John Kane, founding partner and design principal of Architekton, served as lead judge for the program. more...

Southwest Contractor's 2010 Top Design Firms

This year’s ranking is based upon 2009 revenue as voluntarily reported by the 100 largest architects and engineers of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. The top 100 firms reported $1.3 billion in design work for 2009, a 10.7% drop from 2008. Arizona firms fell more than 20% to $675 million while Nevada dropped 14% to just over $300 million. New Mexico was the lone bright spot: design revenue for projects located in New Mexico rose more than 25% to $323 million in 2009. Information was gathered through an online survey. more...

The American Institute of Architects Arizona Chapter handed out its annual awards Sept. 25 at the Phoenix Art Museum with John R. Williams, senior project manager at Architekton, receiving The Kachina Award. more...

John Kane, founding partner and design principal of Architekton, has been named lead judge for Valley Forward’s 30th annual Environmental Excellence Awards, Arizona’s oldest and most prominent competition of its kind. Held in partnership with SRP, the program recognizes outstanding contributions to the environment in seven broad-based categories. more...

Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) recently announced that two of their projects have been honored as Gold Medal Winners in the Building of America Awards. more...

Bob Machen worked for the Phoenix Suns for 37 years and was very involved in the construction of US Airways Center where the Suns play. He also had a hand in the construction of Chase Field, where the Diamondbacks play. Now he’s sharing what he learned to help Grand Canyon University build the centerpiece of the school’s $60 million expansion plan—a 5,000-seat Event Center that will be the new home of the Antelope basketball teams. more...

The Lakes Residence is designed by Architekton for a family of four. It is the 3,500 square feet home that occupied a relatively small lot of about 65' x 125'. Inspire of that there is a quite big exterior yard with a pool and the adjacent lake near by. more...

Grand Canyon University broke ground today on a 5,000-seat event center at its Phoenix campus, part of a $60 million expansion. GCU CEO Brian Mueller said the 135,000-square-foot center will host men’s and women’s basketball games, concerts, conferences and other athletic events. more...

From hundreds of nominated projects, Chandler-Gilbert Community College Ironwood Hall (submitted by Architekton), has been selected as a Building of America Award project and will be a featured Gold Medal Winner on the home page at www.buildingofamerica.com. more...

From hundreds of nominated projects, Communiversity @ Surprise (submitted by Architekton), has been selected as a Building of America Award project and will be a featured Gold Medal Winner on the home page at www.buildingofamerica.com. more...

The Tempe Center for the Arts was designed by Barton Myers Associates (BMA) with partner firm Architekton. more...

Tempe, Arizona’s Architekton has completed Ironwood Hall for Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Arizona. The $17.9 million, 58,500-square-foot classroom building includes facilities for programs ranging from science and engineering to ceramics and general education, as well as faculty offices. more...

On March 4, AZRE hosted the 5th Annual Real Estate & Development Awards to recognize the most notable Arizona public and private commercial projects completed in 2009. more...

After three years of planning and thanks to a voter-approved, 2006 City of Phoenix bond award for much needed facility and safety improvements, Arizona Science Center is excited to announce the start of construction on a new entrance and lobby, beginning Tuesday, March 9. more...

The Arizona Science Center is kicking off construction on a new entrance and lobby that will make the downtown Phoenix venue more accessible. more...

With its expansive footprint and vast web of highways, the Phoenix metropolitan area is nearly impossible to navigate without a car. That could eventually change. In December 2008, residents in the Valley of the Sun celebrated the inauguration of a 20-mile starter line for a new light-rail system. The festivities included the opening of the Tempe Transportation Center, the first facility of its kind in Arizona. more...

The Ironwood Hall in Chandler, AZ was recently recognized as one of the most innovative Heavy Commercial projects in the country. The honor was presented as part of the ICF Builder Awards, an international competition designed to showcase the advantages of building with Insulated Concrete Forms, commonly called ICFs. more...

Chandler-Gilbert Community College is celebrating the opening of Ironwood Hall on the college's Pecos Campus with a grand opening ceremony on Thursday, February 11. The official ceremony will take place from 1 to 2 p.m., followed by tours and classroom demonstrations. more...

The Tempe Transportation Center (TTC), between Forest and College Avenues, is the showpiece of this award-winning transportation program for the city of Tempe, located just 10 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in the middle of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The project was initially conceived as a multimodal transportation center and evolved into a 43,000-ft², three-story, mixed-use facility. more...

