Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Building and Growing Since 1992

In the early 1990s, as Chicago's suburbs continued to push against their once-rural boundaries to the north and the west, two architects turned their thoughts away from their employer's "build-'em-and-leave-'em" client attitude, and began to envision a civic-minded architectural firm that specialized in designing cost-efficient, smartly designed schools and public buildings.

In 1992, Michael Gilfillan and Patrick Callahan decided to leave the comfort zone of their Lake County school architectural jobs to forge such a firm.

Beyond the aspect of design, this new firm set out to redefine the role of the traditional civic architect by becoming less of a vendor to clients, and more a working partner. In this new dynamic, client relationships were viewed just as important--if not more--than the projects themselves.

In July 2007, project principal Stephen Nelson was named partner for the firm. To reflect this important change, the firm name was updated to "Gilfillan Callahan Nelson Architects."