With a 50-year presence in the Northwest, Mithun Partners now has projects in the U.S. as well as in Canada and Asia. Primary practice areas include architecture, interior design and planning for a variety of project types including mixed use, commercial, institutional, hospitality, residential and community design, healthcare and residential care.

Currently, the firm size hovers around 140 staff members but is growing every week, according to marketing director Kipepeo Brown. The staff has doubled in size in the last three years. Mithun Partners is experiencing the same issues as the entire design industry: recruiting top-level design talent - particularly mid- to senior-level staff members. Recently expanding recruiting efforts to overseas markets may help to gain some of the specialized skills the projects require, such as senior level high-rise experience.

Another challenge is the sheer amount of projects that are being developed during this up economy, said Brown. Mithun Partners has turned down several projects or asked clients with new projects to postpone start dates due the amount of current projects that the staff is handling.

Currently, Mithun Partners is the designer of a three-city-block waterfront development in Tacoma (Thea Foss Waterway) and architect-of-record for the new Pacific Northwest Aquarium with Terry Farrell and Partners. The firm has strategically balanced these high profile wins with other smaller projects to sustain growth and stabilize market/economic nuances over the long term. Focusing on mixed-use projects and internal staff collaboration has helped the firm to expand its market and maintain growth.

Future goals center on mixed-use projects, including those associated with transit oriented development. By not defining specific growth goals, Mithun Partners remains nimble enough to design small, medium and large projects, according to Brown.