ARCHITECT's Wanda Lau reports that Payette has been selected as the 56th recipient of the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Firm Award, the pre-eminent honor bestowed to a firm by the AIA each year. Founded in 1932 by industrial engineers Fred Markus and Paul Nocka, the Boston firm received its current moniker in 1974, nine years after the then-33-year-old Tom Payette, FAIA, was named president. Now presided over by Kevin Sullivan, FAIA, the approximately 160-person office is known in the industry for its technical expertise and research, as well as its predilection for pragmatic, high-performance architecture that prioritizes design.
“The importance and contribution here of Payette is that they are today taking some of the most energy intensive and technologically challenging building types we have to new levels of design and integrated performance,” wrote Stephen Kieran, FAIA, partner of Philadelphia firm KieranTimberlake, in a nomination letter. “The breadth and depth of this transformation position Payette as a model for future practice.”
