Our Story
We continually push our projects to new levels of innovation, yielding a consolidated movement to better ourselves, our colleagues, our communities, and our clients.
Our Values
Passionate
Our profession gives us the opportunity and the responsibility to address the most important issues facing our society, and we address them every day in the buildings and spaces we imagine, engaging passionately with issues of equality, safety, community, sustainability, wellness, and more.
Creative
As creative people, we continually critique, advise, debate, and celebrate meaningful, dynamic, elegant, and beautiful design solutions. Our creativity is a critical resource that BKV Group takes seriously and cultivates intentionally, to ensure our clients’ buildings are perfectly suited to their time, place, and function.
Innovative
Our market sectors and disciplines are led by designers who are nationally recognized thought leaders in their industry, continually researching ways our end users interact with the built environment, and how the future will impact those interactions.
Collaborative
Our project management approach allows our staff to engage clients from programming through project closeout, delivering projects on-time and on-budget through open communication, in-depth team workshops, and data-driven decision-making.
Curious
We describe ourselves as curious people wanting to do great work on challenging projects because, as a firm, we want to consistently contribute the most beneficial services and information to our clients.
Authentic
Our firm relies on relationships to maintain and grow our business, and to do that most effectively, we commit to being open, honest, genuine, and thoughtful with the clients, stakeholders, and project partners we work with.
Our Legacy
From the beginning, BKV Group has delivered community-enhancing, award-winning projects across the country. Having recently celebrated our 40th year in business, we have grown from a sole proprietorship into a diverse partnership with practice sites in Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Washington, DC, and Hanoi, Vietnam.
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1978
Boarman Architects founded in Minneapolis
Jack Boarman established Boarman Architects in 1978 with offices at 15 South 5th Street, in Minneapolis, under the principle that architects should put the interests of society above their own.
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1986
Boarman Associates Formed
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1989
Boarman & Associates Formed
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1991
Boarman Kroos Pfister Formed
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1993
BKPR formed
David Kroos, Peter Pfister, and Jeff Rudin became partners to create Boarman Kroos Pfister Rudin & Associates.
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1997
Boarman Kroos Pfister Vogel (BKPV) Formed
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2001
BKV Group formed
BKV Group was officially incorporated in 2001, leveraging our holistic set of services within the housing, government, corporate/commercial, and education sectors.
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2007
Chicago practice site opens
Located in the historic Rookery building in downtown Chicago, BKV Group’s second office expanded the firm’s Midwest presence.
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2010
DC practice site opens
Sited in Georgetown, the DC office leverages a robust housing portfolio, while diversifying into government, library, and federal work.
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2018
Dallas practice site opens
Expanding the firm into the southern region of the United States has allowed BKV Group to expand our capabilities and our projects to new clients regionally and nationally.
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2019
Hanoi practice site opens
Our colleagues in Hanoi work collaboratively with our practice sites functioning as a extension of our holistic services, while providing BKV Group global access to the Asian market and bolstering our high-rise and hospitality capabilities.
Our Culture
BKV Group cultivates a “One Firm” culture with well-established committees, consistent communication, robust training, and engaging activities to bring us together throughout the year.
Every Friday, BKV Group colleagues come together with an individual or group showcasing their passion to support educating our team members on any given topic with informative, engaging, and entertaining presentations, while cultivating company culture through the exchange of new ideas.
We empower all our colleagues to take part in professional development initiatives with this committee focusing on coordinating platforms for our team members to pursue growth, self-improvement and mentorship to achieve their goals.
Formed so all disciplines can explore and share their collective design interests. These creative pursuits focus on architectural case studies, design program tutorials, urban planning documentaries, or more tangential endeavors, giving way to inspiration and motivation.
A design outreach group whose primary focus lies in the unbridled research and exploration of all areas of design. Workshop specifically examines issues and opportunities encountered within our local, national, and global communities that benefit the greater good.
With a focus on diversity and inclusion, this committee spearheads efforts aimed at enhancing BKV company culture through initiatives that define and celebrate our shared values, goals, and practices.
Committed to the planning and hosting of philanthropic events outside of the office to provide support to our local communities. Our team of volunteers contributes creativity along with “elbow grease” and passion to the communities where we work and live.
Establishes goals and processes for integrating sustainable principles into BKV Group projects. We encourage and provide ongoing education and dialogue so that both our colleagues and clients continue to develop their understanding of the latest sustainability innovations.
This committee focuses on removing obstacles with regards to communication in the firm by introducing new project management tools, standardizing our file management structure, and establishing best practices for meeting notes and templates.
This creative cohort brings together our multi-disciplinary team members to solve design challenges for our clients, resulting in more robust and thoughtful options for our client’s buildings and sites, while bolstering the design culture within BKV Group.
Creates a sense of organization and forward-thinking perspective about the BKV Group brand, spurring ahead initiatives focused on the website, print material, culture-focused collateral, the new hire experience, student and professional recruitment, merchandise and apparel, and assisting with community and external relations.
