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Firm Overview

ABOUT
Goettsch Partners (GP) is an architecture firm with a global perspective. Based in Chicago, with additional offices in Denver and Shanghai, we share a singular approach to design that combines seasoned experience with a passion for exploration and innovation. Our completed and active projects span five continents and represent a diverse range of types and sizes.

PURPOSE
GP translates our clients' requirements and ambitions into memorable structures that strive to positively influence the surrounding context and the broader community. We bring measurable value to projects through the thoughtful application of design quality and technical expertise, delivered with a high level of personal service.

APPROACH
With no predefined aesthetic vision, our design process begins with multiple concepts that are evaluated for intrinsic value, constructability and environmental impact. We collaborate with each client to ensure their objectives and vision are embodied in the project. We work closely with world-class consultants for engineering and specialty expertise, selected to meet each project's unique requirements.

PERSPECTIVE
We believe in an architecture of bold clarity that emphasizes transparency and spatial dynamism with an enduring ambition to enhance the character of the built environment. Our projects share a consistent visual language that promotes highly crafted technical solutions delivering optimal performance.

HERITAGE
GP traces its roots to the Chicago practice started by Mies van der Rohe in 1938. James Goettsch joined the practice in 1992 and has instilled a culture in which this legacy informs and inspires the search for our own timeless materiality and clarity of architectural expression—appropriate for the 21st century.

  • Practice

    Design is an act of constant experimentation and exploration. At GP, the progression of our work is tied to the rate that our staff is learning and expanding their abilities. To this end, we actively structure our project processes to leverage the perspective and experience of the entire project team including our client, engineers, contractors, manufacturers and specialists.

    We also utilize the best collaboration and visualization technologies available to explore each design’s optimal potential.

    In order to assure our clients that we will always lead in the execution of our craft, we invest deeply in ongoing training, education and in new design tools, materials and processes.

    This commitment enables us to constantly raise the quality and caliber of our design work. Ultimately, this is the truest measure of design excellence.

    Specialties
    Office: Multitenant Buildings, Corporate Headquarters and Interiors
    Hospitality: Hotels and Resorts
    Residential: Apartments and Condominiums
    Mixed-Use: Office, Hotel, Residential and Retail Complexes
    Institutional: Cultural, Governmental and Higher Education Facilities
    Renovation: Repositioning, Adaptive Reuse and Restoration

  • Services

    An increasing number of clients recognize that totally integrated planning and design lead to more successful projects, and superior quality and consistency in services are best achieved through a single source. Our firm is organized to serve as that single entity, responsible for leading and managing an entire design team. Collaborating with the best available engineering and specialty consultants, we take pride in thoughtfully addressing a diverse array of planning and design challenges, from large-scale urban planning to individual design details.

    Architecture
    Significant architecture requires working closely with our clients to determine their unique spatial and organizational needs, and the optimal design solution that is both cost-effective and environmentally sensitive. We feel that our greatest strength is in the material and tectonic resolution of details within the larger design, and that this attention to detail is maintained throughout our practice.

    Interiors
    Our interior design is directed toward high-quality public spaces.  Services include programming, space planning and construction observation.

    Planning
    Important in any project, thoughtful planning is especially critical in large-scale developments. The planning of large- or small-scale developments requires the same attention to detail as our architecture, if not more. We develop new ways for spaces to work for pedestrians, vehicles and the larger context of a site.

  • History

    Goettsch Partners, through a progression of leadership transitions, traces its roots to 1938 when Mies van der Rohe established his design practice in Chicago.

    Mies’ work in America served as the inspiration for a new generation of modernists, loosely defined as the Second Chicago School.

    The First Chicago School, led by such luminaries as Louis Sullivan, Dankmar Adler, Daniel Burnham and William LeBaron Jenney, explored new construction technologies like the steel frame, creating a unique spatial aesthetic that, in turn, paralleled—and even influenced—developments in early European Modernism.

    Today GP strives to continue that tradition, looking to the science of materials and craft of construction to inform the great challenges of our age.

    In our own work, we strive for a synthesis of art and craft through construction, for clarity of purpose and achieving designs that possess their own inspired simplicity.

    2005
    Goettsch Partners

    2002
    Lohan Caprile Goettsch Architects

    1986
    Lohan Associates

    1982
    FCL Associates

    1975
    Fujikawa Conterato Lohan Associates                                

    1969
    The Office of Mies van der Rohe

    1938
    Ludwig Mies van der Rohe