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson today recognized four diverse communities that are models of how to grow in ways that protect our nation’s air, land, and water; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; provide safe and affordable housing; and strengthen local economies. more...

The Tempe Transportation Center was designed by Architekton is located in Tempe, United States. The project architecture design began as a multimodal transportation center, with support retail and has evolved into a project of 40,000 m² mixed-use city said the offices, an office room and a leasable area community service. more...

McGraw-Hill Construction today announced the winners of its second annual Best of the Best Awards, a national competition that recognizes design and construction excellence based on the winners of McGraw-Hill Construction’s 10 regional publications’ Best of 2009 Awards. more...

The Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA) is a unique collection of intimate venues within an iconic, protective envelope. Underneath the flight path of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the sculptural shed roof not only provides the first level of acoustic protection, but also shelters its patrons and performers from the harsh desert sun. The roof is multi-referential, with inspiration from: monument valley; nearby Hayden butte; origami; and even stealth fighter design. more...

Sustainable design was celebrated Saturday night at the 2009 Celebrate Architecture Awards Gala, sponsored by the Arizona Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. more...

Celebrating 50 years, the Arizona component of The American Institute of
Architects announced the winner of the 2009 Imagination Cube Competition, a competition showcasing imaginative investigation and creative design by creating a shade pavilion with materials from BEMO USA, the competition’s main sponsor. more...

The Arizona component of The American Institute of Architects announced the 2009 SRP Sustainable Award, recognizing the importance of sustainability and energy efficient buildings through excellence in design, planning and construction of projects located anywhere in the world that are designed by AIA Arizona architects registered and licensed in the State of Arizona on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at the Celebrate Architecture gala in the Phoenix Convention Center. more...

Celebrating 50 years, the Arizona component of The American Institute of
Architects announced the 2009 Special Award Winners, recognizing excellence and commitment to the architecture profession. With a variety of categories, 13 recipients were honored Saturday, September 26, 2009 at
the Celebrate Architecture Gala in the Phoenix Convention Center. more...

The Gilbert Planning Commission got its first look Wednesday at a temple that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plans for the
southeast corner of Pecos and Greenfield roads as it approved a series of zoning changes to pave the way for its construction. more...

The project brief began as a multimodal transportation center with supportive retail and evolved into a 40,000 sq ft mixed use project that added city offices, leasable office space and public community room. The relatively small 2.7 acre site at the base of Hayden Butte reconciled over 10 feet of fall between the light rail station and street level, incorporating eight onsite bus stops and the positioning of the building to maintain views of the butte. more...

Peoria's Rio Vista Park and Recreation Center has won the Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Award for best Phoenix-area playground or park. more...

A one-stop learning center for higher education debuts today in the northwest Valley, with a name that reflects its cutting-edge concept. more...

Bike enthusiast John Romero wants Southeast Valley residents to know that giving up your four-wheeled transportation is about to get easier. more...

Paradise Valley Community College takes a major leap this month in serving the needs of residents living in north Phoenix and Scottsdale. more...

The Tempe Center for the Arts is launching a 360-degree, virtual Web tour of the facility that provides views of its performance and meeting spaces, still photos, weblinks, video and more.

Surprise opens a $62 million City Hall today, moving from a cramped, former shopping plaza into a four-story building that offers residents "one-stop" services and a community gathering place. more...

City of Tempe, Ariz., architects and engineers are no strangers to sustainable building design. The $46.8 million East Valley Bus Operations & Maintenance Facility, which is owned and operated by the Arizona cities of Tempe and Scottsdale and Valley Metro, achieved two Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council following its summer 2007 opening. more...

Architekton has been awarded the design services for a new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple project... more...

John F. Kane and Wellington Reiter were elevated in May 2008 to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) at investiture ceremonies at the Old South Church in Boston, MA. Fellowship is one of the highest honors the AIA can bestow upon a member and recognizes not only the achievements of the architect as an individual but also elevates before the public and the professional those architects who have made significant contributions to the profession. Out of a membership of more than 81,000, there are fewer than 2,600 AIA members distinguished with the honor of fellowship. more...

Tempe is one of nearly two dozen suburbs in the ever-sprawling Phoenix metropolis. Its historic downtown, the Mill Avenue District, is dominated by chain stores and restaurants, condominium complexes and mid-rise office towers— the result of a redevelopment plan hatched in the 1990s. Spurring this revitalization was the creation of a 2-mile-long artificial lake on the district’s northern edge. more...