Last updated on May 21st, 2024 at 04:24 am
Commercial spaces must reflect the functional needs and brand of the businesses for which they are designed. Commercial architects have specialized expertise to address the programmatic and budgetary requirements of new business spaces, whether they be offices, retail spaces, hotels, or restaurants. Architects who cater to this market should be capable of enhancing both the business and the community it serves.
To help you choose the right architect equipped to design any business space you might require, our team has curated a list of the best commercial architects in Eugene, Oregon. These firms were selected for their accreditations, certifications, and professional affiliations. We also considered the recognition each firm has received in the form of industry awards, client reviews, and press features. We have laid out the range of services the firms offer, their specializations, and the length of time they have been in the industry.
2fORM Architecture
121 Lawrence Street, Eugene, OR 97401
2fORM Architecture has been recognized by the AIA with awards for the full range of architectural services it delivers to the health care, public facilities, commercial, and residential sectors, from site planning to interior design. The firm has a collaborative design process that connects people and environment, and implements sustainable practices. Throughout each project, 2fORM continually consults with its clients in evaluating design expectations, creativity, and the project’s performance.
Principal Architect Richard Shugar is a member of the AIA and a LEED AP. Richard’s 29 years of experience include custom residences and remodels, commercial buildings, multifamily housing, medical facilities, interior design, and historic preservation. Under Richard’s leadership, 2fORM follows through on its commitment to create spaces that support each client’s unique needs, as demonstrated in the office design of Jones & Roth. The 2fORM team provided this local accounting firm with a welcoming reception area, dramatic lighting, and wood tones that add a sense of warmth. The new office space is filled with daylight and decorated with accents of color.
Robertson Sherwood Architects PC
132 East Broadway Suite 540, Eugene, OR 97401
Robertson Sherwood Architects offers comprehensive architectural services to clients, specifically handling commercial, retail, automotive centers, healthcare, office, and education projects. The firm’s planning process revolves around the users, addressing their complex needs with creative solutions. As a USGBC-certified practice, Robertson Sherwood Architects designs in accordance with the principles of energy efficiency and sustainability, using durable building materials to enhance communities. Its LEED staff members minimize long-term operational costs with the upfront costs of construction.
Principals James Robertson and Carl Sherwood lead an effective team, providing personal service and meeting the requirements of the firm’s projects. James is a Certified Customs Specialist (CCS) and a Fellow of CSI and the AIA, of which Carl is also a member. They lead a team of registered architects accredited by NCARB and the Cascadia Region Green Building Council.
Robertson Sherwood Architects expanded and renovated the University of Oregon Student Recreation Center, consisting of flexible and day-lit spaces. The design seamlessly connects three existing buildings and enhances the existing pedestrian path to the east of the building. The energy-efficient structure promotes social interaction between students with its interactive kiosks. It features a 12-lane lap pool, spa, fitness and training wings, yoga room, climbing wall, and three-court gym.
Pivot Architecture
44 West Broadway Suite 300, Eugene, OR 97401
PIVOT Architecture is a design firm with expertise in architecture, planning, and interior design accredited by the IIDA and the National Council for Interior Design Qualification. The firm specializes in commercial, institutional, and industrial design projects for a wide spectrum of clients. It creates sustainable buildings with the client’s budget and vision in mind. PIVOT’s process involves an iterative cycle of drawing, modeling, verbalizing, planning, reviewing, facilitating, and coordinating while maintaining constant communication with the client.
Principal Kelley Howell is a member of the AIA, and a LEED AP BD+C. She has worked on transit, civic, public safety, higher education, and affordable housing projects, focused primarily on public planning and sustainable architecture. Her background as a certified Oregon Department of Education schools assessor allows her to conduct long-range facility plans for school districts. By managing talented teams of designers and engineers, Kelley steered PIVOT in producing the RAIN NW restaurant. The renovation turned a former Mexican and pizza restaurant into an industrial modern eatery with an open floor plan that incorporates the kitchen into the customer’s dining experience. Steel mesh wine cages and maître d’ station work in conjunction with a color palette selected to match the rustic nature of reclaimed wood and concrete surfaces.
Aligned Architecture
433 W. 10th Ave. Ste. 100, Eugene, OR 97401
Aligned Architecture offers architectural design, master planning, interior design, and construction administration services for commercial and residential projects that have won People’s Choice Awards from the AIA. It leads multidisciplinary design and engineering consultant teams through all phases of design and construction. The firm manages budgets, prepares detailed construction documents and specifications, and delivers permits. Aligned Architecture’s approach begins by identifying the essence of a project to create a comprehensive design concept. It then collaborates with the client and organizations to deliver detailed presentation and construction documents to support the project-specific design vision.
Nir Pearlson is the principal of Aligned Architecture. He is a member of the AIA and is certified as a LEED AP. Nir combines years of construction trade experience and hands-on craftsmanship with an artistic attention to composition. Nir’s eagerness to listen for the hidden narrative within his projects inspired the firm’s drive to identify the subtle contextual patterns of each site and complement them through design. A testament to this is the JNB Trucking building.
Respecting the northwest climate, deep eaves protect the building’s windows, and the roof folds to shelter the front and back entries. Perimeter offices connect to a spacious, light-filled common room with views of the surrounding fields. Beneath an interior transom, barn doors can separate the common and break rooms, or merge the spaces during all-company meetings.
