ATHENS, Georgia, February 2, 2024 – Architectural Collaborative, an award-winning architecture firm noted for both its striking modern designs as well as a leader in historic preservation in the State, today announced that it has become the first architecture firm in the State of Georgia to become certified as a B Corporation®.
Since its founding, Architectural Collaborative, or “Arcollab,” has embraced a commitment to sustainable design best practices. While architecture firms can design certified buildings under programs such as LEED, EarthCraft, and PassivHaus, being certified as a B Corp is a public commitment to the way in which Arcollab operates their business as a whole. Architectural Collaborative is also registered in the State of Georgia as a benefit company, with formal commitments in its by-laws that incorporate positive social and environmental impact considerations into the charter of the business.
“As business owners, we think about how our business contributes to the well-being of our community,” commented Gabe Comstock, one of Arcollab’s three founding principals. “This recognition as a B Corporation is one additional way to publicly demonstrate our commitment to internalizing the ideals we value and seek to embody as a design firm.”
About B Corporations
Certified B Corporations meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability, and aspire to use the power of markets to address social and environmental concerns. Arcollab strives to create shared value with the communities and clients they serve, using design as a means to enhance community well-being and using business as a force for good.
Arcollab is proud to be the sixth certified B Corporation in Athens, one of the first 30 certified B Corporations in Georgia and joins a network of 2,176 B Corp companies in the US and Canada and 6,470 across 89 countries and 161 industries. Together, B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
B Corp certification is conferred by the non-profit B Lab, which evaluates companies based on standards of transparency, accountability, and performance across five categories: governance, environment, customers, workers, and community.
Design Conventions at Arcollab
“In design, sustainability relates to energy use, water use, materials use, waste management, and other environmental footprint impacts. We also consider the safety, health, and well-being of those who live, work, play, study, recreate, meditate, and congregate in the spaces we design. We consider how the buildings themselves interact with the surrounding landscape and how the structures we design facilitate people interacting with light, shadow, and the natural environment,” said Arcollab Principal Lori Bork Newcomer. “We integrate these concepts into all our projects whether or not the project owners seek to pursue some sort of green building certification.
It’s simply best practice design.” Principal Joe Smith, Arcollab’s historic preservation expert, added “We also appreciate the importance of cultural heritage and sense of place that buildings have in shaping people’s relationships to the places where they live, and we are both humbly honored and proud to contribute award-winning design to projects which help to rehabilitate and preserve these places.”
Together, Arcollab’s principals have worked on over 80 historic rehabilitations across the State of Georgia, including Savannah’s City Hall, and have been involved in assessments, preservation planning, and rehabilitation design for a number of historic and culturally significant African American schools and buildings across the State. Their design work has won numerous awards from AIA Atlanta, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Athens, Historic Augusta, and the Madison Historic Preservation Commission.
About Arcollab
Architectural Collaborative LLC is a multi-disciplinary firm, with practice areas including all types of new construction, interior design, historic preservation, existing building conditions evaluation, master planning, and preservation planning. The Arcollab leadership team brings more than 75 years of combined professional experience in project types ranging from single-family residential to large-scale commercial work. Arcollab’s design team is fluent in the architectural detailing of styles ranging from historic and neo-traditional to cutting-edge modern design. Arcollab’s principal architects lead the creative design process driven by the thoughtful articulation of light, form, and materials in order to create inspired spaces that reflect a sense of place of the communities in which they are located. From the overall massing of building forms to the careful assembly of construction details, Arcollab’s team combines a strong understanding of construction systems, attention to clients’ needs and budget, and an artistic sensibility.
For more information about Arcollab, email us at studio@arcollab.net or call 706.355.3010.
