Austin’s burgeoning architectural scene reflects a commitment to sustainability, natural landscape, and contemporary elements. Because the city is rapidly expanding, commercial space, hotels, residential space, and retail projects are constantly being developed and designed. Architects are particularly interested in learning how to incorporate adaptive reuse elements into their designs.
The following list ranks the best commercial architects in Austin. Each firm was selected based on its awards, affiliations, press features, and track record.
GSC Architects
3100 Alvin DeVane Blvd., Building A, Suite 200-B, Austin, TX 78741
GSC Architects is a well-known firm in Austin that works in various fields, including medical, corporate, and religious institutions. Tom Cornelius, Joe LaRocca, and Phil Scott are the three principals of GSC Architects. Cornelius graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Environmental Design and the University of Texas at Austin with a Master of Architecture. Scott received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas Tech University, while LaRocca studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. They are all committed to a holistic, problem-solving strategy to maximize natural and purchased resources.
GSC Architects is well-known for its LEED design mastery, as evidenced by many LEED accredited projects and LEED-certified professionals on staff. It has such a strong relationship with the USGBC that it has hosted the Central Texas Chapter of the USGBC in its office for the past seven years. The Austin Chapter of the AIA presented GSC with the prestigious Firm Achievement Award for their contributions to the community and industry and their outstanding designs.
Clayton Korte
2201 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, Texas 78705
What started in 1983 as a small architecture firm has grown to include interior design and branding services, with offices in Austin and San Antonio. Though Clayton Korte has deep roots in Texas architecture, the firm has worked on winery, ranch, and residential projects in California, Maryland, and Hawaii.
Since 2005, Paul Clayton has led the Austin office and has been responsible for the firm’s expansion. Paul is an experienced entrepreneur who was a skilled architect and designer and has led Clayton Korte (formerly Clayton & Little) with a disciplined approach since 2005, when he purchased Emily Little Architects after working there for four years. He expanded a five-person architecture firm into a multidisciplinary design company with offices in two cities and a team of more than 30 full-time professionals within the next fifteen years as principal. His diverse design skills cover a wide range of project types and styles.
Miro Rivera Architects
505 Powell St., Austin, TX 78703
Miro Rivera Architects is a multi-award-winning architectural firm that focuses on commercial, industrial, and residential architecture and urban and interior design. The firm’s strategy for commercial work reflects a strong dedication to design expertise founded on the notion that architecture should positively impact the community. The firm has won over 100 design awards, such as the 2016 Texas Firm Achievement Award given by the Texas Society of Architects, International Design Awards (2009), ArchDaily World’s Best Architects, and Architecture MasterPrize. The firm’s works were seen in leading publications such as USA Today, Austin Home, The New York Times, and Architect. Principals Juan Miró and Miguel Rivera are both members of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.
Method Architecture
2921 E. 17th St., Unit B, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78702
Method Architecture is a full-service architecture firm dedicated to a methodical, client-focused creative process that is ego-free. It specializes in tenant finish and ground-up projects spanning industrial, corporate interiors, health care, hospitality, breweries, and retail, with the versatility of a small firm but a big reach. Method has 75 employees across four offices in Texas and is minority-owned.
Method acquired GSC Architects, an Austin-based firm, and since then, the company has worked on a number of projects. The Ruvati USA is an industrial office warehouse in Round Rock. The 60,000 square feet structure has both office and warehouse spaces. The team built the project to showcase contemporary exterior, dramatic glass entrance, and plenty of natural light.
Dick Clark + Associates
2120 E. 7th St., Austin, TX 78702
Dick Clark + Associates is an Austin-based architecture and interior design firm that works on various projects ranging from custom residential to large commercial. It believes that great design has the power to create a sense of place, represent an individual’s or organization’s values, and improve people’s lives. Dick Clark takes its job seriously while maintaining a welcoming, laid-back office environment in which ideas flow freely and partnership is constant. It creates iconic projects and inspirational spaces that capture Austin’s distinct quality and way of life.
Dick Clark + Associates has been featured in multiple publications, including Axios Austin, Western Art and Architecture, A Guide to Austin Architecture, San Antonio Home Decor & Design Magazine, Austin Home Magazine, PaperCity Magazine, Austin Business Journal, Luxe Magazine, Open House TV, Decor Punk Magazine, Dwell, and E-Architects.
