Last updated on July 18th, 2024 at 10:37 pm
The booming architectural scene in Austin reflects the community’s dedication to sustainable practices, natural landscapes, and modern elements. Commercial spaces, hotels, residential spaces, offices, and retail projects are being designed and built as the city continues to grow. Architects are especially eager to learn how to incorporate adaptive reuse elements into their designs.
The best office architects in Austin are listed below. Our team chose these firms for their awards, affiliations, press coverage, and strong track records.
GSC Architects
3100 Alvin DeVane Blvd, Building A, Ste #200-B, Austin, TX 78741
GSC Architects is a well-known firm in Austin that works in various fields, including the medical, corporate, and religious sectors. GSC Architects’ three principals include Tom Cornelius, Joe LaRocca, and Phil Scott. Cornelius earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A&M University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin. Scott graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree; LaRocca studied architecture at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. They are all dedicated to a comprehensive, problem-solving approach to maximizing natural and purchased resources.
Many LEED-accredited projects and LEED-certified experts on staff attest to GSC Architects’ LEED design expertise. The firm has such a close relationship with the USGBC that it has housed the Central Texas Chapter for the past seven years in its office. The Austin Chapter of the AIA recognized GSC with the coveted Firm Achievement Award for their contributions to the community and industry as well as their outstanding designs.
Matt Fajkus Architecture
900 East 6th St, Ste #100, Austin, TX 78702
Matt Fajkus Architectural is a licensed and award-winning architecture and interior design firm that embraces both small and big residential and business projects. The firm’s design work is founded on the premise that each project is unique and that the client, the location, and the practical needs of the project should drive the design instead of a single, predetermined style.
MF Architecture is well-versed in sustainable design ideas, including energy-saving measures, passive daylighting, and material selections that encourage good indoor air quality. The firm feels that the present sustainability-driven age is the most all-encompassing since Modernism, as it embraces all scales of design, including lifestyle choices.
Various publications and organizations—including The Wall Street Journal, Dwell Magazine, National Public Radio, Texas Society of Architects, and the American Institute of Architects—have acknowledged Matt Fajkus Architecture locally and nationally. The business was also awarded a 2019 AIA National Design Award for the Westlake Dermatology Marble Falls medical office building.
Antenora Architects
3410 Far West Blvd, Ste #330, Austin, TX 78731
Antenora Architects specializes in architectural interiors, historic preservation, reuse, planning, and graphics. It was founded in 1997 by Michael Antenora. Since then, the firm has earned a national reputation for expertise, creative design, and corporate honesty. Antenora Architects strives to achieve the correct balance for each client’s unique demands by creating each space holistically. It specializes in commercial, public and institutional, restaurant and hospitality, single-family and multifamily residential, and mixed-use projects.
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 acknowledged in national and international publications such as Architecture Digest, Texas Architect, Austin Home, and Austin Business Journal. The firm has also received various awards, like the 2017 American Institute of Architects National Honor Award, the Texas Society of Architects Design Award (2016), the AIA Austin Design Award (2016), the Engineering News-Record Best of the Best Projects, the 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” Award (2016).
Sixthriver Architects
1601 S Mopac Expy, Barton Skyway Two, Ste #100-D, Austin, TX 78746
Sixthriver Architects was started in 1994 by a group of design experts who wanted to deliver a different sort of design relationship. Sixthriver’s project portfolio has expanded from a few local projects to over 25 million square feet of country-design projects, ranging from small commercial office spaces to ground-up multi-use structures to big-scale student housing projects.
Rollie Roessner has led Sixthriver Architecture since its inception in 1994. Rollie’s notable work includes the 65-story Transco Tower, Midtown Medical, 38th and Lamar, Austin Music Hall, and US Air corporate offices. Before starting Sixthriver, Roland had nearly 35 years of industry experience with top 100 architectural firms in both Houston and Washington.
Sixthriver Architects’ works have been featured by Towers, The Business Journals, Architect Magazine, Bisnow, Real Estate Weekly, Silicon Hills News, Austin American-Statesman, and The Austin Chronicle.
