VJAA is a collaborative design studio with a commitment to design excellence and producing architecture that engages social, cultural, and environmental issues in a knowing and creative way. Through a research-based process that continually reconsiders the fundamentals of building design, program, site, materials, and structure, our practice is committed to design excellence and innovative thinking on every project, regardless of budget, scope, or complexity. Sustainability and material craft are woven through the culture of the office and are central to its core values.
VJAA is the recipient of the 2012 American Institute of Architects Firm Award. Since its founding, VJAA has received twenty-three national design awards, including six National American Institute of Architects Honor Awards, six Progressive Architecture Awards, and two American Institute of Architects/Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Building Awards. In 2010, Architect magazine ranked VJAA first in the United States for design recognition and sixth overall (emphasizing the firm’s sustainability practices). In 2001, the firm was recognized with the Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The firm’s work has been published in Architecture, Architectural Record, Architecture Review (UK), A+U (Japan), The New York Times, Perspecta, Praxis, and in a number of books in the U.S. and in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., India, China, and South America. The work of VJAA is also the subject of a monograph published by Princeton Architectural Press.
VJAA was founded in 1995 and is led by Principals Jennifer Yoos, Vincent James, and Nathan Knutson and two Senior Associates. Our services include comprehensive architectural design, environmentally sustainable design, adaptive reuse, historic renovation and preservation, and master planning and feasibility studies. The firm is committed to the highest standards of professional practice, creating architecture that provides long-term value to our clients and to those who use our buildings.