MuDD Architects Competitors

SmithGroup is an award-winning, multi-national integrated design firm that employs research, data, advanced technologies and design thinking to help clients solve their greatest challenges. Working across 20 locations throughout the U.S., our network of 1,600 experts is committed to excellence in strategy, design and delivery. Across more than 20 design disciplines, we work collaboratively and creatively, sharing ideas and learning from one another. Our integrated design approach blends aesthetics with performance, sustainability, and resiliency to create a better tomorrow—for clients, employees, the community, the environment, and our collective future. Our unique culture and impact on the built environment have received recognition from top-ranking institutions, publications and design authorities the world over. In 2025 and 2026, we were named a Top Workplace in the United States by Energage and USA Today.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is a global practice of architects, designers, engineers, and planners, responsible for some of the world’s most technically and environmentally advanced buildings and significant public spaces. The firm’s approach is highly collaborative, and its interdisciplinary team is engaged in a wide range of international projects, with creative studios based across the globe. In 2026, SOM was named one of the Most Innovative Companies in Architecture by Fast Company and received the Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The firm’s portfolio includes numerous innovative landmark towers, including the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, One World Trade Center in New York, and Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, as well as large-scale urban planning initiatives that integrate density, mobility, and sustainability—including the award-winning Sultan Haitham City in Muscat, Oman, and the recently unveiled masterplan for Bradfield City, Australia’s first new city in more than a century.

With our origins in Oregon, attention to craft and beauty is elemental to the ZGF culture. A deep respect for the built environment evolved from reverence for the surrounding natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest landscape and a commitment to stewardship of the natural environment. Rather than reflecting a signature style, our work is derived from the particulars of the climate, context, and the human experience. The instinct to build community, making places where people come together for a common purpose, is central to our work. Evolving from a single office with strong regional roots to a firm with seven offices across North America and 750+ staff, ZGF's national reputation was honored with the American Institute of Architects' Architecture Firm Award, recognizing the firm’s “high standards, humanistic concerns, and unique ability to capture the spirit of a place and the aspirations of its inhabitants.”