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Design for Positive Change: 2024 Community Impact

Date Posted: 04.03.2025

At Mithun, our design has purpose — to create positive change in people’s lives. Our work is inspired and formed by many influences, and central among them is an abiding responsibility to our clients, community and environment.

We’re excited to share some highlights of how our team has worked to create community impact through diverse projects, research and pro bono services, charitable giving and volunteer activities in 2024. We hope you enjoy these moments as demonstration of the amazing things happening in our communities every day.

MISSION-DRIVEN PROJECTS ACROSS THE NATION
Since the 1990s Mithun has made it an imperative to amplify the social and environmental impact of our work. We enjoy a diverse practice, while prioritizing projects with impact — including affordable housing, education, health and resilience planning, and research and development to create new knowledge in areas that matter and share it with the world.

Creating Affordable and Vibrant Urban Residential Communities
Affordable housing is just as necessary as water and sewer systems, streets and subways are to healthy urban places. Our interdisciplinary Urban Placemaking team is passionate about planning and design for vibrant, transit-oriented buildings, public realm and neighborhoods that incorporate a mix of housing, community-serving retail and services, as well as cultural/arts organizations. 2024 highlights include:

• 1,501 affordable homes in design or construction, providing critical housing capacity for working families, seniors and community members in their existing neighborhoods.
• Additionally, 732 market-rate apartments were underway during 2024 at projects including Byline and Splash Apartments, contributing to vibrant downtowns in Portland and Seattle.
• Kapuso at the Upper Yard was featured in Fast Company as the first 100% affordable apartment building in San Francisco to be permitted under a state law designed to streamline new construction.
• The completion of 400 China Basin presents an innovative below-market-rate ownership model for housing in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
• Our team shared lessons learned and thought leadership via seven industry presentations and tours, and many more sessions with members of the surrounding community and student groups.

 

Expanding K-12 Learning Spaces
We join with teachers, administrators, students and communities to co-create spaces that flexibly support educational delivery and foster belonging. Thoughtful design ensures today’s schools are nimble, biophilic, accessible and high performing.

• In 2024, we designed learning environments that will benefit 11,342 students annually in kindergarten through 12th grade. Mithun projects are active in four public school districts and five independent school campuses and will serve learners from preschool through senior year of high school!
• The new Washington School for the Deaf opened to wide acclaim in Fall 2024. Tuned for the needs of Deaf and hard of hearing youth, the K-12 school features design strategies that could benefit any learning environment.
• Our team shared lessons learned and thought leadership via nine presentations and project tours for industry and community groups.
• The Bush School New Upper School achieved ILFI Net Zero Energy certification in September, advancing student health and school operations.

 

Developing a Vibrant and Resilient Public Realm
The 21st century has been called “the urban century,” with cities at the center of our collective economic, environmental and social well-being. Our integrated approach addresses key themes facing cities today, from transit-oriented development and ecodistricts to the role of health equity, resilience and the changing nature of live/work in shaping our cities. Some examples this past year:

• With Home In Tacoma Phase 2, the City of Tacoma, Washington, adopted a bold new climate-informed code that expands housing choices and urban tree canopy, aiming for 60,000 new homes by 2040.
• A Champions of Change Spotlight award was given to the City of Lynnwood ParksLove project by the Washington Recreation and Parks Association for its “innovative and exemplary practices of increasing access, fostering diversity and inclusion, addressing environmental impact and overall enhancement of social equity within the community.”
• The new Kruckeberg Botanic Garden canopy boardwalk opened in fall 2024, increasing accessibility to 3 acres of the park as part of a voter-approved effort to improve eight city parks in Shoreline, WA.
• The University District Next Generation Conceptual Plan supports mixed-use growth centered with enhanced housing choices, wayfinding, green infrastructure and improved access to the Spokane River. The plan includes 65 acres of new open spaces, 8 acres of improved streetscape, enhancements to the Spokane aquifer and riparian corridor (the source of drinking water for over 500,000 people) and 6.5 miles of Legacy Loop trail.

 

ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE, RESEARCH + DEVELOPMENT
Mithun is an internationally recognized leader the sustainable design movement, with exemplary project achievements (8 AIA COTE Top Ten Awards) and contributions to industry-wide capacity building through efforts like buildcarbonneutral.org and the LEED ND rating system. Our team continues to invest in the creation of new knowledge in areas that matter and share it with the world. Here are some highlights:

• Princeton University Meadows Apartments received final Phius certification. At more than 300,000 square feet it is one of the largest Passive House projects in the nation. Lessons learned were shared at conferences and via the Passive House Accelerator Massive Passive video blog.
• In 2024 Mithun R+D had 10 active projects underway and made 5 new grants investigating topics from mass timber product innovations to high-performance façade systems and planting design evolution. Over the past decade, the firm has invested 17,500 hours in R+D, with more than 100 staff involved.
• AIA 2030 Commitment reporting results for the 2024 design year: 79% reduction in net energy use compared to baseline. This was our 15th year of reporting and 6th year in a row above 70% reduction.
• 2024 represented the firm’s 20th year of carbon neutral operations through third-party certification and offsets.
• Four projects achieved LEED certification: UW Haring Center for Inclusive Education (LEED Platinum), University of Oregon Hamilton Walton Transformation Phase 2 (LEED Gold), UCLA Southwest Campus Apartments (LEED Gold), and Everett Community College Learning Resource Center (LEED Silver).

 

GIVING BACK VIA CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS, PROBONO AND VOLUNTEERING
We give big, through time and contributions, to the communities where we live and work. Our leadership is actively involved at the board level of many civic institutions, and we encourage all staff to engage in professional and community service that aligns with their passions. Mithun’s commitment to community, education, environment and the arts is underscored by a legacy of service and financial support to numerous national and local organizations. Highlights for 2024 include:

• The firm’s 2024 charitable giving totaled $444,205. Over the past 10 years, Mithun has given more than two million dollars in donations and in-kind services to charitable organizations.
• In 2024 Mithun provided more than $77,000 in pro bono services to mission-driven community organizations including CURYJ, Homeless Prenatal Program, IslandWood and Woodland Park Zoo. Over the last 15 years we’ve donated more than 10,000 hours of pro bono design services to more than 70 community-serving projects (about 1% of our net revenues on an annual basis)!
• During the year, Mithun team members contributed a total of 1,337 volunteer hours for community organizations.
• Our team came together in a firmwide effort to support Food Frenzy in 2024 and raised a total of $9,983 (approximately 50,000 meals) to benefit Food Lifeline in Seattle, SF-Marin Foodbank in San Francisco and LA Regional Foodbank in Los Angeles.
• An inter-office campaign was also activated to support Bike MS, raising $12,000 with 13,180 miles traveled. Los Angeles architect Gibson Bastar earned an honorary triple crown by riding in all three cities’ events.
• Mithun staff participated in the ACE Mentor program in Seattle, LA/Orange County and San Diego, which provides hands-on project-based learning for high school students interested in architecture, construction and engineering careers.

We’re thankful for the opportunity to partner with amazing organizations, clients, collaborators and team members every day. Here’s to another fabulous year of hard work and progress in 2025!