AIA Jacksonville Names RS&H Its 2026 Design Firm of the Year

Recognition honors 85 years of design, mentorship and service in the firm’s hometown. 

[JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Oct. 22, 2026] The American Institute of Architects, Jacksonville Chapter, has awarded RS&H its 2026 Firm of the Year. The firm credits the honor to the associates, clients and community partners who have shaped its work in Northeast Florida for more than eight decades. 

This award recognizes a firm’s contributions across five areas: design excellence, community involvement, education, service to the profession and service to AIA Jacksonville. 

“We’re deeply grateful to AIA Jacksonville and to our peers for this recognition,” said Chung Rutter, AIA, senior vice president. “Jacksonville is where RS&H began in 1941, and it’s still home. This honor belongs to our employee owners, who give their time and talent long after the workday ends. It also belongs to our clients and partners who trust us with the places that matter most to them. We don’t take that trust lightly.” 

Rooted in Jacksonville Since 1941

RS&H was founded in Jacksonville in 1941 and remains headquartered in the city. It began as a small architecture and engineering practice supporting the country’s World War II efforts and has grown into a 100% employee-owned firm with over 2,000 professionals across more than 70 offices nationwide. 

Design that Serves the Community

In Jacksonville, RS&H’s work spans a diverse range of project types including office workplace, healthcare and science, recreation, aerospace, aviation, and transportation projects. Highlights include: 

• JEA Headquarters, a downtown workplace with customer-facing civic spaces that earned LEED Gold and WELL Silver certification 

• VyStar Downtown Campus, which brought more than 1,000 employees into the urban core through the adaptive reuse of the VyStar Tower and 100 West Bay, along with a new skybridge, rooftop restaurant and the VyStar Breezeway 

• Winston Family YMCA, a riverfront wellness and community hub in downtown Jacksonville 

• Jacksonville International Airport Concourse B Expansion, part of RS&H’s decades-long partnership with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority to plan and modernize the region’s primary gateway 

RS&H also contributes pro bono design services. Its associates provided interior architecture and design support for The Corner at Debs Store, which turned a long-vacant grocery store in the Historic Eastside into a hub for food access, job training and financial education.  

Giving Back, One Project at a Time

Since 2018, the RS&H Elevate Fund has invested more than $1.6 million in nonprofits chosen by the firm’s employee owners. These organizations focus on education, accessibility, the arts, environmental stewardship and health. 

One of the firm’s longest-running efforts is the Adaptive Halloween Costumes Program, created in 2015 with the Center for Independent Living. Volunteers have built 57 custom costumes for children who use wheelchairs. More than 200 volunteers have contributed over 1,800 hours to the program. Since 2017, more than 300 RS&H associates and family members have also volunteered with Feeding Northeast Florida. 

Investing in the Next Generation 

RS&H associates mentor students at every stage of their path into the profession: 

• High school: Through the ACE Mentor Program of Northeast Florida, associates mentor students exploring careers in architecture, engineering and construction. One current RS&H associate who now volunteers as an ACE mentor first joined the program as a high school student. The firm’s ESTEAM summer program gives high school students hands-on project experience and a path to a college internship. 

• College: Annually, the firm welcomes nearly 200 college interns across the country in a variety of disciplines throughout the year.  

• Graduate school: RS&H helped champion the University of Florida’s JaxLab graduate architecture program. Four JaxLab students have worked at the firm, and one has since become a licensed architect. 

The firm also supports the National Organization of Minority Architects’ North Florida chapter. Within the firm, its Built, Honor, Prism and Ignite employee resource groups offer mentorship, connection and leadership opportunities to all associates. 

A Longtime Partner to AIA Jacksonville

RS&H has been part of AIA Jacksonville since the firm’s founding. RS&H associates have served as more than a dozen chapter presidents since 1942, and many others have held board seats. Associates also founded the chapter’s Emerging Design Professionals group. 

In 2020, RS&H helped launch the “Riding Shotgun” clay shoot to benefit the Florida Architects Political Action Committee. Since the first event, AIA Jacksonville has led the state in per-member contributions to the committee in five of the past six years.