SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL (SOM)

(established 1936)

American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm, which is one of the largest architecture firms in the world, based in Chicago, with branches in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai and Mumbai. SOM office is represented in NYC, among other places, by buildings of classical post-war modernism that could draw on the influences of MIES VAN DER ROHE. SOM has designed most of the world’s skyscraper records, including the “One World Trade Center” at Ground Zero in NYC and the “Burj Khalifa” in Dubai, currently the tallest building in the world | 1936 Louis SKIDMORE (1897-1962) and Nathaniel OWINGS (1903-84) found the company in Chicago, Illionois, U.S. | 1939 John MERRILL (1896-1975) joins them