Cushing Terrell
316 W 12th St, Ste #300, Austin, TX 78701
Cushing Terrell was founded in 1938 on the belief that integrating architecture, engineering, and design opens the doors for deepened relationships and enhanced creativity. That belief anchored the firm’s design practice and continues to define it today. The firm has completed around 1,200 projects, totaling $800 million in construction expenditures in recent years. Their diverse service offerings include architecture, mechanical, electrical, structural, civil, and refrigeration engineering, urban planning, landscape architecture, and interior design services. Schools, hospitals, clinics, single and multi-family homes, and recreational, commercial, retail, and industrial buildings are among the projects undertaken by the firm.
Cushing Terrell’s staff of more than 450 professionals across 30 disciplines and seven markets enable it to give clients exceptional partnerships, service, and value from all of its 13 offices located across Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Texas, and Washington. Towers (Austin), HCD Magazine, Floornature, The Business Journals, ArchDaily, Archinect, Bisnow, Architect Magazine, and Dexigner have all featured its work.
Studio 8 Architects
611 West Fifteenth St, Austin, TX 78701
Studio8 Architects resolves architectural difficulties. It also provides interior design and master planning through a team of dedicated designers, strategists, and thinkers. It comprises people who are masters at matching people to places and who value method over style. Studio8 is the first company in Texas to get the JUST™ label from the International Living Future Institute. The JUST™ program has garnered international attention and is assisting firms in developing better employee engagement policies and community stewardship practices.
The firm has received the 2021 Firm Achievement Award, the 2021 Community Service Award for Milton Home, and the 2016 IIDA Excellence Design Award for A&M Agriculture & Multipurpose Classroom Building. Studio8’s outstanding team members are members of the American Institute of Architects, the International Interior Design Association, and are LEED-accredited professionals.
Cornerstone Architects
7000 Bee Cave Rd, Ste #200, Austin, TX 78746
Cornerstone Architects is a design firm that specializes in unique commercial and residential constructions. The award-winning firm was founded in 1989 to combine architecture and interior design to generate cutting-edge visual appeal. Cornerstone Architects’ commercial portfolio includes office, medical, retail, restaurant, recreational, mixed-use, resort, religious, master planning, multifamily facilities, and custom luxury residential projects. Cornerstone has been commissioned in the United States, worldwide, as well as back home in Central Texas.
Cornerstone Architects has received numerous awards throughout its history, 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 the Fiori Day Spa. It has also been featured in Water Enjoyment, Austin Home, American Style Villa, and Modern Home Tour Austin.
Dick Clark + Associates
2120 E 7th St, Austin, TX 78702
Dick Clark + Associates is an architecture and interior design company headquartered in Austin that works on custom residential and large commercial projects. It argues that excellent design can create a sense of place, embody the values of an individual or business, and improves people’s lives. Dick Clark takes its work seriously while keeping a friendly, laid-back office environment where ideas flow freely and collaboration is constant. It builds landmark projects and inspires environments that reflect Austin’s particular quality 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.
Balridge Architects
5120 Burnet Rd, Building 1, Ste #100, Austin, TX 78756
The practice of Baldridge Architects is inspired by the conviction that a well-designed space may provide more than just housing and creature comforts. It spends its time on commercial and residential projects, designing and executing each project with intention, creating space, light, mass, and texture. Its best-known work is in the residential sector. The firm’s nine architects work with clients to produce timeless designs that transcend trends and convey a sense of eminence and continuity. Baldridge’s work has been published online and in print by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Record, Dwell, Design Bureau, Luxe, Conde Nast Traveler, and Metropolis. The business has also won numerous awards, including multiple AIA Design Awards in recent years.
The fundamental guiding principles of the firm are deliberate collaboration and rigorous planning, working with clients to attain and balance their objectives. Baldridge Architects aspires for durable designs that combine function with the bold look that has become its signature.
