Johnsen Schmaling Architects is an architecture firm located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, where it was founded in 2003 by Brian Johnsen and Sebastian Schmaling. The office is located in a former shoe factory in the Brady Street district of Milwaukee.[1] The principals have described their design philosophy as "poetic realism".[2] Johnsen and Schmaling are on the faculty of the School of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.[3]
Johnsen Schmaling Architects was named an Emerging Voice in 2008 by the Architectural League of New York,[31] and Architectural Record featured the office in its 2011 "Design Vanguard" issue as one of the world's most innovative architecture studios.[32] Residential Architect magazine, a publication of the American Institute of Architects, named Johnsen Schmaling Architects the 2012 "Top Firm."[33] In 2015, Architectural Digest named Johnsen Schmaling Architects one of ten "Rising Stars" in American architecture.[34]
Johnsen Schmaling has received more than 80 professional design awards, among them five National AIA Housing Design Awards, twelve National AIA Small Project Honor Awards, and eighteen regional AIA Honor and Merit Awards.[35]