This month, June 2024, we celebrate a transformative milestone. Armando Gonzalez originally founded the firm in 1979 to provide quality architectural and design services for projects of public benefit. While our name has had several iterations and leadership has evolved over 40 years, our core principles and deep-rooted dedication to public benefit architecture carry through. Now elevated by a sharper focus and a refined commitment to social change through forward-thinking, holistic design, we are Practice.
Our new name, Practice, allows us to move away from a personal name to embrace the collective strength of our team. The name places our intent and differentiators front and center for our clients and the industry, communicating our commitment to put presence, perspective, and possibility into action.
The name Practice has evolved through conversations, input sessions, and work with outside consultants over the last eighteen months. The name isn’t just a clever play on what we do but helps tell the story of who we are as a company.
Practice, as a name and word, brings alive our commitment to continuously evolve toward a vibrant future, driven by long-term partnerships with valued clients and partners. Through this, we create joyous, innovative places that support and unite communities. The name embraces our journey of intentional learning, reflective solution-finding, and the tangible application of our beliefs toward solving real-world problems.
These efforts not only carry through our name, but our updated values:
– Co-Creation: to work in partnership with openness, honesty and transparency for better impact.
– Holistic Sustainability: to effect social, environmental, and economic good.
– Inclusive Impact: to bring along everyone, not just some.
– Listening: to fuel our culture and design through empathy, curiousity, and research.
– Joy: to create places where everyone thrives through forward-thinking ideas and design.
– Optimism: to innovate within real-world constraints.
As we celebrate and promote the launch of Practice in the coming months and years, we invite our staff, collaborators, and clients to join us on this exciting journey. Together, we will continue to create spaces that inspire and bring communities together.
