About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

We are a collective of architects, designers, engineers, and planners working together to build a better future. Interdisciplinary from the start Long before “interdisciplinary” became a buzzword, it was the bedrock principle on which SOM was founded. For more than 80 years, it has defined the way that we practice design—as a collective endeavor. In 1936, two architects and an engineer formed a partnership: our founders understood the power of combining their expertise within a single firm. Since then, SOM has grown to include urban designers and planners, interior designers, and more. Our teams are composed of designers with an artistic sensibility, engineers with highly specialized technical knowledge, and planners with a deep understanding of policy and economics. The synthesis of these viewpoints generates design solutions that no single person could have imagined on their own. From sustainable engineering, to healthcare design, to regenerative city planning, none of our areas of expertise stands alone. Each is deeply interwoven with the others, informing and being informed by them. The merger of architecture and structural engineering has been SOM’s hallmark for decades. From the glass and steel facade of Lever House, completed in 1952 as the first modernist office building in New York City; to the record-breaking skyscrapers, Sears Tower and John Hancock Center, which redefined the Chicago skyline in the 1970s; to the cantilevered trusses of San Francisco International Airport, opening a gateway to the city for the new millennium; and the engineering of Burj Khalifa, which stands as the world’s tallest building, SOM continues to innovate.