23 of the Best Architecture Firms in Chicago Dominating the Field

Chicago architecture firms range from global practices founded in the city, such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (1936) and Perkins&Will (1935), to smaller studios known for houses, public spaces and community work. This guide is for students and designers researching the city’s practices. It describes 23 Chicago architecture firms in plain, checked terms, explains the design principles that link Chicago’s architecture from the first skyscrapers to today, and analyses three precedents: Willis Tower, Aqua and the Chicago Riverwalk.

Chicago’s tradition of rebuilding and experiment still shapes the work of architecture firms in Chicago. Many draw on the disciplined modernism of Mies van der Rohe or the organic principles of Frank Lloyd Wright, and apply them to today’s environmental and social questions. The 23 firms below are listed in no particular order; descriptions summarise each firm’s published profile.

Global legacy firms

These practices have shaped Chicago’s skyline for decades, and their work extends worldwide.

1) Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

SOM was founded in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; John Merrill joined in 1939. The firm combines architecture, structural engineering and urban planning in one practice. Its best-known buildings include Lever House in New York, Willis Tower in Chicago and Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai. The firm’s own materials state that its work has received nearly 2,000 awards (SOM).

2) Burns and Beyerl Architects (bba Architects)

bba Architects focuses on energy-efficient houses that are economical to run. Its portfolio covers single-family homes from city rowhouses to lakeside houses, as well as restaurants and the renovation of historic houses and estates.

3) Studio Gang

Founded by Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang is a Chicago-based architecture and urban design practice with further offices in New York, San Francisco and Paris. It works across architecture, urbanism, interiors and exhibitions. Its 82-storey Aqua tower (2009) is analysed in the precedents section below.

4) FitzGerald Associates Architects

FitzGerald Associates is a long-established Chicago firm whose own listings trace its roots back about a century. It is known for residential and mixed-use buildings and especially for historic renovation and adaptive reuse, having converted and restored more than one hundred historic structures, as well as for new construction.

5) Goettsch Partners

Goettsch Partners (GP) is a Chicago-based practice with projects on several continents. It traces its lineage back to the Chicago office of Mies van der Rohe, and its work continues that tradition of clear structure and refined materials. The firm describes a process of developing several design options and testing each for feasibility and environmental performance.

6) Cook Architectural Design Studio

Cook Architectural Design Studio is a Chicago practice working on residential and commercial projects, with an emphasis on sustainable design and green building technology, including a number of high-end private homes.

7) CannonDesign

CannonDesign was founded in 1945 in Niagara Falls, New York, and is headquartered in Buffalo, but it has a large Chicago office. Its architects, engineers and consultants work on healthcare, education, science and civic buildings, with a strong focus on health and sustainability (CannonDesign).

8) Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture

Hartshorne Plunkard is a Chicago practice designing offices, residences, educational buildings, high-rise towers, retail centres and sports facilities, many of them in the city itself.

9) Perkins&Will

Perkins&Will was founded in Chicago in 1935 by Lawrence Perkins and Philip Will Jr. Today it is a multidisciplinary, research-based firm with more than 2,500 professionals in some 30 studios worldwide (according to the firm), working in architecture, interior design, urban design and landscape architecture (Perkins&Will). Its stated values include design quality, inclusion, research, resilience, social impact and wellbeing.

10) dSPACE Studio

dSPACE Studio designs private homes, public spaces, workplaces and cultural buildings, and describes a process that involves clients closely at every stage and uses sustainable methods and materials where possible.

11) Moss Design

Moss is a Chicago-based architecture and urban design firm whose projects range from custom furniture to hotels and office buildings. Its approach emphasises daylight, natural ventilation, planting and environmentally responsible materials.

12) Booth Hansen

Booth Hansen works on institutional, cultural, residential (single- and multi-family) and academic projects, combining craft and technical detail with attention to environmental impact.

13) Ross Barney Architects

Ross Barney Architects is a Chicago practice known for public infrastructure and civic work, including transit stations, government buildings, schools and parks. With Sasaki, it designed the later phases of the Chicago Riverwalk, analysed below.

14) Dirk Denison Architects

Dirk Denison Architects works on residential, commercial, gallery, educational and furniture projects; its houses are its most published work.

15) Wheeler Kearns Architects

Dan Wheeler founded the practice in 1987 as Daniel Wheeler Architects; Larry Kearns joined soon after and the firm took its present name in 1990. Its work spans houses, children’s museums, arts and education buildings, landscapes and furniture, much of it in and around Chicago.