GLAS Architects
115 West 8th Ave. Suite 285, Eugene, Oregon 97401
GLAS Architects is a premier architecture and design firm that partners with clients in the commercial, education, utilities, and government sectors, paying special attention to projects funded by the public. GLAS does renovations and additions to existing buildings in addition to new, multimillion-dollar facilities from the ground up. Besides design and space planning services, site selection, facility and accessibility assessments, cost estimation, and construction document and administration services are available to clients.
Trace Ward, Chris Walkup, and Jesse Grant are principals of GLAS Architects and members of the AIA. Trace has served as LEED coordinator for Oregon Coast Community College and Kendall Toyota. Chris brings extensive experience in the areas of facilities assessments, master planning, and coastal and resiliency design, as well as primary and secondary educational design. Jesse has accumulated 12 years of experience in architectural design and project management of educational facilities, from early childhood through higher education. Trace, Chris, and Jesse, with the help of their team, have been involved in the development of various auto dealership facilities, such as Kendall Ford. GLAS demolished and replaced the existing service facilities, renovated the Ford showroom, and added a new car delivery showcase bay. The team modernized the building and increased the dealership’s vehicle service capacity while incorporating Ford’s branding design and material elements.
Architectural Associates
241 East Broadway, Eugene, OR 97401
Architectural Associates works with clients and consultants in designing and planning commercial, residential, and public buildings. The firm selectively staffs each project depending on its context and requirements. Although the company regularly employs specialized professional engineers to assist in various aspects of its work, it is comfortable working with other local consultants or those suggested by clients.
Donald Driscoll, Marston Morgan, and William Neel, all members of the AIA, are the driving force of leadership and design within the firm. Marston is the former executive Director of the Oregon Capitol Planning Commission. He has contributed to the city planning and building design for the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, and building design and campus planning for the American University in Cairo. William is certified by NCARB and, like Donald and Marston, is licensed in Oregon. Their collective expertise proved to be useful in completing the North Shore Studios, a film production facility. The complex contains seven sound stages, a scene mill, and two three-story office buildings. In addition, it houses two-story wrap-around production offices with “shooting fronts,” a production services building, and a vendor building.
Willard C. Dixon | Architect, LLC
753 W. 5th Ave., Eugene, OR 97402
Willard C. Dixon | Architect, LLC is a service-oriented design firm that collaborates with clients on residential, commercial, and planning projects. The company undertakes all aspects of a project, from site analysis, planning, design, and engineering through specifications, construction observation, and project management. In order to best deliver these, the first hour of consultation is free. This time is used to discuss the cost, process, feasibility, and timeline of a client’s project to lay out the scope. Whatever the size and building typology, Willard C. Dixon | Architect, LLC applies energy-efficient design and sustainable building practices in its work and takes inspiration from the natural environment.
Willard C. Dixon is a past president of AIA-SWO, which gave the firm a People’s Choice Award. His experience encompasses commercial projects, multifamily housing, new homes, additions, and remodels. Willard guided his team in designing WildCraft Cider Works, Eugene’s first hard cidery.
The building’s vintage warehouse was transformed to include a press house for production, a cider lab for fermentation and storage, and a bar and tasting room with outdoor seating. Designed to adapt as markets evolve, the plan allows for flexibility of its functional spaces for possible future uses. The concrete floor was kept exposed to absorb heat during the day and radiate it back at night, while the high ceilings with clerestory windows were kept open to allow for natural daylight and stack-ventilation.
GMA Architects
860 West Park Street Suite 300, Eugene, Oregon 97401
GMA Architects designs environments for the commercial market, as well as for the education, retail, corporate, healthcare, government, industrial, and cultural sectors. Grounded in strong client relationships and community-focused engagement, GMA crafts resilient buildings and interiors through collaboration. The firm builds culture by working beyond traditional spheres of design for the betterment of the planet, the community, and the future.
Senior Principal Daniel Klute is a member of the AIA. His leadership influences and reinforces GMA’s commitment as a community builder to give back through community service. He ushers the company in taking a research-based approach to understanding the design context and creating spaces that tell the client’s story. The Slightly Coffee Roasters coffee shop is reflective of this.
Slightly Coffee Roasters’s mission to create approachable coffee experiences was translated into a light, airy setting with a depth of materials and colors that changes with the quality of light throughout the day. The event space is connected through a café window and an open doorway that creates a visual connection to the cultural component of the shop.
engage:ARCHITECTURE
132 E. Broadway Suite 415 Eugene, OR 97401
engage:ARCHITECTURE reconciles the myriad of program, budget, and regulatory requirements for custom furniture, custom single-family houses, and commercial and multifamily housing projects, among others. The firm examines every design problem and its relationship with the environment through a collaborative process. It comes up with a unified vision that exemplifies sustainability, honest materiality, and budget awareness.
David Schmitz, the principal and a member of the AIA, spent seven years working for a Eugene-based architecture firm. He managed more than 47 projects, covering more than 300 low-income housing units, residential renovations, commercial renovations, and tenant in-fill projects. His work at the University of Oregon School of Architecture involved instruction in Residential Construction, Green Building, Passive House Design, and Kitchen Design. His experience imparts confidence to the clients of engage:ARCHITECTURE.
One of the firm’s projects was the HotSpring Spas on West 11th. The team added canopies and support structures to refresh the exterior of the once-dilapidated building. The updates were extended in the spa’s interiors, exposing the raw elements of the structure and incorporating custom cabinetry from its previous location.
