate residences to pioneering museum designs, educational and cultural institutions, mixed-use developments, public works, and large-scale masterplans—consistently creating architecture that amplifies the unique qualities of place and elevates the human experience.
6. ZGF Architects: ZGF Architects LLP, formerly Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, is an American architectural firm based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1942 and has seven offices in the United States and Canada. Our designs reflect a holistic understanding of the relationship between buildings, people, and the environment.
7. Kohn Pedersen Fox: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is an American architectural firm based in New York City that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services. Our mission is to elevate cities through context, craft, and performance.
8. Ennead Architects: Ennead Architects LLP is a New York City-based architectural firm. The firm was founded in 1963 by James Polshek, who left the firm in 2005 when it was known as Polshek Partnership. The firm’s partners renamed their practice in mid-2010.
9. HKS, Inc.: HKS, Inc. is an American international architecture firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. We deliver designs that inspire, connect and perform. Whether we are creating memorable experiences for sports fans; providing a world away to resort guests; or enabling teens living with cancer to support one another — we believe design can change people’s lives for the better.
10. HOK: HOK Group, Inc., formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, is an American design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning firm. Founded in 1955, it is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It is a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm. Our people collaborate across a network of 27 offices on three continents.
11. LMN Architects: LMN is an American architecture firm based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 1979, and provides planning and design services to create convention centers, cultural arts venues, higher education facilities, commercial and mixed-use developments.
12. NBBJ: NBBJ is an American global architecture, planning and design firm with offices in Boston, Columbus, London, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle and Shanghai. We design places and experiences that positively impact community, health and the environment.
13. Weiss/Manfredi: Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is at the forefront of architectural design practices that are redefining the relationships between landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art. It is a multidisciplinary New York City-based design practice that combines landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art.
14. Arcadis: Arcadis is a leading global partner, delivering some of the most transformative projects with businesses, cities and industries. With 36,000 people active in more than 30 countries, we bring together the best minds from around the world to deliver intelligent products and solutions across the environment, energy, water, buildings, transport and infrastructure sectors.
15. Corgan: Corgan Associates, Inc., commonly known as Corgan, is an American multinational architecture and design firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the largest architecture firms in the world, both by revenue and number of architects. Founded in Dallas in 1938, Jack M. Corgan opened the doors to Corgan with a focus on theaters and drive-ins throughout Texas and the United States. Jack set high standards for himself, giving back to the practice, and his expectations of the firm, these pillars still permeate Corgan’s philosophy and culture to this day. As one of the first ten individuals to pass the newly implemented Texas licensing exam, Jack led the firm for almost 40 years.
16. Populous: Populous Holdings, Inc. is a global architectural and design practice specializing in sports facilities, arenas and convention centers, as well as the planning and design of major special events. Populous was created through a management buyout in January 2009, becoming independently owned and operated.
17. Brooks + Scarpa: Brooks + Scarpa is an American architectural firm, based in Los Angeles, California, and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa, principals of the firm, are the recipients of the 2022 AIA Gold Medal presented by the American Institute of Architects; the medal is the institute’s highest honor.
18. Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an American interdisciplinary design studio which integrates architecture, the visual arts, and the performing arts. Based in New York City, the studio was founded by architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio in 1981. Charles Renfro joined in 1997, and was named partner in 2004.
19. Feldman Architecture: Feldman Architecture is dedicated to creating spaces that sit gracefully and lightly on the earth. An architecture and interiors studio that’s highly responsive to both people and place. We work to honor the spirit of each site and champion regenerative practices for a better future.
20. LaRue Architects: LaRue Architects is an award-winning residential design firm based in Austin, Texas, known for its signature “Hill Country Contemporary” style that blends modern design with the region’s natural landscapes. Led by Principal James LaRue, the firm creates highly contextual, site-driven homes that emphasize views, topography, and timeless livability. With a deliberately small team, LaRue Architects provides personalized service, using advanced 3D modeling to bring designs to life before construction. Over the past three decades, the firm has completed hundreds of acclaimed residences across Texas and beyond, earning recognition for innovative, enduring architecture rooted in place.
