History

History

In 1981, amid an economic recession, Emeriti John Sinclair and Jim Hille founded our practice with a purpose in mind:  to provide clients with a highly attentive and personalized approach to the practice of architecture.  It was later that year when we secured the firm’s first full-fledged project:  a new church for the congregation of 1st Church of Christ Scientist in Lincoln.  The project’s size and fees were modest, but being selected was an enormous achievement as it vaulted the young practice to the list of notable firms in the community.

By 1982 the firm had moved into our first real office space on the 10th floor of the Stuart building where we carved out space on the floor with a young engineer and agreed to share the cost of a receptionist.

1984 brought another milestone in the early years of the firm, as the office moved once more, this time into the just renovated Candy Factory in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket.  It wasn’t known at the time, but this project was to become just one in a long line of significant historic adaption projects for the firm.  Others would include adaptations of former elementary and middle schools, utility plants and numerous warehouses within the Haymarket district. 

By 1999, the studio had outgrown its office space – now in the old Grainger warehouse - and was actively seeking another building to renovate in the historic district for our own use.   Unable to find the right building, they approached the owners of a gravel parking lot adjacent to the railroad tracks about developing a new building at the intersection of 7th and Q Streets.  That same year, construction of our new office was underway and was completed in April 2000.  The building was the first new structure built in the Haymarket in many decades, and it remains our home to this day.

Today, our practice is built upon the foundational successes of so many notable and prominent projects in the community, and honored by the public recognition we continue to receive for the high quality of our work and service.