Press Releases Summer 2008 / American Institute of Architects Honors Shook Kelley With Firm of the Year 2008
Atypical design firm, Shook Kelley, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and has additional offices in Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois, has received the highest honor the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) can bestow on a firm -- Firm of the Year 2008. AIA selects only one firm each year from a list of many qualified applicants to receive the highly prestigious honor. This year, the 56-person firm was chosen as the recipient for consistently producing quality architecture for a prolonged period of time.
Sixteen years earlier, Terry Shook and Kevin Kelley decided to take a different professional path than most of their peers. Growing out of their shared interest in how people, as consumers, interact and shape society and the physical world, they set out to build a firm specializing in strategic consulting services, which included urban planning, design, interior design and architecture, but also added branding, consumer anthropology and communication design to the mix. The firm, which at that time represented a serious departure from the traditional model of architectural firms, has since garnered an international reputation for pioneering this new field of services that merges these seemingly disparate disciplines into one integrated, proprietary approach called Perception Design.
The award, which was presented at a ceremony in Charlotte on August 23rd, is validation for Shook Kelley and proves being different and pursuing a unique vision and values pays off. Members of the firm accepted the honor on behalf of all the clients, companies and entities who are part of the Shook Kelley world and helped make this recognition possible.