21. NELSON: NELSON Worldwide is a global design firm creating impactful, future-ready environments for some of the world’s leading brands, developers, and organizations. With expertise spanning architecture, interiors, urban design, and more, we combine creativity with performance to deliver spaces that inspire connection, foster well-being, and drive measurable results.
22. Studio Gang: Studio Gang is an American architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Paris. Founded and led by architect Jeanne Gang, the Studio is known for its material research and experimentation, collaboration across a wide range of disciplines, and focus on sustainability.
23. Behnisch Architekten: Behnisch Architekten is an architectural practice based in Stuttgart, Germany, with branches in Munich, Germany; Boston, Massachusetts and Los Angeles, California. The office was founded in 1989 by Stefan Behnisch, son of the well-known German architect Günter Behnisch.
24. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson is a United States–based architectural practice that was founded as Bohlin & Powell in 1965 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania by Peter Bohlin and Richard Powell. It is an architecture practice of five studios across the country focused on designing places that inspire connection and wonder. We work with you to understand the nature of your unique circumstance—the people, place, and materials that inform each design—to help translate your community’s collective aspirations into built environments that are greater than the sum of their parts. The resulting architecture feels simultaneously grounded and transcendent, carefully crafted to embody resiliency and adapt to an ever-changing world.
25. AECOM Technology Corp.: AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, dedicated to delivering a better world through sustainable and equitable solutions. With deep expertise spanning planning, design, engineering, and construction management, we partner across the full project lifecycle in sectors including transportation, water, buildings, energy, and the environment. Guided by a commitment to innovation, responsibility, and global impact, we’re redefining what’s possible—bringing infrastructure, opportunity, and resilience to communities everywhere.
26. SkB Architects: Since 1999, we’ve been crafting sensory-rich environments that connect people, businesses, and communities in meaningful ways. Founded by Shannon Gaffney, Kyle Gaffney, and Brian Collins-Friedrichs, our Seattle-based firm thrives on collaboration and a diverse portfolio, where each project informs and inspires the next. We approach design with integrity, passion, and optimism—deeply invested in the process as much as the outcome. Every project is shaped by a respect for history, place, materiality, and community vitality. Our work is a reflection of its people and surroundings, creating spaces that feel authentic, connected, and inherently of their place.
27. Marvel Architects: Marvel is an interdisciplinary design collective addressing critical urban and environmental challenges through collaborative, context-sensitive work. With offices in New York City, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Richmond, and Barcelona, their teams synthesize architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, and interior design to craft enduring solutions that harmonize nature and built environments—shaping public and private spaces with purpose and poetic clarity. Their thoughtful, research-driven projects, celebrated with over 125 industry awards, span sectors including housing, cultural institutions, civic works, hospitality, education, workplaces, and public spaces.
28. SPF:architects: Founded in 1995 by Judit M. Fekete-Pali and Zoltan E. Pali, SPF:a is a design-forward architecture studio celebrated for its thoughtful approach to both new constructions and the adaptive reuse of historic spaces—projects like the restored Warner Grand and Pantages theaters highlight their mastery in blending legacy with vision. The firm’s design ethos centers on extracting elegance from everyday, cost-effective materials, redefining value through creative use of simple, robust components—such as corrugated metal paired with plaster facades—to deliver striking, site-responsive architecture. Based in their award-winning Culver City studio, MODAA, SPF:a has executed notable residential and mixed-use projects—from the light-drenched, glass-wrapped Orum Residence to the fluidly organized Line Lofts—earning acclaim for design innovation, sustainability, and civic sensitivity.
29. Modal Design: Modal Design—founded in 2004 by Daniel Monti in Los Angeles—is a thoughtful and experimental architectural practice committed to reconciling opposites to elevate everyday experience. Rooted in Daniel’s globetrotting childhood across seven countries and his balanced training at Harvard GSD, the studio embraces a design approach that deliberately juxtaposes the ordinary with the extraordinary—nature and the built environment, simplicity and complexity, systems and sensuality—to create architecture that challenges norms and increases awareness.
30. goCstudio: GO’C is an award-winning architecture and design studio founded in 2012 and rooted in the Pacific Northwest, with its main office in Seattle and a satellite studio in Indianola, Washington. Co-founded by Jon Gentry and Aimée O’Carroll, the firm thrives on the interplay of rational design with artistic expression, transforming site constraints into opportunities through a rigorous yet imaginative process. GO’C embraces a democratic, collaborative ethos—melding close relationships with clients, artists, and craftspeople to shape expressive, tactile architecture grounded in context, materials, and place.
