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Sacramento’s Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects Wins Top California Architecture Award

Congratulations to a/e ProNet client Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects for their 2013 Firm Award from the AIACC!

According to the Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento architects often complain that they’re passed over when it comes to major commissions as clients look for big names from bigger cities. So the architectural community here cheered when a local firm – Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects – recently was singled out as the state’s best…

Dreyfuss & Blackford is one of Sacramento’s oldest and biggest architectural practices. The firm was chosen for the 2013 honor for its body of work as well as its contributions to the field in general, including leadership roles in events like the recent Capitol Mall Design Competition.

“There seems to be an emphasis around preserving not only the profession of architecture but encouraging the future leaders of the profession. I think Dreyfuss & Blackford does that really, really well,” said Evelyn Lee, vice president of communications and public affairs for the statewide AIA. “They’re kind of an example of a firm that’s doing all the right things to be engaged in the community and ensure the future of practice.”

For 62 years, since Albert Dreyfuss opened a small design office in Sacramento, Dreyfuss & Blackford has hewed to a streamlined, modernist aesthetic. The SMUD headquarters along Highway 50 in east Sacramento is a prime example.

According to the official AIACC press release:

The firm has a well-earned reputation for creating enduring, contextual modernist buildings and environments. Since the success of its first major commission in 1959, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District Headquarters, Dreyfuss & Blackford has consistently been selected to design complex, large-scale projects intended for long-term use, a remarkable achievement for a relatively small firm. The innovative use of steel frame construction and pre-cast concrete have long been hallmarks of the firm’s work, as seen in its award-winning headquarters for CalPERS, the Public Employee Retirement System, Sacramento. Since 2000, Dreyfuss & Blackford has also explored new ways of planning open, light work environments for high security control centers such as the California Emergency Management Agency headquarters, Sacramento, and the California Independent System Operator headquarters, Folsom.

Visit the Dreyfuss & Blackford website to learn more about this long-standing, long-respected, long-innovating architecture firm. They well deserve this honor from the AIACC!

Item contributed by Leslie Pancoast of a/e ProNet Member firm IOA Insurance Services in Pleasanton, California.