Weber + Thompson

Specialty: Architecture, interior design, urban design, planning

Management: Blaine Weber, Scott Thompson, Kristen Scott

Year founded: 1987

2003 revenues: $4.3 million

Projected 2004 revenues: $5.2 million

Largest current projects: NewsLane Tower, Cristalla, Hotel 1000, Point Edwards, The Neptune

Image courtesy Weber + Thompson Weber + Thompson designed Hotel 1000, which is under construction on Seattle’s First Avenue. It includes a 24-story tower with 120-room hotel and 38 luxury condos.

It’s been a banner year for Weber + Thompson Architects.

“This has been our best year in almost 18 years of practice,” said principal Blaine Weber. “After Jan. 1, there was just tremendous pent-up demand.”

The 53-employee firm has a number of irons in the forge, from suburban residential projects to big-city high-rises.

“We’re actually working right now on nine different high-rise towers from San Diego to Seattle,” Weber said.

Among them are three hotel-condominium projects, including Hotel 1000 on First Avenue. The 24-story tower, under construction, will include a 120-room boutique hotel topped by 38 luxury condominiums. Another one, the 35-story NewsLane Tower, across from Pike Place Market, is slated to include a hotel and 300 condominiums.

“This hotel/five-star living phenomenon is just taking off,” Weber said.

Similar projects, long confined to dense urban areas such as Manhattan and Chicago, are now popping up in places like Miami, San Diego and Scottsdale, Ariz., where empty-nesters and other erstwhile suburbanites have discovered the charms of downtown living.

“If you look at the really big picture, there’s a tremendous move back to the city,” Weber said, citing examples in Portland and Vancouver, B.C. “This trend is not going away.”

Weber himself plans to move into the 23-story Cristalla condominium tower in Belltown when the Weber + Thompson-designed project finishes up next year.

Weber credited low interest rates for the current boom in condominium sales, though, as rates move back up, “it’s possible we could see a bit of slowing.”

Still, the trend has taken the edge off the dismal office market.

“When the office market imploded here in Seattle and in Bellevue, we talked to the experts, and they said it could still be three to five years till we see a recovery because there’s such a large supply of office space,” Weber said.

High-density development has also made its way into the suburbs, where Weber + Thompson has designed projects for new-urbanist subdivisions such as Issaquah Highlands.

The firm expects finish the year with 60 employees, a plateau Weber didn’t expect to reach for another three years.

“We’re building ourselves a new office building, trying to figure out how big will Weber + Thompson be five years from now.”

Weber, for his part, doesn’t want to grow for growth’s sake. “We’re very comfortable at 60,” he said.

The firm’s main focus now is on “becoming a better design firm, delivering a better product,” Weber said. “We want to improve the quality and caliber of our designs.”