31. Sergio Mannino Studio: Founded in 2008 in New York City, Sergio Mannino Studio is an award-winning architectural branding agency renowned for its retail design and branding expertise. With a strong foundation in Italian Design and aesthetics, the studio has gained international recognition by completing hundreds of projects worldwide, often featured in prestigious magazines, books, and blogs throughout Europe, China, and the United States. The studio is fueled by a deep passion for creating unique spaces that reflect the ideas of the society we dream of, and capture the spirit of our time.
32. Miller Hull Partnership: Miller Hull is a Pacific Northwest–based architecture, planning, and interior design firm founded in 1977 by David Miller and Robert Hull. With studios in Seattle and San Diego, the firm has become an international leader in regenerative, people-centered design, crafting award-winning projects that span civic, residential, educational, cultural, and commercial sectors. Their design philosophy is rooted in deep research, collaboration, and a profound connection to place—with early Peace Corps experiences deeply influencing their commitment to ecological sensitivity and regionalism.
33. Skylab Architecture: Skylab Architecture is a visionary design studio based in Portland, Oregon, celebrated for its inventive, context-driven architecture that transforms constraints into creative opportunity. Their work spans adaptive reuse, retail environments, civic spaces, and immersive workplaces—from converting a Brooklyn parking garage into a dynamic mixed-use home and factory for Flavor Paper, to crafting the Nike World HQ’s Serena Williams Building—a million-square-foot, LEED Platinum workplace rooted in regenerative principles and fluid, human-centered spatial planning. With every project, Skylab brings a thoughtful synthesis of materiality, narrative, and sustainability to forge spaces that resonate with both place and purpose.
34. Heliotrope: Heliotrope Architects, founded in 1999 and based in Seattle, is a design-led architecture studio celebrated for crafting buildings that transcend fleeting trends by deeply honoring both human context and the natural world. Named after the heliotrope flower—symbolizing orientation toward the sun—the firm is committed to shaping places that feel inherently right: responsive to who inhabits them and thoughtful in their environmental impact. Their process is characterized by rigorous collaboration—with clients, craftspeople, and consultants—to deliver bespoke design solutions that balance elegance, sustainability, cultural longevity, and a strong sense of place.Whether creating residences, commercial spaces, or hospitality environments, Heliotrope consistently prioritizes human well-being, ecological sensitivity, and enduring value.
35. Cushing Terrell: Founded in 1938 by Ralph Cushing and Everett Terrell, Cushing Terrell was built on the belief that uniting architecture, engineering, and design fosters deeper relationships and more creative outcomes—a philosophy that continues to define the firm today. With over 450 professionals across more than 30 disciplines and offices spanning seven states, the firm brings a comprehensive, empathetic approach to projects in education, healthcare, commercial, retail, government, infrastructure, and beyond. Their process is grounded in research, collaboration, and end-user focus—embracing practices like post-occupancy evaluations and knowledge-sharing reviews to inform thoughtful, human-centered design. Committed to sustainability and inclusivity, they embed environmental stewardship through initiatives like the Green Advocacy Council and UN Race to Zero, while fostering a culture of equity, belonging, and continuous improvement.
36. Interface Studio Architects (ISA): ISA specializes in high performance buildings that respond to their contexts, transforming modest budgets and tight site constraints into design opportunities. Our projects combine experiential delight with real performance that puts buildings to work in developing inclusive communities, saving energy and positively shaping everyday urban life.
37. Issac & Stern Architects: Issac & Stern Architects is a New York–based firm founded in 1988 by Ramy Issac, distinguished for blending imaginative design with pragmatic functionality across a wide range of project types—including mixed-use developments, residential renovations, commercial buildings, community centers, and religious spaces. With deep expertise in New York City zoning and technical compliance, the firm is celebrated for delivering landmark mixed-use projects that are both visually compelling and commercially successful. Led by Issac and partner Ralph Kowalczyk, their approach balances aesthetic innovation with client objectives to create finely tuned, responsive architecture across the urban landscape.
