ENR Mountain States, working in concert with other regional ENR publications and editors across the U.S., has selected its Design Firms of the Year for 2020. They are Method Studio, Salt Lake City, for the Intermountain area (Utah, Idaho and Montana); and JVA Inc., with multiple offices in Colorado, for the Colorado-Wyoming-Dakotas side of the region.

Design Firms of the Year are chosen by a vote of ENR regional editors across the country from a carefully selected group of finalists based on regional revenues, new initiatives, current projects, community and industry contributions, and several other factors.

Method Studio, Salt Lake City

Architectural and interior design firm Method Studio has grown from six people to 98 employees since its inception 13 years ago, including an 18% growth in full-time equivalency and a 19% boost in revenue in 2019 alone. The firm’s design work focuses on the higher education, performing arts, multifamily, corporate and civic sectors, with a 98% base of repeat clients.
Its recent projects include:

  • Noorda Center for Performing Arts at Utah Valley University
  • Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University
  • Midvalley Performing Arts Center for Salt Lake County
  • Park City’s Net Zero Woodside Affordable Housing
  • 1,200-bed Axis Student Housing in Orem.

New projects include:

  •  Qualtrics Headquarters
  • Mammoth Replay Modular Micro-Unit Mountain Resort
  • Granite Library for Salt Lake County,
  • A multitude of projects for the Larry H. Miller Family of companies.

Last year the firm implemented a leadership training program for 35 of its employees, improved an ongoing project management training program and a QX program that analyzes and updates quality-control processes firm-wide.

Method Studio has received numerous awards from AIA and IIDA, including Best of State in Commercial Architecture in Utah in 2018, firm of the year with WIA in 2017 and firm of the year with IIDA in 2016. The firm also has been part of many winning teams for ENR Mountain States Best Projects over the past 10 years.


JVA Inc., Several Colorado locations

JVA Inc. is a structural, civil and environmental consulting engineering firm headquartered in Boulder, with four other offices in Colorado. The firm’s key services include K-12 and higher ed facilities, health care, municipal, state and federal projects, historic preservation, forensic engineering, site design, stormwater collection, municipal infrastructure, parks, sports fields, hospitality, residential and water and wastewater treatment plants.

JVA also has a group of engineers dedicated to preservation of historic properties, specializing in development of sensitive and creative treatments for archaic building systems.

The firm consults nationwide on behalf of the National Park Service and statewide on projects funded by History Colorado’s State Historical Fund. In addition, JVA also leads multi-discipline teams on projects for on-call contracts with the U.S. Forest Service and other entities.

In 2019 the firm increased its staff in all three of its major disciplines and completed facility expansions in three of its five Colorado offices, most prominently in downtown Denver.

In addition, JVA acquired Structural Consultants Inc. (SCI) in 2019, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm.

The JVA structural team’s Many Glacier Hotel Renovation project in Glacier National Park won a 2018 NCSEA Award of Excellence in Structural Engineering and was featured on the April 2020 cover of STRUCTURE magazine.

Profile stories on both firms will appear in the June issue of ENR Mountain States. Congratulations to this year’s winners.