Allen Washatko is the Co-Founder of The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc (TKWA), a 25-person planning and architecture firm with offices in Cedarburg, WI, Milwaukee, WI, and Seattle, WA. Allen founded TKWA in 1980 in collaboration with University of Illinois classmate Thomas Kubala.
From its inception, the TKWA studio approach has been based on the idea of Wholeness, where the built environment supports and enhances both human activity and natural living systems. The idea of sustainability is a natural extension of wholeness-based thinking and is integrated into every studio project. It is this evolving philosophy which has formed the basis for the firm’s work. Rather than specializing in any particular building style or type, TKWA has focused on a distinct process for design, which provides the ability to solve problems for diverse building types and planning projects. As a result, the firm has developed a wide-ranging practice with projects in thirty states, as well as in Costa Rica, Belgium, Japan, India and China. TKWA projects have been published in over fifteen countries and in seven languages.
Throughout the firm’s 42-year history, TKWA has received over 80 state and national awards for design, including two national AIA COTE Top Ten Green Building projects – the Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and the First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition in Madison, Wisconsin. TKWA also received the national ‘Wright Spirit Award’ from the Frank Lloyd Building Conservancy for their sensitive addition to Wright’s National Historic Landmark Unitarian Meeting House. TKWA was also awarded the AIA Wisconsin Firm Award, which is the highest recognition given by the state’s professional service organization.
AWARD CRITERIA STATEMENT
Design excellence will be judged based on the level of Wholeness exhibited in the solution.
1. Does the project support and enhance both the human activity involved and the natural living systems of which it is a part?
2. Is it regenerative at the larger scale?
3. Does the project respond to local, regional and cultural influences?
4. Does the work embody a level of craft?
5. Does it create vibrancy within the larger public/urban realm?