38. Ark-itecture: ARK is an architecture studio with dual offices in the tranquil university village of Princeton, New Jersey, and the vibrant urban district of Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Drawing on leadership with decades of experience at major New York architecture firms, ARK delivers design solutions that bridge cultural perspectives and embrace diverse scales—ranging from modular homes to educational buildings and urban master plans. Their process is rooted in comparative design, combining rigorous analysis with advanced physical and digital modeling to ensure each project responds to local context, climate, and cultural identity.
39. Robert A.M. Stern Architects: RAMSA (Robert A.M. Stern Architects) is a multidisciplinary, research-driven architectural firm founded in 1969 and based in New York City. The practice, established by Robert A.M. Stern, sets itself apart by embracing historic architectural languages—blending tradition with contemporary innovation to create designs deeply resonant with culture and place. Over the past five decades, RAMSA has built a global reputation for excellence across a broad spectrum of work—from residential and commercial buildings to institutional and planning projects—maintaining rigorous attention to detail and design quality.
40. SRG Partnership: SRG Partnership is a distinguished architecture, interiors, and planning firm rooted in the Pacific Northwest, with studios in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1972 by Jon Schleuning, Dave Richen, and Fred Gast, the firm is united by its purpose to invent a better future—championing design that is just, equitable, sustainable, and transformative for communities. SRG’s design ethos centers on deep collaboration and curiosity. It thrives on exploration, asking tough questions, and co-discovering design solutions that weave buildings into the social and cultural fabric of their settings.
41. Michael K Chen Architecture (MKCA): MICHAEL K CHEN ARCHITECTURE // MKCA, established in 2011 in New York City, is an architecture practice dedicated to producing innovative and superbly crafted work integrating architecture, interior design, and product design. MKCA’s approach is deeply informed by curiosity and a love of tinkering, of drawing, of collaboration, and of making. Their methods and capabilities are at the leading edge of design, analysis, manufacturing, and construction, and they strive to produce exceptional experiences, intricately choreographed spaces, and works that are unexpected, hyper-useful, intelligent, and full of delight. MKCA designs and builds at a diverse range of scales and bring an ultra-refined sensibility and attention to detail to projects ranging from individual micro apartments to entire buildings. They have developed a reputation for excelling at complex urban projects, and are adept at synthesizing multiple functions, systems, and constituencies into elegant and often beguilingly simple works. MKCA serves a diverse and international client base. They are based in New York City and work across the United States and worldwide. MICHAEL K CHEN is principal of MKCA, where he leads a team of architects and designers who are engaged in producing exceptionally refined and conceptually rich design at a broad range of scales, from buildings to interiors to furniture to urbanism; and with a commitment to research and experimentation in materials, technology, and manufacturing.
42. Alda Ly Architecture (ALA): Alda Ly Architecture (ALA) was founded in 2017 when groundbreaking co-working platform The Wing tapped Ly to design its East Coast and California locations. ALA continues to serve a growing number of entrepreneurs and startups as well as established organizations looking to rethink traditional healthcare, retail, office, and cultural spaces. ALA is a recognized thought leader in biophilic design and has been featured nationally and internationally in publications such as Metropolis, Contract, Interior Design, etc. The New York-based studio’s long list of clients includes Bloomberg, Rent the Runway, ThirdLove, functional medicine provider Parsley Health, the retail platform Bulletin, and social-action technology firm Blue State Digital. While ALA’s projects range from those with multi-million dollar construction budgets to start-ups building their very first headquarters, they all share ALA’s minimalist and playful design vocabulary, and seamlessly combine comfort, wellness, smart planning and fresh interior design concepts. To arrive at these thoughtful, custom solutions, ALA treats each as an opportunity to foster a client’s creativity.
43. Coates Design Seattle Architects: Coates Design Architects, based on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, is a purpose-driven firm led by Matthew Coates, founded upon the ethos of Responsible Architecture—a commitment born from winning the Cradle to Cradle Home Design Competition in 2005. Specializing in architecture, interior design, programming, master planning, feasibility studies, and sustainability, the firm serves diverse sectors—including residential, commercial, civic, healthcare, and academic—across Washington and beyond.