Mark Odom Studio
4903 Woodrow Ave, Austin, TX 78756
Mark Odom Studio, founded in 2008, attempts to balance the chaotic environment with measured standards of proportion and purpose. The firm’s approach is free of preconceived notions, with each response a careful reference to the client and site. It encourages client interactions and communication throughout the development process, resulting in a true collaboration between owner and studio.
Under the direction of Mark Odom, the studio seeks like-minded clients who value research. The firm provides a balanced evaluation of the client’s goals, materials, site amenities, dynamics of the environment, social awareness, and budget restrictions. It has been honored through various awards for its works, including the 2020 Preservation Austin Merit Award for Rehabilitation, the 2018 ArchDaily Best Building of the Year Award, and the 2017 San Antonio Business Journal’s Best in Real Estate Award, “Best Multifamily Project.
alterstudio architecture
1801 Lavaca St, Ste #106, Austin, TX 78701
alterstudio architecture, LLP, based in Austin, is a full-service architecture and design practice noted for its creativity, originality, craftsmanship, and attention to detail. The work is founded on deep-seated architectural qualities such as spacious interiors, astute daylight manipulation, and rigorous attention to detail. The enhancement of direct human experience and the formulation of the complicated conditions of their situations are at the heart of each project undertaken by the firm. alterstudio architecture specializes in precise and imaginative buildings, landscapes, and interiors that respond to their surroundings and place ecologies. It advocates ecological responsive design, which recognizes the influence of exhaustible resources as a beneficial contributor to the development of ethical architecture.
Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino, and Tim Whitehill have built a team of exceptional architects and designers who provide the highest level of project management, service, and design. Its client- and site-specific approach reveals the intrinsic spirit of location and individuality.
With years of hard work and breadth of expertise, its projects have been featured by Daily Mail, Architecture Magazine, Dezeen, ArchDaily, Architectural Record, Dwell, The Spaces, Archinect, and Builder Magazine. Its awards include the 2019 National AIA Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture, the National AIA Housing Design Award, and the American Architecture Award – just a few of its 185 design awards. The company has also been inducted into the William S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence in 2018.
Sanders Architecture
3706 Kerbey Ln, Austin, TX 78731
Sanders Architecture offers complex, inventive design solutions that fulfill the needs of its clients while also responding to site factors that are unique to each project. The firm, founded in Austin in 2009, has executed projects throughout Texas. Sanders Architecture is noted for its attention to detail and collaborative design approach. Its staff collaborates closely with engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, and other design professionals to develop an architecture that improves the lives of its clients and the community.
Christopher Sanders, the firm’s founder and creative director, leads all projects’ design processes and pays great attention to client relationships. His collaborative approach provides direct interaction with clients from early discussions to the design and construction phases. Chris worked as a Project Architect for Andersson Wise Architects in Austin, Ann Beha Architects in Boston, and Baum, Freytag, and Leesch in Germany before forming Sanders Architecture. The renowned Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Admissions Kiosk, Temple Ranch Pool Cabana, AWAY Spa at W Austin Hotel, and Residences and Hawthorne Longfellow Library at Bowdoin College are among the notable projects completed under his watch.
Weiss Architecture
3355 Bee Cave Rd, Ste #303, Austin, TX 78746
Weiss Architecture is an Austin-based design firm that offers complete architectural and interior design services from concept to completion. The firm has been recognized for its attention to its client’s budget and project goals and its ability to manage the construction permitting process rapidly.
It began as a one-man operation in 2003 and has since expanded to a firm of three current employees, intentionally remaining small to prioritize and nurture meaningful relationships with customers, consultants, and contractors. Its initiatives have gradually grown in scope, scale, and quantity due to its efficient and determined work culture. Weiss Architecture presently focuses on commercial, residential, and mixed-use design and site planning, as well as programming, space planning, renderings, conceptual drawings, and permitting administration. The firm’s work ranges from minor home additions to pubs, restaurants, commercial buildings, performance venues, and large-scale new movie theater development.
Throughout its 17 years of business, the business has developed a unique approach to design. It has been featured in New York Times, Texas Architect, Austin Chronicle, Austin Home Magazine, Alcalde, Austin Monthly, and Food and Wine Magazine.
