Finn-Laczko Architects is a client-driven design practice.

We strongly believe that for a building project to be successful, it must foremost do what our client needs the building to do; aesthetic impact alone, while important, is just one component of a project’s performance and measures of success. Buildings operate on many levels, from the pragmatic functional systems integration, flow and characteristic of spaces, and costs, to more ephemeral visual attributes. In our design process, we focus attention on identifying, clarifying, and integrating our clients’ unique requirements for each project.

Those requirements may include goals for expressions of character, modes of operation, energy performance, security, durability, contextual connectivity, and extend to meeting cost, and schedule performance targets. We make a great deal of effort to comprehensively evaluate your requirements and goals, and work through an implementation process designed at best achieving your objectives.

Materials can express different degrees of characteristics like warmth or coolness, durability or a yielding softness, earthbound

weight or agile lightness. Consequently, the location in which materials are used, the way in which they are detailed, and the manner and character in which they reflect light all strongly influence the character expressed by the materials. Light can also orient and direct a building’s users through a space, can introduce contrasts and highlight special features, and is integral to helping defining the character of the spaces. Our use of light and materials are key components of complex design solutions which rely on skillful integration of a large number of elements which include engineering and technical systems, design for regulatory compliance, and conformance to project budgets. As such, one of the most important skills we bring to a project is the integration of all of these elements. Our focus on the implementation process involved in bringing these factors together in our building designs helps us create projects which achieve your goals.

The amount and types of light we bring in, our choice of materials, and the design and integration of a building’s systems, are all important factors in green building design. The materials and manufacture, sourcing and shipping of components we specify all have impacts on the energy and environmental footprint of a building. We incorporate green sensibilities into our designs at each stage of our decision making process, and as such, our “green building design” is not expressed solely in individual features added onto a building, but rather is integrated into all aspects of your project.

The best planned designs can fail if not implemented well. Successful implementation can rely on detailing and documentation of our drawings and specification, along with attention to conformance with your budget and schedule constraints, and our continuing overview of the contractors throughout construction. A portion of our work involves serving as project owners’ representatives managing the implementation of large and complex construction projects. In that ‘Owners’ Representative’ role, we oversee the construction process, evaluating the work of the many designers, engineers, and contractors involved. This level of involvement helps us deliver a project that best meets your goals.