44. Worrell Yeung Architecture: Worrell Yeung is an architecture and design studio based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2014 by Max Worrell and Jejon Yeung, our practice excels at synthesizing complex systems and needs into clear conceptual solutions that are precise and considered. Working across several scales and typologies—from adaptive reuse and public space to ground-up residential and cultural spaces—we approach every project as an opportunity to create work that is adaptable to the present climate, focused on function, and enduring. We make work that appears simple and unembellished but is rooted in a rigorous design and analysis process that spans from concept to realization. Importantly, we strive for aesthetic minimalism in order to achieve functional richness and complexity—not just at the level of detail and materiality, but also in overall space planning and programming. Our studio approaches the creative process and the construction process with equal importance.
45. Best Practice Architecture: Best Practice Architecture is a nimble, design-intensive studio founded in 2011 and based in Seattle, Washington. Led by partners Ian Butcher and Kailin Gregga, the firm believes that great ideas can come from anyone and anywhere, and deliberately avoids rigid aesthetics in favor of context-responsive imagination. Their work—split between commercial and residential projects—balances originality, playfulness, and functionality, transforming constraints and odd program adjacencies into inventive design solutions. Best Practice champions collaborative creativity and intuitive spatial experiences, shaping environments that spark curiosity and delight.
46. Swatt | Miers Architects: Swatt | Miers Architects is a distinguished Bay Area design firm rooted in Emeryville, California, born from the 2009 merger of two established practices—Swatt Architects and George Miers & Associates—to create architecture that is beautiful, sustainable, and deeply attuned to its users and context. Led by Robert Swatt, FAIA, and George Miers, AIA, the firm brings a refined sensibility they describe as “warm modern”—a blend of early California modern design and the Third Bay Tradition, with influences like Ray Kappe shaping their aesthetic
47. assemblageSTUDIO: Founded in 1997 by Eric Strain, assemblageSTUDIO is a celebrated Las Vegas architecture firm known for bold, context-responsive design rooted in the unique landscape of the Mojave Desert. With more than 60 regional and national design awards, the studio is renowned for its rugged, earthy palette and the creative transformation of durable materials such as wood, concrete, steel, and rammed earth into forms that feel both heroic and deeply connected to their environment.
48. MGA Partners: MGA Partners, based in Philadelphia, is a nationally recognized, women-owned architecture firm that carries forward a legacy of thoughtful, place-based design rooted in its origins as Mitchell/Giurgola Architects (founded 1958), led today by partners Daniel Kelley, Amy Stein, and Catherine Broh. Rooted in collaboration and craft, the firm practices “Architecture as a human act,” blending design, technology, and building integrity to create architecture that resonates with cultural and contextual meaning. With a focused team of around twenty professionals, MGA specializes in public and institutional projects—ranging from federal courthouse restorations to educational and cultural facilities—prioritizing design solutions grounded in context, materiality, and the broader urban or campus narrative.
49. Philpotts Interiors: Founded in the 1960s by Mary Philpotts-McGrath, Philpotts Interiors is a Honolulu-based design studio celebrated for crafting spaces infused with a deep sense of place—rooted in Hawaiian culture, landscape, and legacy. Today, the firm is guided by Marion Philpotts-Miller, Lowell Tom, and Holly Boling Ruiz, continuing a legacy of organic, timeless design paired with fresh modern energy. Whether designing residential, hospitality, or commercial interiors, they prioritize close collaboration with clients, artists, and artisans to create environments that meld authentic storytelling with local materials and cultural integrity.
50. Robert J. Neylan Architects, Ltd.: Robert J. Neylan Architects, Ltd. (RJN Architects), based in Chicago and established in 2001, is a distinguished, award-winning firm specializing in residential design. Led by Robert J. Neylan, the practice approaches each project as a holistic journey—anchoring design in the site’s context, the client’s needs, and environmental responsiveness. Rather than viewing buildings as isolated objects, the firm shapes them as immersive spatial experiences—sanctuaries that mediate between people and place while prioritizing sustainability through thoughtful systems like solar and geothermal integration. RJN Architects’ portfolio, which includes projects such as “Des Moines Sanctuary” and “Ave Aquatica,” reflects a diversity of forms and materials unified by a modernist ethos and experiential richness.
