Seattle, Washington (February 27, 2019) – LMN Architects is pleased to celebrate 40 years of architecture, interior design, and urban design. The firm will be organizing several events to commemorate this significant anniversary and has recently established the LMN Architects Endowed Fellowship at the University of Washington.
Since its 1979 founding in Seattle, Washington, LMN Architects has dedicated its practice to the health and vitality of communities of all scales. Internationally recognized for the planning and design of environments that elevate the social experience, the firm works across a diversity of project typologies, encompassing higher education facilities, science and technology, cultural venues, conference and convention centers, urban mixed-use projects, transportation, and other programs that celebrate community. Well known for design of both public and private projects that generously contribute to the broader civic experience, LMN’s unique and distinctive projects share a common approach to how they work for people – whether in a campus, city, neighborhood, or workplace.
Forty years ago, George Loschky, Judsen Marquardt, and John Nesholm envisioned a practice devoted to the public realm. Innovative design inquiry and collaboration have continued to drive the core practice, and the firm is now composed of architects, interior designers, urban planners, computer scientists, and specialists committed to advancing the principles that define LMN’s philosophy of practice.
Today LMN Architects is led by partners John Chau, Sam Miller, Walt Niehoff, Wendy Pautz, Mark Reddington, George Shaw, Stephen Van Dyck, and Rafael Viñoly-Menendez, and employs 150 professionals. The quality of LMN’s work has been recognized with nearly 300 national and international design awards, including the prestigious 2016 National Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The firm’s commitment to civic life has been a strong force in helping shape the city of Seattle, exploring the potential of architecture to strengthen the cultural identity and create sustainable places that bring people together around civic life. LMN has designed 240 projects and delivered more than 100 projects in the Seattle metropolitan area, including many of the landmark projects that define its cultural life.
Significant Seattle projects include Benaroya Hall; McCaw Hall; MOHAI; Seattle Asian Art Museum; numerous planning and design assignments for Sound Transit including the recently competed station at UW; various projects at the University of Washington such as PACAAR Hall and Dempsey Hall at the Foster School of Business, and the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. LMN also designed the Seattle Central Library in a joint venture with the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).
Current and recently completed projects in Seattle include the new Hyatt Regency Hotel Downtown; the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington; the Washington State Convention Center Expansion, currently under construction; and the Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion on the new waterfront, currently in design.
LMN firm members frequently contribute to community dialogue that addresses Seattle’s most pressing civic and cultural issues, and the firm also contributes time and expertise to civic task force commissions and industry organizations. LMN believes that sharing responsibility for the public engagement with architecture is an important obligation of the profession. Firm members are known for extensive participation in national, regional, and local architecture programs.
The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the design of highly sustainable buildings, with numerous awards for environmentally sensitive design. LMN Tech Studio, the firm’s in-house research and development lab, builds on this commitment to green architecture through digital applications that streamline design, fabrication and construction processes.
The firm embraces the growing complexity and diversity of facility programs, collaborators, and project delivery methods. Throughout its history of designing community-focused projects, LMN has perfected collaborative models that expand the effectiveness of multifaceted, nontraditional teams. The work embodies a multidisciplinary, team-based approach, and the firm has employed this philosophy through more than 100 architecture collaborators on projects throughout North America.
LMN Architects has worked in 34 States as well as locations in Canada, and is a leader in developing the tools of architectural practice required to produce projects that support smart, sustainable, cities. The firm has successfully completed more than 700 projects across North America, including the double LEED Platinum Vancouver Convention Centre West in Vancouver, Canada; Cleveland Convention Center & Civic Core in Cleveland, Ohio; Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, Texas; and the Voxman Music Building at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of LMN Architects, the firm is proud to announce the creation of the LMN Architects Endowed Fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. The UW Department of Architecture embodies a distinct culture in response to the increasingly global character of modern practice, as reflected in its diverse international programs. Through this new fellowship, LMN will support graduate students and future leaders in architecture focused on women and/or students of color typically underrepresented in the field of architecture.
The firm’s ongoing dedication to communities at all scales is underscored by its important, iconic work across the Puget Sound region and beyond, while its continuing efforts to advance the design and construction industry will have far-reaching effects for decades to come.