16) KOO LLC

KOO was founded by the architect Jackie Koo. The practice works on hospitality, residential, educational, preservation, institutional and urban design projects, with an exploratory, technically grounded approach.

17) JGMA

JGMA, founded by Juan Gabriel Moreno, focuses on buildings that support their neighbourhoods, particularly schools, community and cultural buildings. The firm is also known for community engagement, helping clients with outreach and capital campaigns.

18) HED

HED is a national architecture, engineering and planning firm with a Chicago office. It emphasises collaboration and sustainable design across healthcare, education, workplace and civic projects.

19) John Ronan Architects

John Ronan Architects was established in Chicago in 1999. Led by John Ronan, the studio follows a research-based process of material and spatial experiment; its best-known building is the Poetry Foundation in Chicago (2011).

20) Vladimir Radutny Architects

Vladimir Radutny Architects opened its Chicago office in 2008. The studio questions conventional assumptions about how space, use and materials fit together, working through repeated design studies on projects of varied size, mainly residential and interior work.

21) Partners by Design (Pbd)

Partners by Design has worked since 1993 on workplace, interior and architectural projects, with an emphasis on practical, sustainable spaces tailored to each client.

22) Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB)

Founded in 1931, Solomon Cordwell Buenz is a multidisciplinary firm known especially for residential towers, university buildings and urban districts, with its main office in Chicago and further offices in other US cities.

23) FGP Atelier

FGP Atelier is a Chicago-based international practice founded by the Mexican architect Francisco Gonzalez Pulido after he left JAHN, where he had been a partner, in 2017.

Principles explained: what links Chicago architecture firms

• Structure as expression. From the steel frames of the first Chicago School in the 1880s-90s to Fazlur Khan’s tube structures at SOM, Chicago architecture tends to show how a building stands up.
• The frame and the window. The “Chicago window”, a wide fixed pane between two opening sashes, came from that frame, and Mies van der Rohe’s later glass and steel towers refined it. Goettsch Partners continues this line.
• Engineering and architecture together. SOM, CannonDesign and HED combine engineers and architects in one firm, a Chicago habit since the 20th century.
• Climate and the lake. Strong winds, cold winters and hot summers push firms towards shading, wind-tested forms and efficient envelopes, as in Studio Gang’s Aqua.
• The public realm. The river and lakefront are treated as shared space: Ross Barney Architects’ Riverwalk and many community projects by JGMA and others follow that civic tradition.

Precedent analysis

Willis Tower (SOM, 1973-74)

Designed by Bruce Graham with the structural engineer Fazlur Khan, both of SOM, Willis Tower (originally Sears Tower) rises 442 m (1,451 ft) to its roof. Its structure is a “bundled tube”: nine square tubes in a three-by-three grid that stop at different heights, giving the tower its stepped profile. It was the world’s tallest building from 1973 until 1998 (Willis Tower). Principle shown: the structure is the form.

Aqua (Studio Gang, 2009)

Aqua is an 82-storey residential tower 261.8 m (859 ft) high. Its concrete floor slabs extend outward by up to 3.7 m (12 ft) in varying shapes, creating balconies that frame views of nearby landmarks, shade the apartments from summer sun and may help break up the wind. When completed it was the world’s tallest building designed by a woman (Aqua). Principle shown: a simple slab system adjusted floor by floor for climate and views.

Chicago Riverwalk (Ross Barney Architects with Sasaki, 2009-2016)

Building on an original SOM plan, Ross Barney Architects designed the early sections and, with Sasaki, the phases that opened in 2015 and 2016. These turned a narrow strip below Wacker Drive into a sequence of “rooms” along the river, such as the Marina Plaza, the Cove, the River Theater, the Water Plaza and the Jetty (Chicago Riverwalk). Principle shown: infrastructure as public space.

Chicago architecture firms: in a nutshell

Like San Diego and Miami, Chicago has a rich architectural history, and its architecture firms combine that history with current concerns about climate and community. For upcoming events, including the Chicago Architecture Biennial, see this guide to design and architecture events.

Sources and further reading

Firm descriptions summarise each practice’s own published profile; founding dates and figures are from the linked reference entries (SOM, Perkins&Will, CannonDesign) and firm histories. Precedent facts are from the linked entries for Willis Tower, Aqua and the Chicago Riverwalk, accessed on 29 October 2026.