History — A Legacy of Design and Technical Innovation
KlingStubbins has a remarkable history. Two firms separately founded decades ago — Vincent G Kling, FAIA founded his firm in Philadelphia in 1946 and Hugh A. Stubbins, FAIA founded his in Cambridge in 1949. Contemporaries both established very successful practices through the decades, each garnering major design awards throughout. Both firms became noted for technically sophisticated and innovative projects — Hugh Stubbins with such renowned works as the Berlin Congress Hall, Citicorp Center in New York, the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston and the Landmark Tower in Osaka (Japan’s tallest building); Vincent Kling with Lankenau Hospital in suburban Philadelphia, Bell Laboratories in NJ and several office towers and cityscape in downtown Philadelphia for City Planner Ed Bacon.

Rounding out these successes, in the 1970’s Vincent Kling acquired an engineering firm and recruited Fred Lindquist, PE to head this new firm. Fred brought to the firm a comparable dedication to excellence in engineering, particularly for sophisticated projects requiring seamless and imaginative integration with the architecture. Kling’s architecture and engineering companies were merged in the 1980’s resulting in a truly integrated A/E firm with exceptional strength in both design and engineering.

Both firms have continuously executed successful projects throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firms each won hundreds of prestigious design awards. Stubbins also received the American Institute of Architecture’s Firm of the Year Award.

Vincent retired in 1986, Fred in 1991 and Hugh in 1993. Since that time Kling and Stubbins have separately embraced their legacies of design and client service, as well as their passion for the work. In 2003, the firms first came together as affiliates, beginning a process of alignment which has now led to one unified firm — KlingStubbins.

We continue to embrace our founders’ values of design excellence, technological sophistication and client service. We continue to grow and adapt, typically on the leading edge of technology, as evidenced by our commitments to and successes in sustainable design (resulting in several LEED-certified buildings) and building information modeling (BIM).