We are incredibly proud and honored to announce that we were selected as the recipient of the AIA Kansas City 2025 Firm Award!

This recognition was an amazing way to close out a truly transformative year for our firm. We celebrated new leadership with Kiana Raab and Ava Amirahmadi joining us as Principals, and we’ve been driving forward on projects that are shaping the civic and cultural fabric of our region. From higher education campuses to community landmarks, we are dedicated to creating innovative spaces that uplift the communities we serve.

Our Commitment to Public Design and Community

The AIA Kansas City Firm Award recognizes a firm whose leadership and contributions have made a significant and lasting impact on the profession and the built environment. This award is a profound affirmation of our core mission. As our nominator, AIA KC President-elect Evan Fox, kindly wrote, “Since its founding, IAA has focused almost exclusively on public and institutional work for local and regional partners—reflecting a clear dedication to serving the public good.”

This dedication is fundamental to who we are. Our history, which started here in Kansas City in 1988, is rooted in serving the public good. We believe thoughtful design can both honor a city’s existing fabric and drive new innovation. This is further supported by the 2024 Historic Kansas City Trailblazer Award for Excellence we received for our leadership in adaptive reuse and historic preservation.

Advocating for Equity and Growth

Our commitment extends to shaping the profession itself. Our founding principals, Majid and Elizabeth Amirahmadi, have always advocated for greater diversity and equity, drawing on their personal experiences as immigrants to expand opportunities for underrepresented groups.

We are incredibly proud of Elizabeth, who received the Gold Medal Award in 2022 for her lifelong commitment to AIA KC, and of Ava Amirahmadi, who was recently elected to the AIA KC Board as a Three-Year Director. Through our participation in AIA KC’s subcommittees—like the DBE/WBE Task Force, Women in Design, Equity in Architecture, and the PIERS Mentorship Program—we are actively working to build a more diverse and equitable future for architecture.

Driven by our multigenerational leadership and atelier-style team, we are honored to receive this award. It reaffirms our commitment to innovative and inclusive design—design that anticipates the future while preserving the past. We look forward to more projects and collaborations in 2026 as we continue to shape the civic, educational, and cultural fabric of the region we call home alongside our incredible partners. To explore the current projects, visit this blog: On the Boards: A Look at IAA’s Current Transformative Projects.