Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP
Main Office:
224 S. Michigan Avenue
Suite 1000
Chicago, IL 60604
Additional Offices:
New York, New York
San Francisco, California
Washington, D.C.
London, England
Hong Kong, China
Shanghai, China
Brussels, Belgium
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Services:
Architecture
Interior Design
Building Services/MEP
Structural & Civil Engineering
Digital Design
Sustainable Design
Graphics
Urban Design & Planning
Industrial Design (1)
Number of employees: Over 1000
History: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP
SOM was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, who were joined by John O. Merril in 1939. The firm opened its first branch in New York City in 1937, and had more than 1000 employees by 1952. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill specializes in technically challenging upscale and high-rise buildings. Their engineers and architects have designed many of the tallest buildings in the world, including Sears Tower by Fazlur Khan in 1974, and the world’s current tallest standing structure, Burj Khalifa, completed in 2010 and designed by Bill Baker. The firm is also in charge of constructing One World Trade Center, which is to be the main building in the new World Trade Center Complex. (8)
Selected Projects:
Willis Tower, Chicago, Illinois
John Hancock Center, Chicago, Illinois
Nanjing Greenland Financial Complex, Nanjing, China
Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, California
201 Bishopsgate and The Broadgate Tower, London, United Kingdom
One World Trade Center, New York, New York
Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Infinity Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, Illinois
Millennium Park – BP Pedestrian Bridge, Chicago, Illinois
Renaissance Center, Detroit, Michigan
Korean Air Lines Operations Center, Seoul, South Korea
McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois
Sources:
(1) http://www.som.com/content.cfm/www_home
(2) http://www.collecticon.org/2010/07/transformers-3-film-locations-continued-trump-tower-and-millenium-park/
(3) http://www.downtowndetroit.org/ddp/photos.htm
(4) http://www.som.com/content.cfm/korean_air_lines_operations_center
(5) http://academics.triton.edu/faculty/fheitzman/architecturalmethodology-C.html
(6) Architectural Engineers of the 20th & 21st Centuries – John Bosley, David Wald
(7) http://www.som.com/content.cfm/william_f_baker
(8) http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Skidmore-Owings-amp;-Merrill-LLP-Company-History.html
(9) http://www.markedlines.com/a-roundup-of-40-oustanding-upcoming-skyscrapers/
(10) http://www.digitalfutures.info/1/lecture-10-03-04-william-baker%20/
(11) http://superjchung.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/nanjing-greenland-financial-center-tallest-in-nanjing-china/
