Congratulations to Ohio’s Early Professional Friendly Firms!

The goal of the AIA Ohio Early Professional Friendly Firm program is to celebrate firms who offer exceptional support and opportunities for their early professionals. Additionally, the program seeks to foster a dialogue within firms across the state with the objective of creating new policies and practices that promote innovation, development, and progressive workplaces for the future members of the design profession.

An early professional is defined as someone who is part of the architectural staff, has been working in the architectural profession for 10 years or less and fills one of the following roles: architectural student intern, recent graduate, unlicensed emerging professional, or recently licensed architect.

There are two designations possible for a firm to receive. The Early Professional Friendly Firm Designation and the Early Professional Friendly Firm Plus+ Designation.

    • EP Friendly Firm Designation is earned by receiving a passing score of 70% (75 points) or above on the 2026 EP Friendly Firm questionnaire
    • EP Friendly Firm Plus+ Designation is earned by receiving a score of 80% (85 points) or above on the 2026 EP Friendly Firm questionnaire

AIA Ohio is pleased to announce that the following firms earned the Early Professional Friendly Firm Plus+ Designation in 2026:

AECOM – Cleveland
AECOM – Columbus
App Architecture Inc.
BSHM Architects Inc – Columbus
BSHM Architects Inc – Youngstown
Buehrer Group Architecture and Engineering, Inc.
Burgess and Niple
CPL
DS Architecture
DVA Architecture LLC
ESM | RWA Architects, Inc.
Fanning Howey
Hasenstab Architects, Inc. – Akron
Hasenstab Architects, Inc. – Cleveland
Hiti, DiFrancesco and Siebold, Inc.
IKM Architecture
Legat Architects
Meyers + Associates
Moody Nolan
Perspectus Architecture
Phillips Sekanick Architects, inc | PSA Architecture
PIVOTstudio
PMBA Architects – Cincinnati
PMBA Architects – Perrysburg
PRIME AE Group – Akron
R.E. Warner & Associates, Inc.
The Collaborative + Acock
The Columbus Architectural Studio
ThenDesign Architecture (TDA)
Thomas Porter Architects

Additionally, AIA Ohio is pleased to announce that the following firms have earned the Early Professional Friendly Firm Designation:

BBCO
CBLH Design
DesignGroup
drawing dept
Elevar Design Group
JPA Architecture
Levin Porter Architects
LGA Partners
MA Design
Richard L. Bowen & Associates, Inc.
SoL Harris/Day Architecture
Strollo Architects
TC Architects

These EP Friendly Firm designations are a one-year designation, with the option to renew the designation annually. Firms are expected to maintain the policies and practices they have implemented at the time of submission throughout the designation period. Applications for the EP Friendly Firm program will be accepted annually, from January 30 to March 16.