At 65 employees, MHTN Architects is one of the largest architecture firms in Utah, which it has been serving from its base in Salt Lake City since 1923. That devotion to service applies not only to the many public and private buildings it has designed throughout the Beehive State, but also to the firm's commitment to the social well-being of the people of Utah.
For example, MHTN worked with the Salt Lake CAP Head Start Program in leading the design and construction of two apartment units for a Head Start classroom serving the city's immigrant population. More recently, MHTN volunteers replaced the landscaping at the Safe Harbor Crisis Center, a women and children's shelter in Kaysville. The firm has outreach programs with Habitat for Humanity, the LDS Church Humanitarian Foundation, Rotary International, Envision Utah, and Kiwanis-Felt Recreation Center.
At the professional level, MHTN gives its employees paid staff time to serve on numerous AIA Utah committees. The firm's CEO, Dennis H. Cecchini, AIA, is president-elect of AIA Utah.
MHTN has also made its mark as a leader in sustainability. It was the first company headquartered in the state to join the U.S. EPA Climate Leaders program, and it was an active participant in Utah's 2010 Clear the Air Challenge, to reduce GHG emissions. The firm recently remodeled its corporate office to LEED-CI Gold standards, the first for any Utah-based design firm.
BEST AEC FIRMS TO WORK FOR 2011 WINNERS
Chapman Construction/Design
EYP Architecture & Engineering
Gensler
HMC Architects
MHTN Architects
The firm is an AIA/CES provider whose professional development program is built around nine core values: design, respect, client service, empowerment, accountability, teamwork, environmental responsibility, technical expertise, and community service.
Look for a more extensive report on MHTN in an upcoming issue of BD+C.
Related Stories
| Mar 9, 2011
Winners of the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition
Winners of the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition include a high-rise recycling center in New Delhi, India, a dome-like horizontal skyscraper in France that harvests solar energy and collects rainwater, and the Hoover Dam reimagined as an inhabitable skyscraper.
| Mar 9, 2011
Igor Krnajski, SVP with Denihan Hospitality Group, on hotel construction and understanding the industry
Igor Krnajski, SVP for Design and Construction with Denihan Hospitality Group, New York, N.Y., on the state of hotel construction, understanding the hotel operators’ mindset, and where the work is.
| Mar 3, 2011
HDR acquires healthcare design-build firm Cooper Medical
HDR, a global architecture, engineering and consulting firm, acquired Cooper Medical, a firm providing integrated design and construction services for healthcare facilities throughout the U.S. The new alliance, HDR Cooper Medical, will provide a full service design and construction delivery model to healthcare clients.
| Mar 2, 2011
Design professionals grow leery of green promises
Legal claims over sustainability promises vs. performance of certified green buildings are beginning to mount—and so are warnings to A/E/P and environmental consulting firms, according to a ZweigWhite report.
| Mar 2, 2011
Cities of the sky
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Silk Road of the future—from Dubai to Chongqing to Honduras—is taking shape in urban developments based on airport hubs. Welcome to the world of the 'aerotropolis.'
| Mar 2, 2011
How skyscrapers can save the city
Besides making cities more affordable and architecturally interesting, tall buildings are greener than sprawl, and they foster social capital and creativity. Yet some urban planners and preservationists seem to have a misplaced fear of heights that yields damaging restrictions on how tall a building can be. From New York to Paris to Mumbai, there’s a powerful case for building up, not out.
| Mar 1, 2011
Smart cities: getting greener and making money doing it
The Global Green Cities of the 21st Century conference in San Francisco is filled with mayors, architects, academics, consultants, and financial types all struggling to understand the process of building smarter, greener cities on a scale that's practically unimaginable—and make money doing it.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Mar 1, 2011
New survey shows shifts in hospital construction projects
America’s hospitals and health systems are focusing more on renovation or expansion than new construction, according to a new survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). In fact, renovation or expansion accounted for 73% of construction projects at hospitals responding to the survey.
| Mar 1, 2011
AIA selects 6 communities for long-term sustainability program
The American Institute of Architects today announced it has selected 6 communities throughout the country to receive technical assistance under the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) program in 2011. The communities selected are Shelburne, Vt., Apple Valley, Mn., Pikes Peak Region, Co., Southwest DeKalb County, Ga., Bastrop, Tx., and Santa Rosa, Ca. The SDAT program represents a significant institutional investment by the AIA in public service work to assist communities in developing policy frameworks and long term sustainability plans.
