Julian King Architect
At press time, Julian King, AIA, and his co-principal and wife Christina Lyons had just discovered their firm, Julian King Architect, was one of six finalists for the Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial design, and an exhibition of their work was on display at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, New Jersey. After six years and a handful of completed projects, King says, “We are starting to get some traction."

Photo courtesy Julian King Architect

REC Arquitectura
Since 2000, Gerardo Recoder, lead designer of REC Arquitectura, based in Mexico City, with a satellite office in Madrid, Spain, and his co-principals—his engineer brother Ivan and designer Maria Jimenez, who runs the Madrid outpost—has started and maintained his now 10-person practice while still working for and with other firms, earning an M.Arch., and completing at least a dozen projects.

Photo courtesy REC Arquitectura

Studio H:T
Christopher Herr and Brad Tomecek, principals of Boulder, Colorado-based Studio H:T, operate with what Tomecek calls "the ping-pong effect." "Our firm is very collaborative," he says, "and we find that we always get farther, faster because of the back and forth."

Photo courtesy Studio H:T

ODA-Architecture
In 2007, with an exciting project (renovating New York City’s famed Toy Building on Madison Square Park) in hand, Eran Chen began ODA-Architecture with two colleagues, P.Christian Bailey, AIA, and Ryoko Okada. That project eventually fell through, but momentum had begun, and now the three-year-old firm boasts an impressive portfolio of completed and on-the-boards work.

Photo courtesy ODA-Architecture

Mikou Design Studio
For twin sisters Salwa and Selma Mikou, principals of Paris-based Mikou Design Studio, their introduction to architecture was family life in a traditional riyad in the heart of the medina in Fes, Morocco. With home and hearth such a strong reverberation in the minds of the sisters, it might seem strange that their architectural practice includes no residential projects.

Photo courtesy Mikou Design Studio

construcTWO
Although Julie Ju-Youn Kim, AIA, bases her 3-to-4-person firm construcTWO in Washington, D.C., with a satellite office in Detroit, the answer she’ll give if you ask where her office is located might be “wherever my laptop is.”

Photo courtesy construcTWO

limonLAB
An urban laboratory. That’s how architect Enrique Limon explains why his New York City based firm is called limonLAB. Established in 2005, the 2-to-4 person firm’s bent toward experimentation has yielded a number of completed and on-the-boards projects, including a bar in Philadelphia, a gallery in New York City’s Harlem, a resort in Thailand, and a prototype soccer park slated to be developed in 20 U.S. locations.

Photo courtesy limonLAB

Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferraz Arquitetos
Now in its 10th year, Brazilian firm Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferraz (FGMF) has grown from three to 18 employees. From their first project of a small restaurant in the woods of São Paolo to a complicated urban renovation project in downtown Rio de Janeiro, the three architects have never lost their individuality as designers, or their ambition to grow the firm.

Photo courtesy FGMF

Davison Architecture + Urban Design
For Dominique Davison, AIA, and Ryan Warman, AIA, principals of 4-person firm Davison Architecture + Urban Design (DA+UD), living in Kansas City, Mo., a city that has more linear miles of highway per capita than any other U.S. city, is like being in the right place at the right time.

Photo courtesy DA + UD

Luca Andrisani Architect
It takes a certain amount of audacity for a 26-year-old Italian architecture school student to write a letter to Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron detailing the reasons why they should hire him. Luca Andrisani was that plucky student, and went to work at the famed Swiss firm right after receiving his M.Arch.

Photo courtesy Luca Andrisani Architect

Atelier Manferdini
She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Civil Engineering in Bologna, Italy, and an M.Arch. from SCI-Arc, but don’t try to pigeonhole Elena Manferdini. With her firm, Atelier Manferdini, Manferdini switches hats easily from engineer, architect, product designer, fashion designer, and artist.

Photo © Lisa Wyatt