Olson Kundig

Chicago, United States

Olson Kundig is a collaborative design practice whose work expands the context of built and natural landscapes. Founded on the edge of the Pacific Rim, we embrace an outsider’s perspective. We design for people, place, and experience, balancing rational and intuitive thinking. We embrace the tension between collaboration and autonomy, balancing shared adventures and independent exploration. Evolving from Jim Olson’s individual studio, Olson Kundig is now led by 13 principals/owners who are supported by over 350 team members. With offices in Seattle, New York City, and Chicago, we provide integrated architecture, interior design, exhibit design, urban design, planning, and landscape design services, supported by building performance, visualization, and design technology teams, as well as a robust business office. Our ongoing residential design work continues to provide a venue for experimentation and evolution that informs commercial and institutional designs. This “huts to high rises” portfolio of completed or active projects spans six continents, in locations ranging from the wide-open landscapes of Montana and British Columbia to dense urban districts in London and Seoul. We continually seek to evolve, embracing unexpected design challenges. We believe practicality and function—informed by the unique needs and vision of users—create poetry and beauty in design. This deep understanding of the human scale further results in a “macro to micro” approach that carries big ideas down to the smallest details. This work is enhanced by widespread collaboration with builders, craftspeople, artists, fabricators, and outside experts, whose experience and contributions allow us to explore new techniques and constantly innovate on behalf of our clients. Our firm, people, and projects have been widely published and recognized with some of the industry’s highest honors, including the 2009 AIA National Architecture Firm Award (as Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects), a National Design Award in Architecture Design from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and induction into Interior Design Magazine’s Hall of Fame. Olson Kundig has been included on Architectural Digest’s AD100 list 17 times and has been named one of the Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Architecture by Fast Company four times. We have received more than 130 national, regional, and local design honors from the American Institute of Architects programs, as well as awards from the International Interior Design Association, the Chicago Athenaeum, and others.