Studio 8 Architects
611 West Fifteenth St., Austin, TX 78701
Studio8 Architects has a team of designers, strategists, and intellectuals who work on architectural challenges, interior design, and master planning. It is made up of experts at matching people to places and who value process over style. The International Living Future Institute has awarded Studio8 the JUST™ label, making it the first company in Texas to do so. The JUST™ program has gained worldwide interest and is helping organizations develop better employee engagement policies and community stewardship practices.
Aside from receiving the 2021 Firm Achievement Award, 2021 Community Service Award for Milton Hime, and the 2016 IIDA Excellence Design Award for A&M Agriculture & Multipurpose Classroom Building, Studio8 has exceptional team members who hold memberships with the American Institute of Architects, the International Interior Design Association, and they are LEED-accredited professionals.
Cornerstone Architects
7000 Bee Cave Rd., Suite 200, Austin, TX 78746
Cornerstone Architects has received numerous awards throughout its existence, including several National Commercial Builders Council Awards of Excellence, a Grand Award for Belterra Amenity Center and Gateway Community Church, a Merit Award for Northwest Hills Medical Center, and Project of the Year for Fiori Day Spa. Cornerstone Architects has been spotlighted in Water Enjoyment, Austin Home, American Style Villa, and Modern Home Tour Austin.
Antenora Architects
3410 Far West Blvd., Suite 330, Austin, TX 78731
Antenora Architects, established in 1997 by principal Michael Antenora, specializes in architectural interiors, historic preservation, reuse, planning, and graphics. The firm has had a national reputation for professionalism, innovative design, and business integrity over the last 20 years. Antenora Architects works to strike the right balance for each client’s specific needs by designing each space holistically. Commercial, public and institutional, restaurant and hospitality, single-family and multifamily residential, and mixed-use projects are among the firm’s specializations.
For its work with adaptive reuse and restaurant/hospitality projects, Antenora Architects was acknowledged as a thought leader and design innovator. The firm’s work has been showcased by the press, such as Architecture Digest, Texas Architect, Austin Home, and Austin Business Journal, both nationally and internationally. The 2017 American Institute of Architects National Honor Award, Texas Society of Architects Design Award (2016), AIA Austin Design Award (2016), Engineering News-Record Best of the Best Projects and Texas and Louisiana Best Project Winner (2016), Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards for Adaptive Restoration (2016), and ABC Central Texas Chapter “Excellence in Construction” (2016) have all been given to the firm.
Hatch + Ulland Owen Architects
1010 East 11th St., Austin, TX 78702
Hatch + Ulland Owen Architects (h+uo) is an architectural firm based in Austin, Texas, specializing in imaginative, sustainable, and socially conscious design. Tom Hatch, FAIA, established the firm in 1978 to assist in the development of strong, vibrant communities. It has grown from its sole proprietorship dawning to its current partnership structure, formed in 2006 when Erik Ulland and Randall Owen joined him as partners.
H+UO is a versatile design studio specializing in interpreting clients’ visions and delivering high-quality, contextually responsive design in multi-family residential, civic, education, hospitality, retail, office, historic preservation, and single-family residential markets. Its reputation, culture, and growing list of satisfied and repeat customers in Austin, Texas, and across the country.
H+UO’s works have been featured by the press, including Texas Architect, Rare Magazine, Austin Chronicle, Tribeza, Austin Monthly, Austin Business District, The Good Life, Hospitality Design, eco-structure, and Urban Land.
McKinney York Architects
1301 East 7th St., Austin, TX 78702
McKinney York Architects is an award-winning, concept-driven design firm with offices in Austin and San Antonio that believes in the power of places to enrich lives. With nearly four decades of experience designing academic, religious, commercial, and civic projects for public and private sector clients, institutions, and select developers, the firm connects people to each other and their communities by creating architecture that engages, inspires, and belongs. Led by President Michelle Rossomando, AIA, RID, and Partners Al York FAIA, RID, Brian Carlson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C and Will Wood, AIA, RID, the firm was founded in 1983 by Heather McKinney, FAIA, who continues to be involved in the studio work.
McKinney York Architects earned the AIA Austin Firm Achievement Award in 2007 and the Texas Society of Architects’ 2013 Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a Texas architecture firm. The firm is known for its ability to take on unconventional projects and create timeless designs. Wired, The Wall Street Journal, HGTV, The Globe and Mail, NPR, Architectural Record, Architecture, Southern Living, and Texas Architect have featured its work.
