Want to understand architecture in America? Look at a small town near you

According to a 2024 report from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), almost a quarter of all US architecture firms are concentrated in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. And while that number represents a minority of practices, there’s no denying that work coming out of those offices – ‘spiraling museums’ and ‘dizzying opera houses,’ per former AIA CEO Robert Ivy – tends to hog most of the limelight.

A recent book encourages architecture fans to look beyond these predictable centres of gravity. Out There, New Architecture Across America, a collaboration between Ivy, noted editor and critic Cathleen McGuigan and seasoned educator Peter MacKeith, spotlights 50 oft-overlooked practices positively impacting small towns and regional capitals across the US. These tenacious studios find clever ways to address the specific historical, environmental and material resource conditions of their surroundings; they’re united by a commitment to addressing issues unique to their regions, be it a housing crisis or social inequity.

‘Our primary criterion was that their work be place-based – not in a simple vernacular fashion, but as an innovative response to their communities and landscapes,’ says McGuigan. ‘Most of the architects we included deliberately established their practices outside the large coastal cities, designing projects that reflect their varied locales rather than following generic global trends.’

Though uncovering these common threads, the compendium weaves a variegated tapestry of American architecture, reflecting the country’s sheer size, cultural diversity, and geographic variation.

The book’s title was inspired by a landmark 2001 issue of Architectural Record magazine, where Ivy was then-editor-in-chief, titled 'Out There: Architecture Outside the Centers of Fashion.' For that edition, Ivy and his team came across a vast swath of work being produced at every scale and across every building typology. As he puts it, London-based company Merrell Publishers urged him to put together a ‘big book’ based on that research.

He asked McGuigan (also a former editor-in-chief of Architectural Record) and MacKeith (the former dean of University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture) to lend their expertise. ‘What we realised, as we collected and assessed hundreds of submissions, was that we were participating in a review of the state of architectural practice writ large in the United States,’ says Ivy.

Take Belinda Stewart Architects, a small practice in Europa, Mississippi (population: 2,119). The firm operates with a mission rooted in the power of small towns, through projects such as the historically-sensitive Muddy Waters addition of the Delta Blues Museum or the restoration of many civic buildings and civil rights monuments.

‘Some of us chose Eupora because we wanted a place where we could walk to the grocery store and raise a family; others came to pursue their profession in its purest form with a deep commitment to design, preservation, and sustainability,’ says firm founder Belinda Stewart.

Others within the book's 50-firm cohort have put down roots in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts; the shores of Washington State’s Puget Sound; Texas Hill Country outside of Austin; and the Montana Rockies.

For some, the calculated choice of operating beyond the affluent markets in and around major metropolises can also come with challenges. But that comes with opportunities, says Kai Salmela, co-principal of Minneapolis-based Salmela Architect: ‘We design for a wide range of clients and budgets, but the majority of our residential projects fall around $800,000 which means getting the most out of every design decision and using every material to its fullest,’ the architect says.

The regional commitment also shapes the firm's architectural approach. ‘Designing in remote parts of Minnesota and the western Great Lakes region also means confronting one of the most difficult climates,' Salmela says. 'With temperatures swinging between -30°F to 100°F, there are five-foot frost depths, brutal freeze-thaw cycles and heavy snow loads.’ It’s for these reasons that the firm blends modernist and Scandinavian influences in aptly named projects such as Bauhaus Farms and Tre Søstre.

US400 firm DUST Architects works in a vastly different context – the American Southwest high desert – but the work has similar considerations. According to co-principal Cade Manning Hayes, the firm's residential projects are ‘volcanic geology cast into architecture.’ Constructed using locally-sourced natural materials, these sturdy structures shield their inhabitants from extreme weather and extreme temperature fluctuations.

To deal with these conditions, it makes sense that the firm borrows from the long proven local vernacular. ‘We talk a lot about the idea that our architecture is strangely familiar,’ Manning Hayes explains. ‘It’s the transcendent simplicity of the Taos Pueblo and the relics of earthenware construction found between California and Texas’. It just so happens that this approach is also ideal when it comes to shaping these homes as observational apertures, framing views of the striking surroundings.

All of these approaches exemplify what MacKeith calls 'out-thereness' – a quality that transcends place. For him, focusing on the local can, in fact, foster a global perspective, enabling 'a recognition of others’ strengths elsewhere in the world.’