Date Posted: 12.04.2019
Press Release
SEATTLE, SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES — Schacht Aslani Architects, a Pacific Northwest leader in the planning and design of innovative academic, civic and cultural projects, is joining Mithun, augmenting the national firm’s integrated design practice from offices in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Schacht Aslani and Mithun have a long history of complementary expertise and professional collaboration, and this new union leverages the knowledge and client work of both firms for a wide range of projects.
Schacht Aslani’s team of 20 employees join Mithun’s Pier 56 design studio in Seattle, building its firmwide staff and design team to 190 people. Principals Cima Malek-Aslani, Walter Schacht, Eric Aman and JC Letourneau are now partners at Mithun.
“Growing the strength of our firm with such a talented team is a rare opportunity and we couldn’t be more excited about the partnership,” said Dave Goldberg, Mithun President. “Schacht Aslani and Mithun share values of modern, high-performing design and a strong collaborative process that we believe is critical to serving clients and communities.”
“Schacht Aslani’s practice, largely focused on the public realm, is known for clear, modern, thoughtfully detailed designs that celebrate people and program, and is the result of strategic thinking about institutions and their stakeholders,” added Goldberg.
Winner of numerous awards and widely published for design and thought-leadership, Schacht Aslani’s recent projects include the College Instruction Center at Olympic College, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture at King Street Station and Seattle Public Utilities’ net-zero-ready Cedar Falls Watershed Headquarters.
Schacht Aslani and Mithun have been working together since 2016 on a series of projects for Washington State’s historic Capitol Campus and are currently planning a new Insurance Commissioner Office Building there. The firms have a number of shared clients, including the University of Washington, Seattle University, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and the State of Washington.
For its part, Mithun’s notable West Coast work includes the National Nordic Museum, Weyerhaeuser’s Pioneer Square headquarters, creative workplace environments for Google and multiple academic and student life projects for the University of California, including UCLA and UC Santa Cruz campuses. Nationally, Mithun has designed prominent projects for Princeton University, Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans, Chatham University Eden Hall Campus outside Pittsburgh, Perot Family Offices in Dallas, and the AIA COTE Top Ten Project award-winning Sustainability Treehouse in West Virginia.
“We share fundamental values about community, sustainability and design with the folks at Mithun,” said Walter Schacht, FAIA. “Joining their team enables us to leverage the value of our strategic approach to planning and design, increasing the opportunities to work on challenging academic, civic and cultural projects with ambitious design goals. We’ve been impressed by Mithun’s significant design-build and P3 project commissions in the Pacific Northwest, California and nationally. We anticipate our shared platform will enable us to expand upon that foundation with additional large-scale public work.” Schacht is recognized for his distinguished body of work and his advocacy for public policies that promote the community and the profession.
Cima Malek-Aslani, AIA said, “Our mission aligns with Mithun’s — to connect people to place and to each other for memorable experiences. Mithun’s diversity of project experience complements our focused portfolio of educational, civic and cultural work. Together we will be able to achieve more than we could individually.” Cima is recognized for her achievements in the design of spaces that promote collaboration in academic and workplace environments. She is focused on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings and served as a King County Landmarks Commissioner.
Combined, Mithun and Schacht Aslani have designed a dozen design-build projects over the last five years, representing more than $800 million in construction value. In addition, Schacht currently chairs the state’s Capital Projects Advisory Review Board that oversees alternative project delivery in Washington.
About Mithun
Founded in 1949, and recipient of the 2017 AIA Northwest and Pacific Region Firm Award, Mithun is an integrated design firm dedicated to creating positive change in people’s lives. The firm’s team of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, urban designers and planners work in a wide range of typologies and scales—with a focus on urban environments and places where people live, work, and learn. The firm has been recognized with six prestigious Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and is ranked among the top 25 design firms in the U.S. by Architect Magazine. For more information, visit www.mithun.com.
Media inquiries, contact pr@mithun.com
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