Chioco Design
1306 Rosewood Ave., Austin, TX 78702
Chioco Design is an award-winning architecture firm formed in 2005 by Principal Jamie Chioco. Their work ranges from intimate private residences to large-scale industrial adaptive reuse developments. Restaurants, bars, retail stores, mixed-use facilities, and public spaces are among the projects undertaken by the firm. Chioco Design believes that working with a diverse client base on a variety of project types is an effective way to experience and contribute to the community.
Through active listening, collaboration, and innovative design, the firm has consistently strived to exceed clients’ expectations in both process and result over its two decades of experience. They believe in a contextual design that fits into its built, natural, and cultural environment. Their projects are functional, engaging, and honest. Austin Home, Dwell, Restless Living, Interior Design Magazine, Tribeza, Statesman, The Architect’s Newspaper, Remodelista, and Architect Magazine have all featured Chioco Design’s work.
Baldridge Architects
5120 Burnet Rd., Bldg. 1, Suite 100, Austin, TX 78756
Baldridge Architects’ practice is guided by the belief that a well-designed space can provide more than shelter and amenities. It divides its time between commercial and residential projects, taking care to design and undertake each project purposefully and curate space, light, mass, and texture. It is best known for its residential work. The firm’s nine architects collaborate with clients to create classic and ageless designs that go beyond trends to provide a sense of eminence and continuity. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Record, Dwell, Design Bureau, Luxe, Conde Nast Traveler, and Metropolis featured Balridge’s work online and in print. The firm has also received numerous accolades, including several AIA Design Awards in the past years.
The firm’s main guiding principles are thoughtful collaboration and meticulous planning. It collaborates with clients to achieve and balance their goals. In the end, Baldridge Architects strives for designs that last, with careful consideration of function and the solidity that has become synonymous with its work.
Furman + Keil Architects
1211 East 11th St., Suite 200, Austin, TX 78702
Furman + Keil Architects has been committed to serving residential and commercial clients in the Austin area since its founding in 1995 by firm principal Gary Furman. The firm’s success, which has spread its scope in recent years to include small-scale commercial projects, is based on the creation of sustainable, ageless structures that strike a fresh balance between local tradition and creative design. Since its founding in 1995, FKA has worked with clients on various projects, both large and small, that are rooted in the community it loves and made possible by the hardworking individuals with whom it collaborates each day.
The firm has received many honors under the leadership of Furman, an honored Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and Philip Keil, winner of the AIA Austin’s FAIA Community Service Award and past president of AIA Austin. The firm has been featured in papers like Better Homes & Gardens, Austin Home, Urban Home, Texas Monthly, Austin Monthly, American Architects, and Luxe Interiors + Design. The firm holds affiliations with the American Institute of Architects – Austin and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Forge Craft Architecture + Design
608 West Monroe St., Suite C, Austin, TX 78704
Forge Craft Architecture + Design is a professional architecture firm specializing in architecture and related tactile arts like interior architecture, industrial and product design, furniture design, and exhibition design and embracing private and public real estate development opportunities. Founders Scott Ginder and Rommel Sulit have pooled their diverse project expertise and scales to create architecture that benefits from a better understanding of design and construction.
Forge Craft Architecture + Design comprises LEED-accredited professionals and the American Institute of Architects members. Its works have been previously featured by Sight Lines, Austin Playhouse, The Austin Chronicle, Curbed, Austin Business Journal, Statesman, Spectrum News, Austin Monthly, Herald-Leader, and Inhabitat.
Workshop No.5
3027 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite 302B, Austin, TX 78705
Workshop No. 5 was established to provide exceptional artistry and environmentally friendly design. It creates harmonious spaces that are equal parts artful and practical, with the goal of inspiring and enthralling. The practice of the firm is based on natural materials. By upcycling and sourcing sustainable materials, it actively seeks out new ways to improve old architectural schools.
Workshop No. 5’s work is classic, despite drawing inspiration from modern design schools. Each project is approached through collaboration, comprehension, and elevated design. It also encourages open and honest communication with clients, which leads to excellent results. This contractor’s work is always full of innovative ideas that result in stunning yet functional spaces that exceed expectations.
Workshop No. 5 holds memberships with the American Institute of Architects Austin, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, Rice Design Alliance, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
