Awarded Most Innovative, Sustainable Architecture Firm in the USA by BUILD in 2022, 2023, and 2024

We are a design firm that specializes in creative, sustainable solutions – dynamic skins, experiences, and environments of all kinds. Green walls, green roofs, interiors, renovations, and retrofits. We are a new definition of future-forward urbanism, architecture, and landscape design. We believe in serving our communities and world-class clients alike. We use emerging computational tools that serve to move work flows faster and efficiently.

Four operating principles describe the philosophy of the firm's work: sustainable material exploration; the use of emerging technologies to design and fabricate form; multi-disciplinary collaboration; and the cultivation of social interaction and education through design within the public realm. The theme of architecture as an opportunistic interface for technology and space–simultaneously physical and social–is central to our investigations into future building materials and construction methods.

We are well known for our energy efficient techniques, environmental management systems, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and Net-Zero building solutions. We have a track record as a group of young, talented professionals who think and build creatively. We are cost-effective while being proactive.

Urban A&O is currently involved in several global initiatives: NSF Grants dedicated to bringing equitable broadband to several metropolitan areas in the United States, Carbon Neutral Data Centers worldwide, Smart Cities and IoT enabled infrastructural components, defining Net-Zero building solutions, sustainable landscape and phased master planning projects, climate mitigation, risks and opportunities; and Environmental, Social and Governance Advising in the US/UK/EU and building retrofits where possible.

Joe MacDonald is Lead Architect at the firm, and Chief Sustainability Officer, who serves on several not for profit boards and participates within various local communities as an advisor and mentor. He leads several international working groups, including topics related to Agri-Tech, Vertical Farming, Biophilia and Conscious, Future Forward Leadership.