Schroeder Murchie Niemiec Gazda-Auskalnis Architects, Ltd. (SMNG-A) is an architecture, planning and interior architecture firm with more than 23 years of continuous operation in the Chicago area. The firm is owned, managed and staffed by architects and designers with particular and extensive experience in the design and planning of both new and existing buildings. The firm has provided professional services in a broad range of projects for both private and public sector clients including many community-based not-for-profit organizations.
Projects undertaken by the firm vary widely in size and scope. Our services include needs assessment and facility programming, site analysis and planning building design and construction administration services for single- and multi-family residential developments, health care, child day care, educational and judicial facilities. The diversity of our practice is united by an overarching commitment to attentive client service, imaginative design and high professional standards.
Recent and past work includes the following projects: Chappell Elementary School, Hibbard Elementary School, Lloyd Elementary School, Claremont Academy, and Ellington Elementary School for the Chicago Public Schools; a new field house in Hale Park for the Chicago Park District, a design concept for a new field house in Ping Tom Park for the Chicago Park District, and additions and alterations to the existing Chicago Park District field house in Wentworth Gardens, a Chicago Housing Authority project near Cellular Field; a needs assessment, campus master plan, and an ongoing building program for the Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan; the adaptive use of two historic tobacco drying warehouses as market rate rental loft housing in Madison, Wisconsin; a major site improvement and building renovation project at Wentworth Gardens, an existing low-rise housing site operated by the Chicago Housing Authority; new medical office facilities for the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago; new child day care centers for two community-based not-for-profit agencies, Centers for New Horizons and Metropolitan Family Services; and a medical office building, the first new office building in the Austin neighborhood in over 40 years, for Westside Health Authority.
SMNG-A is currently engaged as the managing design architect for the “Modern Schools Across Chicago” program administered by the Public Building Commission of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools. This work includes the schematic design of 24 new elementary schools slated for opening within the next four years. We have also, as architects-of-record, recently completed construction administration services for two new elementary schools, Langston Hughes and Mark T. Skinner West replacement schools which achieved occupancy in the fall of 2009. We are currently providing, as architect-of-record, construction administration services for Avondale/Irving Park Elementary School which is slated for occupancy in the fall of 2010.
Other current projects include renovations and additions to the Near North Montessori School in Chicago, a new Works on Paper Studio for Ox-Bow Summer School of Art, and a new 13-unit condominium residential project in Evanston.
Many of these works have been published in national and international building and architectural journals. SMNG-A has been recognized for design excellence by the American Institute of Architects, the Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Masonry Council and other trade organizations. In 2006, awards for design excellence were given to the Tobacco Lofts project by the Madison Trust for Historic Preservations and to the IWS Clinic by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and, in 2009, to the Langston Hughes Elementary School by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Schroeder Murchie Niemiec Gazda-Auskalnis Architects, Ltd. is a professional corporation registered in the State of Illinois. Principals and corporate officers of the firm are Kenneth Schroeder, Jack Murchie, Todd Niemiec and Marta Gazda-Auskalnis. The office currently employs 12 personnel, 10 of whom have degrees in architecture, and 5 of whom are licensed to practice architecture in the State of Illinois. 4 of our architects are LEED Accredited Professionals. The SMNG-A office is located at 936 West Huron Street, Chicago, Illinois.
