Top 50 Architecture Firms in Design for 2019

If you had to describe the work of New Orleans–based Trahan Architects according to only one essential element, it would be materiality. Take the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, where Trahan partnered with sculptor Matthias Pliessnig on the overhaul of a historic 650-seat auditorium. The interior of undulating ribbons fabricated from steam-bent white oak inspired a “wow” from the design judges, who lauded the firm’s “dramatic, sumptuous, and well-detailed” projects that offer “beautiful, compelling spaces to dwell within.” The firm’s portfolio helped Trahan earn the Number One spot for Design in this year’s Architect 50.

The idea for the Alliance’s design came after an African American member of the community recalled how the theater, which opened in 1968, once had segregated seating. “It was critical to address the issue of equality and diversity, and so we challenged ourselves to shape a space where the lower level and the balcony level could integrate into one unified community,” says Trey Trahan, FAIA, the founder of the firm, now 35 employees strong but rapidly growing.

courtesy Trahan Architects
The Alliance Theatre

courtesy Trahan Architects
Theatre detail

Transforming complex conceptual ideas into realized physical spaces is no simple task, but Trahan Architects excels at this alchemy. “Sometimes our focus is on the artistry and on shaping things that are beautiful, but at other times the focus is on marrying technology and our commitment to ecology,” Trahan says. With Alliance, which won a 2019 R+D Award, “we found, through the use of technology, that we could very cost-effectively build these shaped pieces consistent with the placement of each strand in the digital model.”

Material, Trahan says, is critical to that process. “Buildings should become more harmonious with their context over time and the environmental conditions should result in a patination that is rich and touches us in an emotional way,” he says. “We’re attempting to work from both a cognitive and emotional place.”

courtesy Trahan Architects
Conservation Foundation interior

At the Conservation Foundation Headquarters in New Orleans, for example, their design couples a cast-in-place concrete box with a weathered steel sculpture wall that creates a tranquil and contemplative respite within the bustle of the city’s central business district. That process extends to their robust pro-bono work for clients like Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago. Last year, Trahan helped the company with site evaluations for a new building while completing a concept design for a temporary space.

“It’s beyond buildings, right?” says Trahan. “It’s about arriving at a place where you believe that architecture can create or result in an attitude of kindness. … Architecture has a voice in that.”

courtesy Trahan Architects
111 North in Baton Rouge, La.

courtesy Trahan Architects
The Arrival Garden and Moody Pavilion at the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria in Austin

courtesy Trahan Architects
The Arrival Garden and Moody Pavilions at the sculpture park

courtesy Trahan Architects
Pavilions detail

The Top 50 Firms in Design

Rank	Organization	Score
1	Trahan Architects	100.0
2	BNIM	96.6
3	Lake\|Flato Architects	95.8
4	MASS Design Group	94.5
5	El Dorado Architects	94.0
6	Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects	92.0
7	Hastings	90.9
8	NADAAA	89.8
9	nArchitects	88.0
10	EskewDumezRipple	87.9
11	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill	87.3
12	Olson Kundig Architects	85.7
13	Dake Wells Architecture	83.6
14	Richärd+Bauer Architecture	82.8
15	Gensler	82.6
16	LMN Architects	80.8
17	CannonDesign	80.7
18	Substance Architecture	79.8
19	Montalba Architects	79.3
20	Leers Weinzapfel Associates	79.2
21	Perkins and Will	78.9
22	deLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop	77.1
23	Kevin Daly Architects	76.7
24	Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture	76.3
25	John Ronan Architects	75.4
26	Helix Architecture + Design	74.4
26	Höweler + Yoon Architecture	74.4
28	Marlon Blackwell Architects	74.2
29	Works Progress Architecture	73.8
30	CetraRuddy	73.6
31	HGA	73.5
32	Payette	72.8
33	DLR Group	72.6
34	William Rawn Associates	72.1
35	The Miller Hull Partnership	71.3
35	Arrowstreet	71.3
37	Ross Barney Architects	71.2
38	ZGF Architects	71.1
39	Holst Architecture	70.3
40	Solomon Cordwell Buenz	69.2
41	Elkus Manfredi Architects	68.7
42	Neumann Monson Architects	68.2
43	SRG Partnership	67.9
43	Steinberg Hart	67.9
43	Stantec	67.9
46	Modus Studio	67.6
47	Bora Architects	66.9
48	Hacker	66.7
48	ODA New York	66.7
50	Quinn Evans Architects	66.2
50	OfficeUntitled	66.2

Design Judges

Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, co-founded Los Angeles–based Brooks and Scarpa, which won the 2014 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award. He has taught at numerous institutions and currently is on the faculty at the University of Southern California.

Dan Wood, FAIA, co-founded New York–based WORKac with Amale Andraos in 2003. He has taught extensively, most recently at MIT and the University of Toronto, where he held the 2017 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design.

Jennifer Newsom, AIA, is a co-founder and principal of Dream the Combine, based in Minneapolis. The firm’s installation, Hide & Seek, was winner of the 2018 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program.

Other Stories in the 2019 Architect 50